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According to Callahan, who has been working with a local committee to consider how the town can best use the 34-acre property, other development proposals have included a plan for 86 units, one for senior/family living and one based on a model of suburban housing that a few other communities
are building.
He said there have also been talks of selling the land for 20 single-family lots on the open market to raise money for the Gov. Stoughton Trust. Under that proposal, he said, it would “essentially become an extension of Indian Cliffs [Estates].”
“[The committee has] gone into executive session the past two meetings” to discuss that idea, said Callahan. “Nothing has been announced publicly.”
The Town Farm property was willed to the town by Colonial Gov. William Stoughton and must be used to benefit the poor under the Selectmen’s trust and with a court’s blessing. Currently it is home to the Milton Animal Shelter, a handful of residents and an empty barn.
Last year, the Selectmen established the Gov. Stoughton Trust Land Committee to consider various proposals and report back with a recommendation.
Bob Sweeney, a resident of Whittier Road, is one of the seven serving committee members.
“The meetings have been well-attended by the public. I’m glad people are involved and interested. I think it’s a healthy process for the town,” he said.
Sweeney said the committee listened to several proposals from a consultant back in September. One suggestion was to build 288 units on the property under Chapter 40B, a state law allowing developers to bypass local zoning for plans that have at least 25 percent affordable-housing planned into them.
“I think there’s a perception out there that we’ve been too narrow-minded on the affordable-housing option,” Sweeney said.
Still, Town Planner Bill Clark said any suggestion that such a plan is a realistic option is “simply not true.”
“They made absolutely no predetermination for the majority of the committee,” he said of consultants who have offered a number of different proposals for development. “It was a concept, nothing more. The committee asked a local engineer to look at the site and come back with a couple different options.”
Sweeney agreed.
“The plan was accompanied by drawings. That’s all we’ve seen,” he said. “But it’s out there. I know it has riled up a lot of school parents.”
One person it has riled up is resident Frank Mulligan, who in a Feb. 5 letter to the Times said MAHA and the group known as “The Friends of Town Farm” are fully intent on pushing the plan for 40B housing.
“A lot of people are really upset. There has been absolutely zero outreach to the neighborhood,” Mulligan said when contacted by the Times. “There have been no talks about looking to keep this as a farm.”
Mulligan said the committee was ready to make a recommendation to Selectmen back in December until residents started voicing opposition.
“A lot more people started showing up to the meetings,” he said. “There certainly seems to be an agenda for the affordable housing. My interest is, I live right beside there. It impacts me.”
The same plan led Mike Kelly, a Whittier Road resident, to voice his own concerns to the School Committee on Feb. 3 during the citizen-speak period. At the meeting, Kelly argued that 288 new housing units in town would negatively impact taxpayers and school-enrollment figures.
He could not be reached for additional comment following the meeting.
But Clark said it is “irresponsible for people to put out misleading information” about the Gov. Stoughton Committee’s intentions.
“We’re not going to build that,” he said. “You need to look at everything. You need to ask, ‘What are my options?’ The committee is covering all their bases. This was one of those bases.”
Members of The Friends of Town Farm offered their own response in a letter to the editor last week. The letter argues against claims the group is pushing any kind of 40B housing plan, calling the claim “simply not true.”
“A development of that size would be unsuitable for the parcel, insensitive to the neighborhood and unacceptable to the town,” the letter states.
Meanwhile, Selectmen Chair Kathy Fagan said it’s too early to determine anything about the land.
“I understand people are concerned. I’m anxious to see what the committee comes up with,” she said. “[But] I think it’s really premature to be considering anything yet. We have not had anything presented to us. They haven’t even voted on anything.”
Fagan added the committee is “an advisory board that will bring a recommendation to us.” She said it will be up to the Selectmen as trustees of the land to make a final determination, which won’t come for at least another year.
The Selectmen extended the Gov. Stoughton Committee’s charge for an additional year Jan. 22. The committee is next scheduled to meet Monday, March 2, at 7 p.m. at Town Hall, 525 Canton Ave.