Town Completes Purchase of Johnson Farm

Published February 26, 2015 | Community Preservation Committee | Automatically Archived on 5/11/2015

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On Thursday, February 26, 2015 the Town purchased a significant portion of the Johnson Farm property from seller, Madison Place Sudbury LLC for the price of $2.9 million, preserving in perpetuity 33.48 acres of the original farm property. The property was approved for purchase at the December 3, 2015 Special Town Meeting, and ratified for funding at the December 9, 2015 Special Town Election. Funding sources included $1,834,000 from a Proposition 2 1/2 Debt Exclusion, $1.0 million from Community Preservation Act funds and a gift of $66,000 from the Sudbury Valley Trustees and their contributors.

The property is located on Landham Road, and abuts over 200 acres of preserved open space owned by the Sudbury Valley Trustees, the Town of Sudbury and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Over the next six months the Town and the Sudbury Valley Trustees will be working to create a trail into the property from Landham Road, including a small parking area so that the property can be accessed by many residents. The new trail will link to existing trails on the adjacent Lyons-Cutler Reservation owned by SVT.

Excluded from the purchase are 2 lots along Landham Road, which will be developed into single family dwellings.

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Under the provisions of the Community Preservation Act (CPA), Sudbury established a Community Preservation Committee on 2002.

This Committee consists of 9 members, including a member designated from each of the following commissions or boards: Select Board, Conservation Commission, Historical Commission, Planning Board, Park and Recreation Commission, Finance Committee, and Housing Authority; and 2 members at large appointed by the Select Board.

The Duties of said Community Preservation Committee shall be to:

(1) Study the needs, possibilities, and resources of the Town regarding community preservation. The Committee shall consult with existing municipal boards, including the Conservation Commission, the Sudbury Historical Commission, the Planning Board, the Park and Recreation Commission, the Sudbury Housing Authority, or persons acting in those capacities or performing like duties, in conducting such studies. As part of its study, the Committee shall hold one or more public informational hearings on the needs, possibilities, and resources of the Town regarding community preservation possibilities and resources, notice of which shall be posted publicly and published for each of two weeks preceding a hearing in a newspaper of general circulation in the town.

(2) Make recommendations to the legislative body for the acquisition, creation and preservation of open space; for the acquisition, preservation, rehabilitation and restoration of historic resources; for the acquisition, creation, preservation, rehabilitation and restoration of land for recreational use; for the acquisition, creation, preservation and support of community housing; and for rehabilitation or restoration of open space and community housing that is acquired or created as provided in this section; provided, however, that funds expended pursuant to this chapter shall not be used for maintenance. With respect to community housing, the community preservation committee shall recommend, wherever possible, the reuse of existing buildings or construction of new buildings on previously developed sites. With respect to recreational use, the acquisition of artificial turf for athletic fields shall be prohibited.

(3) Community Preservation Committee may include in its recommendation to the Town Meeting a recommendation to set aside for later spending funds for specific purposes that are consistent with community preservation but for which sufficient revenues are not then available in the Community Preservation Fund to accomplish that specific purpose or to set aside for later spending funds for general purposes that are consistent with community preservation.