ROYALSTON — Town officials, the South Village Revitalization Committee and representatives from Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust engaged in preliminary discussion Tuesday on the best future use of the former Pete & Henry’s restaurant.
In August 2018, fire reduced the popular eatery to a pile of ashes. On Sept. 21, 2021, owners Bill and Ginny Cloutier, along with members of Royalston’s Selectboard, signed documents that transferred ownership of the now vacant quarter-acre lot to the town in exchange for $5,000.
Selectboard Chair Deb D’Amico began Tuesday’s discussion by pointing out the town may not have carte blanche to do as it wishes with the parcel.
“We have discovered,” she began, “that because that piece of property was purchased with Community Preservation funds, there has to be a conservation restriction placed on that piece of land. We don’t know enough about what that means yet, but it could have implications for how we can ultimately use that piece of property.
“Our understanding from the CPC (Community Preservation Committee) is that the town of Royalston cannot hold that preservation restriction,” D’Amico continued. “It has to be held by another entity. So, the CPC reached out to Mount Grace. They have been working very preliminarily with the CPC to kind of hash out what this means.”
Sarah Wells, Mount Grace’s conservation director, confirmed D’Amico’s information.
“Because the town owns the property, they can’t also hold the conservation restriction because you can’t enforce something against yourself,” she said, adding that the restriction would be set up with a third party.
“That could be Mount Grace,” she continued. “That could be a different land trust and someone else that wanted to work with them. … It sounds like the conservation restriction requirements came to light later in the game.”
Wells explained that details of the conservation restriction wouldn’t work out until the town has an idea of what it wants to do with the property.
“Right now,” said Wells, “the state is really short-staffed with the people who need to review any restriction that Mount Grace writes. “So, even if we had something that was ready to send in today, it would probably take them five or six months for them to look at it.”
Ultimately, she said, the state needs to know “why the town wanted to buy the property, what you’re hoping to do with it now and in the future. We have to make a case to the state about what the conservation value is.
“It might be a little tricky,” Wells cautioned, “given (the parcel’s) size and where it is — between two roads and a concrete pad. But obviously, there was some discussion about doing something with it as open space. We don’t know what it could be, but the more we know, the more we could put into the document to help explain why this is special for South Royalston.”
D’Amico then referenced a flyer being distributed by the South Village Revitalization Committee seeking public comment regarding future use of the property.
“It sounds to me, Sarah, like the plan for having community input would help you to write the conservation restriction that’s kind of tailored more toward what the community hopes to do with it,” D’Amico said.
South Village Revitalization Committee member Mark Shoul noted that Mount Grace has a good reputation and that his committee would be more than willing to work with the trust to brainstorm how best to proceed with developing a conservation restriction plan.
D’Amico asked if the revitalization committee’s plan to have residents complete a questionnaire specific to the future of the property and then hold a community meeting to discuss results of the survey would assist Mount Grace in writing a proposal for a conservation restriction. Both Shoul and Wells believed the information gathered could indeed facilitate that effort.
Selectboard Vice Chair Chris Long expressed concern that a wide-open public input process might complicate efforts to come up with plans for the site.
“If you open it up to suggestions — ‘What do you want to do with this park?’ — don’t you run the risk of people coming up with ideas that might be incompatible with a conservation restriction?”
“We do,” Shoul responded. “We probably have to get a better sense what we’d like to do so we can be clearer about the parameters.”
Shoul and Wells agreed the South Village Revitalization Committee and Mount Grace will continue discussions on how best to proceed and will return to the Selectboard with suggestions.
Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.