Open Spaces In the News

State seeks alternative to sale of Watchaug tract

Thursday, March 15, 2007

By Maria Armental Journal Staff Writer

CHARLESTOWN — In an effort to prevent the proposed sale of 50 pristine acres near Watchaug Pond in Charlestown, Governor Carcieri has asked the state Department of Environmental Management to consider other “surplus land” the state could sell to come up with $3.4 million.

Carcieri is proposing the sale amidst a series of cost-cutting initiatives to balance next fiscal year’s budget that has a projected $360-million deficit, said Jeff Neal, Carcieri’s spokesman.

The land in question, once part of the Burlingame State Park, is administered by the state Department of Mental Health, Retardation & Hospitals as part of the Pastore Leisure Center. The land was purchased in 1934 through condemnation by the Metropolitan Parks Commission (predecessor of the DEM) to be preserved as open space.

Neal said at the time that the budget proposal was made, the governor was unaware that the land in question “had originally been acquired for the purposes of open space.” “It was certainly never the governor’s intention to develop any open space that had been previously acquired by the state,” Neal said yesterday

The environmental community was angered by the proposal to sell the land, which is contiguous to a state park and home to rare coastal plain pond species.

“Selling natural resources assets isn’t a good way to raise revenue,” said Janet Coit, head of The Nature Conservancy’s Rhode Island office.

“It’s bad environmental policy and bad public policy,” added Matt Auten of Environment Rhode Island. “The state is already losing a lot of valuable open space to sprawl and development.”

The proposal to sell the land also wreaked havoc in Charlestown and produced some strange bedfellows — environmentalists and the Narragansett Indian Tribe, which claims a right of first refusal on the land under the Rhode Island Indian Land Claims Settlement Act of 1978.

Neal said the state was not aware that the Narragansett Indians have claims to the land. “In the coming days, the DEM will do a title search to see if there is anything included in the title that would indicate a claim,” he said. “If the tribe has a legally, cognizable claim to that land, the state will recognize it.”

The 50-acre parcel, valued at just over $1 million according to town records, has no conservation easements. “So it’s a great concern to the town,” said council Vice President Harriet A. Allen, who along with council President Katharine H. Waterman had discussed the town’s possible acquisition of the land in partnership with other land conservation agencies.

Spending open-space money to purchase the land, however, could prove to be a thorny issue in an already polarized council. “The town is not in a position to be spending that kind of money for more open space,” Councilman James M. Mageau said.

“The municipalities aren’t in the business . . . of buying property to obstruct development.” Moreover, he said, “it’s premature for the Town of Charlestown to be engaging in the debate of the purchase of this land until we know that it’s for sale,” Mageau said.

Allen disagreed. “It is the town’s business to prevent development in certain parcels if it is in the best interest of its citizens,” she said. “Land use is a local decision.” “That’s called planning,” she added.

On a more conciliatory note, Councilman John O. Craig Jr. said the town should work with state legislators to prevent the sale.

The Town Council is to discuss the matter Monday.

The town Conservation Commission is also reviewing the case.