I understand people’s frustration with the Town’s funds being expended to support the farm; like many people, I am not happy to pay the ever increasing property taxes. However, I personally believe Chris Bean when he says that he is likely unable to make the farm economically viable without gaining access to additional land. If you want to support the Bean Farm, it requires that, somehow, the farm gets access to the limited and extremely expensive land in Westwood.
Anyone reading the Conservation Restriction as recorded in Norfolk Registry of Deeds, Book 14153 -- specifically pages 231 and 232 -- signed by the donor, Mr. McFarland , may understand why the Select Board had to file suit against the Land Trust. See excerpt delineating allowed uses inserted below:
9) “Subject to the approval of the Grantee, and pursuant to a conservation management plan, or other standards as may be established from time to time by Grantee (which may, without limitation limit or regulate the permissible time(s), extent and methods to be utilized):
c) Agricultural activities, including in connection therewith, and without limitation, the use of fertilizers and herbicides, clearing, plowing, planting and similar agricultural activities and (but only with the consent of all of the owners of the Premises, which consent may be withheld by any owner at its sole discretion) the construction and use of a roadside farmstand or similar structures.
I am not an attorney, but my understanding is that the Grantee is the Westwood Land Trust, and the owner is the Town of Westwood. In this case, the Grantee is refusing to permit the land to be farmed; the owner is approving farming on the land and seeking the Grantee’s permission. As some people have pointed out, the Bean Farm does not have “the right” to farm that land. As such, I don’t believe the Beans have legal standing to file a suit demanding that they be allowed to farm the land.
After reading paragraph c) above, decide for yourself if that it is credible that the donors never anticipated that the subject land may be farmed.
Also, if you have time, read the extensive exchange between Westwood’s Town Counsel Pat Ahearn and the Westwood Land Trust, and decide for yourself if the Land Trust is being reasonable.
Ultimately, the Select Board was faced with two options:
1) Allow the Grantee’s decision to stand, which would then not allow the subject land to be farmed. This would risk the failure of the Bean Farm and possible development of the Bean Farm.
2) File a law suit to bypass the Westwood Land Trust Board of Directors and allow the land to be farmed (hopefully by Chris Bean, educated in agriculture at Cornell University).
Some have blamed the Select Board for filing this lawsuit; they don’t seem to acknowledge that the Westwood Land Trust could have prevented the suit by negotiating with the Town and coming to a reasonable compromise. This has been going on for many years and it appears that the Westwood Land Trust intends to never grant permission to farm this land.
As I have made clear, I support the Select Board’s decision and hope that on behalf of Westwood’s residents, they prevail, and that in perpetuity we all have the pleasure of seeing an operating farm.