The City Council voted unanimously on Thursday to approve Mayor Edward A. Bettencourt Jr.’s proposed $7.2 million purchase of two parcels comprising roughly 80 acres of open space on Sherwood Avenue and Spring Pond Road, adjacent to Spring Pond, Cedar Grove Cemetery, and the Meadow at Peabody Golf Course.
The city did so to prevent the development of hundreds of units of housing on the property along both the Peabody/Lynn line and the Peabody/Salem line, a proposal Bettencourt said he “did not feel comfortable” with given the possibility of the new development creating “traffic, congestion, a strain on our city services, and depletion of our open space.” The acquisition is the largest purchase of open space by the city since the purchase of the land where Brooksby Farm now sits.
Bettencourt laid out the details of the purchase during a meeting of the Legal Affairs Committee, a subcommittee of the council made up of five councilors, explaining that the city intended to conduct the purchase as a friendly eminent domain taking rather than a traditional purchase and sale agreement. The city employed friendly eminent domain because state law allows municipalities to offer only 125 percent of the assessed value of the property.
With the assessed value of the property at $1.2 million, a typical purchase was “impossible,” Bettencourt said.
As part of the purchase process, the city hired an appraiser to determine the value of the property should it be developed. The appraiser determined the potential value is $7.9 million, according to Bettencourt.
Under the plan put forward by Bettencourt, the city intends to use a combination of community preservation funds, state grants, and proceeds from the city’s recreation enterprise fund to complete the purchase. No funds from the city’s operating budget were allocated for the taking. Instead, Bettencourt explained, community preservation will make annual $400,000 payments over the course of five years, and the city will take on a 25-year fixed debt service payment of $471,000.
While the city has yet to actually receive any grants for the purchase, Bettencourt said he was confident state funds that could help offset the cost would become available.
Under the terms of the agreement the city reached with the DiBiase family, which owns the property, the city will face a 15 percent penalty should it be late in providing payment. But, Bettencourt said he did not foresee a scenario in which that penalty was actually incurred.
The DiBiase family are “talented developers,” he said, and the penalty affords them some level of protection. Bettencourt added that there may be other opportunities for development by the DiBiases down the road.
Because of the property’s location adjacent to existing open space owned by the city, a total of 244 acres of open space in the area is now under city control.
While the city does not have a firm plan for what it will do with the newly acquired open space, Bettencourt suggested it could be used for expansion of either the cemetery and/or the golf course, and said the city now has a “whole number of opportunities” before it. Councilor-at-Large Ryan Melville suggested the expansion of existing walking and biking trails through the area, an idea Bettencourt signed support for.
Bettencourt’s proposal earned widespread support from councilors.
Councilor-at-Large Jon Turco called the purchase “an incredible thing for the city.”
“In a state where we’re pushing housing, housing, housing, it was very bold of you to take this move on behalf of the city,” Turco said.
Ward 2 Councilor Peter McGinn, whose ward is home to much of the open space acquired by the city, called the acquisition “important and historic.”
“The mayor and his staff have done an excellent job navigating a course through this,” he said.
Councilor-at-Large Thomas Gould said the purchase represents “another step in making a legacy for what we’re doing with open space in Peabody.”
After hearing a report from both the Legal Affairs Committee and the Finance Committee, city councilors voted unanimously on three motions tied to approving the purchase.
Under the terms of the agreement with the DiBiase family, the agreed-upon price cannot be contested in the future, according to Ward 6 Councilor and Legal Affairs Committee Chair Mark O’Neill.
Bettencourt announced his intention to purchase the properties during his State of the City address earlier this year.
“We believe this is the right move for the city to purchase this property, for the quality of life of our South Peabody residents, and really for the whole city of Peabody,” he said in a video statement released last week.
