HomeMy Public PortalAbout20130501 - Upper Charles Trail Committee - Meeting Minutes1
UPPER CHARLES TRAIL COMMITTEE
Wednesday, May 1, 2013 7:05 PM
Room 211, Town Hall, 18 Main St., Hopkinton, MA
MINUTES
Members present: Bob Snyder, Mike Resteghini, Ken Parker, Jane Moran, Mark Gates
Members absent: John Mosher, Jeff Barnes, Brian Eberlin
Hopkinton High School students present: Melissa Lodge, John Hacunda
1. The draft minutes of the 4/3 meeting were unanimously accepted as previously submitted.
2. The 4/17 meeting with Steven Zieff of Legacy Farms was discussed. This wasn’t an official
UCTC meeting as UCTC did not gather a quorum. Zieff suggested that two walks be taken:
a) A group consisting of UCTC members and at least one Open Space and Planning Board
committee members to walk the Legacy sites. No Legacy representatives on this walk.
b) A group consisting of representatives of Open Space, Planning Board, Pulte, and Wood
Partners to walk the Legacy perimeter.
Jane suggested that UCTC schedule walk (a) within the next month.
3. A notification letter to possible UCT neighbors and abutters was discussed. This led to an
agreement by all present that we needed the following questions answered:
By town counsel:
1. Are there legal ramifications to a notice letter that we are currently formulating?
2. How do we go about acquiring and accepting property on which to build the trail?
3. What's the best way to work with the Open Space and Community Preservation
Committees, and ultimately town meeting, to acquire property?
By Elaine:
1. How should we be operating as a committee?
2. Is there a standard operating procedure or "model" for the type of mission that we
have?
3. If so, can she supply us this model?
4. The Planning Board survey on town recreation preferences was discussed. All members
agreed that these findings were encouraging.
5. The NSTAR properties that are of interest to UCTC were discussed. Ken identified these
properties in an email to Ken Weismantel sent on 4/6/13. These are NSTAR properties west of
Charlesview. Ken’s email is copied into this document below.
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6. Mike asked about getting Hopkinton Running Club involvement with UCTC.
7. Meeting was adjourned at 8:20 PM.
Approved: May 15, 2013
Documents used at the meeting:
Meeting agenda
Draft Minutes of 4/3/13 meeting
Email from Ken P to Ken W (below):
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NStar Parcels of interest to UCTC
from: Kenneth
Parker <kparker@hopkintonma.gov>
to: Ken Weismantel
<kweismantel@hopkintonma.gov>,
Upper Charles Trail Committee
<uctc@hopkintonma.gov>
date: Sat, Apr 6, 2013 at 2:50 PM
subject: NStar Parcels of interest to UCTC
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hopkintonma.gov
Ken,
I enjoyed talking to you Thursday night very much, and hope you can attend our next meeting on
April 17th. In particular, it would help to have your support on the issue of the obligation legacy farms has
to develop the trails in addition to merely drawing them on a map.
Regarding the other property that UCTC is deeply interested in:
Most important is Wyckoff parcels U25 11 0 and R34 16 1, which extend from granite street south along
the old rail bed. To get access out to Hayden Rowe, we need to make accommodations with Lepelley,
which we have contacted through their lawyer George F. Connors.
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The Nstar properties we are interested in are R30 20 0, R30 18 B and R30 1 A. These parcels are
~landlocked, and abut R30 146 0, listed under the Board of Selectmen, and Gorman parcel R30 3
0. With these parcels, one can get all the way from the Hughes estate on Hayden Rowe to the high
school (with the exception of a corner of Terry / Mastroianni property near the end of Chamberlain
Street. We have not contacted Gorman or NStar, but several of us have spoken directly with Mastroianni
about the bike path.
By the way, uctc is still open as to whether the bike path itself would ever go directly through the
NStar parcels. I expect to at some point seek money for funding development of a bikable surface
starting on the Hughes property going west to Joseph road, and south of granite street to near the milford
town line, once we get ownership and permission for work ing on them. Initially, people will get from the
center trail and the high school to milford by biking on existing neighborhood streets in charlesview, and
between Hughes and granite street along the existing sidewalk on hayden rowe. But if we ever want a
continuous bike path, eventually we might go through the NStat parcels. In my opinion a walking trail
through those parcels would be a good complement to the bike path in the short term.
Closer to legacy farms, the old rail bed is listed as parcel U12 10 0, which bisects some of Roger Mezitt’s
land. Thus is listed under nancy kelleigh, who we have not contacted yet.
Our committee hopes to contact all of the abuttors along the rail bed stating with the milford town
line. The only homeowner abuttors we have sent letters to so far are those near legacy farms: namely
the curtis / linden people who we also surveyed regarding their desires for trails connections in legacy,
which we pursued due to the agreement we made with open space.
Ken Parker
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