Luxury Housing Threatens Hamilton’s Last Wilderness
Chebacco Trails and Watershed Under Threat
Hamilton, Massachusetts is once again abuzz with controversy over housing. Larry Smith, the developer who has already made millions from his controversial Canter Brook development in town, has set his sights on 133 Essex Street, a 66 acre parcel comprising part of Meadowbrook Farm and miles of undisturbed forest abutting Chebacco Woods, which is protected. His plan? A gated community featuring 50 units of luxury townhomes, exclusively for ages 55 and up. It would be the largest development of its kind in the town’s history.
The area has been in contention since 2018 when the owners, out-of-towners acting through their lawyers, erected concrete barriers at trailheads and demanded that the trails running through their property be retracted from Chebacco Woods maps; the town of Hamilton respectfully declined, citing that for several decades the owners had never upheld their private property rights and the trails qualified for prescriptive easement. In fact, with no signage delineating the entrance to private property in the past, most people had always assumed that the area was part of Chebacco Woods themselves. Town citizens and visitors to the woods alike were outraged to learn they were mistaken.
In Hamilton water bans are posted by April, and in the blistering summer heat the lake beds are exposed and streams become mud, a disturbing trend that has only become more pronounced in the past decade and noticed with concern by the hikers, biking groups, and equestrians passing through daily. “The land sits on top of an aquifer that may be Hamilton’s last remaining resource,” notes John Cole, an organizer of grassroots group Save Chebacco Trails and Watershed.
The area’s watershed and wetlands feed Manchester-by-the-Sea’s fresh water source in Gravelly Pond, they supply the School Street wells in Hamilton; they fill the private wells in the neighborhood and the irrigation reservoir for Meadowbrook Farm. Chebacco Lake, Gravelly Pond, Becks Pond, and Round Pond serve as a headwater for the Essex River through Alewife Brook. The parcel itself provides a buffer to Chebacco Woods, further preserving and protecting its integrity.
The forest is home to spotted salamanders, rare mushrooms, flying squirrels, owls, deer, red foxes, little brown bats, minks, and coyotes. Davey Walters grew up in the area and works closely with ornithologists at Hobart and William Smith Colleges; his photos he has personally taken in that area of the woods (attached) of the pink lady slipper orchids, wood thrush, and black poll warbler, document the rare and threatened species at risk of losing their habitat.
The potential impact on the forest and the neighborhood around it would be devastating. Smith plans to clear-cut the top of the glacial ledge and blast it flat. The Hamilton Open Spaces Committee has been working for years with conservation groups to get a joint acquisition of the land, it was to be the group’s main priority for 2021.
New England has the distinction of being one of the most densely wooded regions of the world, but in 2017 Harvard University announced that our status is in jeopardy: we are losing 65 acres of woodland per day in New England alone, a chilling number considering the size of the parcel being considered for development. “If the current rates continue, New England will lose another 1.2 million acres by the year 2060- that’s an area nearly twice the size of Rhode Island,” senior scientist Jonathan Thompson warned The Harvard Gazette, adding that there is no bigger asset in fighting climate change than land, as trees lock up carbon and the natural landscapes buffer effect of increasingly extreme weather patterns.
While the original intent of the town’s senior-housing bylaw was to encourage the development of affordable housing, the reality is luxury developers have been opting to pay a cash penalty in lieu of providing units or land to the Affordable Housing Committee, effectively moving the goalpost for Hamilton; Hamilton is under pressure to meet the requirement of providing affordable housing equal to 10% of the town’s population, and by raising the population without providing units, Larry Smith is leaving Hamilton even more vulnerable to the state mandating developers to override zoning laws and meet the quota to ensure families and seniors are not priced out of their communities, an issue Hamilton needs to address immediately and deliberately rather than being forced. At a planned $800,000 per 2 bedroom age-restricted unit, Smith is exacerbating the problem. In the past his cash payments to the Affordable Housing Committee were dressed up as generosity on Smith’s part, complete with a photo op of a massive cheque, never mind that it’s the law.
The public will be offered hearings to voice concerns, but according to the bylaw the planning board can still grant the necessary permits without a majority vote from town citizens. Many feel that with Hamilton’s last piece of vulnerable forest at stake, they deserve a vote. Hamilton needs to wake up and see what it stands to lose before it’s too late.
Save Chebacco Trails and Watershed
For media and press inquiries, please contact Ani Sarkisian: anisarkisian@gmail.com
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