Acceptance of Donated Parcel for Conservation Purposes

Transcript (~10 min @ 59:18)

▶ 59:31 the city's conservation agent, and Paul Moore, who is a conservation commissioner. And so we're here tonight to request the acceptance of a parcel of land. It's 4.8 acres, and it's in the southwestern portion of the city off of Dexter Road. This came about because there's a property that needed a slope protection special permit from the planning board, and the applicants who are here tonight, that's Sean and Laura Zackley. They proposed to carve off the back portion of the lot, and donate it to the city for conservation purposes, as part of that permitting process. And so, we worked with the Conservation Commission to make sure that they were on board with us and then the planning board conditioned as part of the approval of that project, which was to

▶ 1:00:30 build a single-family house, that this back portion is donated to the city. It is a lot of value because it's contiguous with other conservation parcels. And we'd love to accept it to add to the amount of land that's devoted to conservation in the city. Wonderful. Thank you so much. Do either commissioners have any commentary they'd like to add before we go to questions? No. All right. Councilor Finocchiaro. Yeah. Thank you. I just have a question. So this was part of their original purchase? Yes. And then now they're just cutting off a section and donate... It's conservation land? Right. So a new parcel line was kind of drawn so that it's a separate piece of land. Okay. Councilor Chen. Does the city need to spend any money taking care of this every year, this new

▶ 1:01:41 land? No, but do either of you want to comment on that further? If you've looked at the map, you'll notice there's a pond there, and it's quite a nice property if you haven't been down there. Assuming it's accepted as conservation property, it's worth checking out. It's a nice area. We will probably want to monitor the pond if we're made aware of any issues there, just as we do with all the other ponds. I'm sure you're familiar with the great success we've had with the water chestnut just out at El Pond. We also do some work with Towners, which is right nearby in Swain's Pond. So, we'd want to monitor it to make sure the pond was healthy because we do know there have been reports there's neighborhood kids that go fishing in it.

▶ 1:02:33 If I'm not mistaken, this was a sewer issue shortly a few months ago. Sorry, different pond. So anyway, I wouldn't say there's any known costs, but it would be adding to our conservation land in the city that we would be responsible for stewardship and maintaining the land properly and the water quality. So it's hard to say there would never be any costs associated with it, but I wouldn't expect any ongoing maintenance costs that we're aware of at this point. Okay. And is this an area that'll be frequented by the public, including these kids who fish, and- I would hope so. Then do we need to, I don't know, make sure it's mowed and make sure there's no safety issues and clean up- So a large part of conservation is we don't want to see it

▶ 1:03:23 landscaped. We don't want to see it mowed. We want to see the area in its natural state. I don't believe there's any trails on this yet. So we do have volunteer trail stewards program, where these are residents that wander the trails just as part of their normal daily life, and they report onto us if there's trees down or any other issues. Sometimes we get kids that have bonfires and whatnot, areas that need cleanup. So we try to keep tabs on that, but as we said, I don't think there's any trails here. But most of what we do is driven by volunteers. We do a lot of volunteer work. We have budget, but it's not, as I'm sure you guys are aware, it's not a huge part of the city's budget. So we try to keep our costs low and do what we can with

▶ 1:04:15 volunteer help. Thank you. Yep. We'll follow up next. I have Vice Chair Vandiver. Thank you. Similar, my question is for the everyday resident of Melrose, would they be able to access this land in some way or appreciate it? I'm trying to look whether there is road access that wouldn't go through someone's property or would people be able to see it? It's attached to other conservation land. It's not conservation land yet, so there's no paths or anything like that on it as far as I know. I think the new homeowners can access it pretty easily because it's attached to their backyard, and that, neighbors in that area. But it's just the open habitat and green space for the city. Yeah. If it was possible to make that

▶ 1:05:17 also accessible to the more general public some way with a path, I think that would be an added benefit. But certainly it's nice to have the green space for its own sake as well. Up next, I have Councilor Finocchiaro. Thank you. If I remember this area, so I think Dexter Road is sort of like, is it a paved road going back there? Yeah. But there's homes on Dexter Road, correct? Yep. So, the conservation area is behind a lot of these homes. What I like about this, and I appreciate you guys donating the land, is that it is owned by the city, and it stays conservation land. So as far as development goes, it just adds to the beauty of that area, right? So I think this is a great thing. And motion to recommend.

▶ 1:06:14 Motion to recommend made by Councilor Finocchiaro. Second. Seconded by Councilor Kowal on discussion. I'll just note, I'm thrilled this is in Ward 7. It has some of the best conservation land in the city, if I do say so myself as a totally unbiased observer. I just did want to ask, or I'll just say a point of order for my colleagues. This is actually a very steep slope that leads right into Malden. I was just looking at the map. It's Beachview Ave in Malden, and then you just go straight up into... So it would be difficult to access from Melrose. But I wanted to ask, how long has this area been in conservation? How long has it been a conservation land for the city of Melrose? Just out of curiosity, because I know that's a relatively recent development

▶ 1:06:59 relative to the rest of the city. So how long has the area around this- Yeah ... new parcel been- Large contiguous- ... conservation? ... council here. It's been a long time. I'm not sure. Yeah, nothing recent. Yeah, I'm sorry. So just before the meeting, I was kind of refreshing my memory on some of the parcels around it, just confirming that they were conservation land and whatnot. And if you look on the GIS mapping and with the parcel owners and whatnot, some don't even show as owners. So I think some of these lands, I can't say this for certain, but I think some of them go back quite a ways. I know there was a large chunk. We just had this with some other properties. When was a lot of land was given to the city and just kind of in one fell swoop?

▶ 1:07:47 Yeah. Tax title properties that were just transitioned to conservation land, like in the '70s, I think '80s and before that. Yeah. So- But a lot of properties that were just taken for tax reasons, like in the '30s, '40s. Yeah. So I mean, I- The city had for a long time. Yeah, I don't want to say that that's when this happened, but it kind of maybe looks like maybe that's what happened for some of them. Yeah. I think most of the conservation parcels in the city are from that. All right. Terrific. Well, for those looking to do some elevation work in Melrose, the runners amongst us- ... join us. It's a beautiful area. Any other questions from colleagues? We believe we have a motion on the floor and that is seconded.