The Conservation Commission is seeking $300,000 from two town sources to preserve about 24 acres of open space between Prospect Hill and Still River Road, opposite Camp Green Eyrie. The area, known as Dean’s Hill, offers panoramic views stretching from Bare Hill Pond across the Nashua River valley to Mount Wachusett. The issue is expected to come before voters at the Nov. 6 Special Town Meeting.
On Aug. 14 ConCom applied to the Capital Planning and Investment Committee for $200,000. The application stated that ConCom is also asking for $100,000 from the Community Preservation Committee. If recommended by those two funding committees, each amount would come up in its own warrant article for voter approval at the Special Town Meeting.
In a written overview that accompanied the application, ConCom described the land as “one of the premier open spaces in Harvard.” It includes a 5-acre working orchard, which landowners Charles and Patricia Davis of Concord have managed for the past 50 years. At one time, the hilltop was also the site of a yearly ecumenical Easter sunrise service, according to the ConCom description.
The property forms part of the Bowers Brook watershed. Together with Prospect Hill and other nearby conservation lands, the new acquisition would create a broad swath of protected land from Bare Hill Pond northward almost to Route 2.
The Dean’s Hill parcel has been appraised at $800,000 by the Foster Company, a real estate appraisal firm in Leominster. ConCom estimates an additional $50,000 for surveying, closing costs, the conservation restriction, and other legal necessities. The town funding would be contingent on raising the remainder of the money from two other sources: $300,000 from the Harvard Conservation Trust and $250,000 from an abutter. The town and the abutter would divide the acreage, but both pieces would be permanently protected under conservation restrictions.
In a public meeting last March, ConCom member Wendy Sisson said acquiring Dean’s Hill fits with many of the goals in Harvard’s 2016 Open Space & Recreation Plan, such as protecting the rural character of the town, protecting agricultural land, and providing interconnected trails and walkways.
The property has been on the market since October 2016. Because the land is currently classed as agricultural, the town would have 120 days to exercise its right of first refusal if there is an offer on the property. But the commission needs to put together a budget to be able to respond at that point, Sisson said.
Last spring, ConCom applied for a $300,000 federal grant from the Land and Water Conservation Fund for the Dean’s Hill purchase, but the grant did not win approval. Hence the preservation effort now depends on the town committees and Harvard’s voters.
