Property list riles officials

Priorities ranked for conservation

A Massachusetts Audubon Society report has ranked the EMC Corp.'s undeveloped property in Southborough as the biggest priority for the town's conservation efforts. But the town-funded report has caused a stir, because some officials believe property owners might misread its findings.

"We're concerned," said the Board of Selectmen's chairman, William Boland. "It's got to be clear that this doesn't mean you can't do what you want on your land."

Commissioned by Southborough's Community Preservation Committee, which appropriates money from a property tax surcharge for qualifying local projects, the report lists about 100 plots of land in order of importance for preserving habitat for wild species.

Ranking as first and third on the list are two EMC-owned properties of 141 and 72 acres. Second is 124 acres off Pine Hill Road owned by the Rousseau family. Other priorities include 60 acres on the grounds of St. Mark's School and 88 acres owned by Harvard University.

Hopkinton-based EMC is proposing a 445-acre corporate campus on land that straddles the Westborough-Southborough border. But the project has been stymied for months. Currently, the Fortune 500 company is appealing the Westborough Conservation Commission's rejection of its plan. Southborough's Planning Board recently rejected the company's proposal, too. EMC spokesman David Farmer declined to comment for this story.

Community Preservation Committee chairman Andrew Mills said he and his colleagues appropriated $5,000 for the report at the request of the Open Space Preservation Commission, whose members wanted an updated study of the town's habitats.

"The town had a list," said Frederica Gillespie, a member of the Open Space Preservation Commission. "It was outdated, just rolled over from previous years."

Community Preservation Committee and Open Space Preservation Commission members have a right to fund studies, said Boland. But he emphasized that the report does not reflect the town's official policy.

"In no way does the Board of Selectmen endorse that plan," he said.

The Open Space Preservation Committee will send letters to property owners listed in the report to invite them to a hearing next month where its findings will be discussed, Gillespie said.

At the hearing, said Gillespie, officials will explain that zoning, not the report, determines whether property owners can build on their land.

"The goal was never to use it to say you can or cannot develop your property," she said.

Town Meeting needs to approve Community Preservation Committee spending. But the committee funded the Audubon study on its own, said Mills, because members intend to use the report themselves.

The report was an administrative expense, said Mills. By law, the committee is permitted to spend money on select projects, including affordable housing, open space and historical preservation projects.

Mills said the committee would use the study as a resource when considering future projects.

"If we are going to be serious about considering what we want to preserve in the town, we need to put together criteria," said Mills. "If we get two projects of seemingly equal value, we have to be able to distinguish what's more important. I'm hoping the report will help do that."

Charles Rousseau, a Framingham lawyer who sits on the trust that manages the second-highest priority parcel, said developers have approached him several times over the years. But the trust has been reluctant to sell, he said.

Rousseau said he suspects the report would give ammunition to critics of development.

"There have been several people who just don't want development in that area," he said.