Judge hears challenge to Needham's golf agreement

A lawyer representing Needham told a Norfolk Superior Court judge last week that the town doesn't need approval from the Legislature to lease town-owned land to a private golf club because the land has been used as a golf course off and on since 1901.

David Tobin, a Wellesley lawyer hired by the town, said that the use is grandfathered under a 1972 statute that would otherwise require legislative approval for the arrangement.

Tobin appeared before Judge Barbara Dortch-Okara to answer a complaint brought by 10 Needham residents against the use by the Needham Golf Club of 58 acres originally acquired by the town for water protection purposes more than 100 years ago.

In May, the town approved a new lease for the golf club, which has been there since 1923.

Dortch-Okara is considering whether to allow the complaint to go to trial, but did not indicate when she might issue a ruling.

Alan Fanger, a lawyer and one of the plaintiffs, said the state constitution requires municipalities to get permission from two-thirds of the House and Senate if public land is converted from open space or natural resource protection to another use, or if the rights in such land is conveyed to another entity.

But Tobin said the matter is "nothing new" and is something he spent a lot of time looking into a decade ago to make sure the town was acting legally. He noted the property remains fully under the town's control, not the golf club's. "It is a lease and it isn't," said Tobin. "The lease could be terminated by Town Meeting at any time for any purpose."

Tobin also said having a golf course on the land has benefited the town's water protection efforts, asserting the golf club has been an environmentally responsible steward of the land, using "green chemicals" to maintain the course and submitting to regular water quality testing.

The revenue from the club's lease is "very, very important" to the town's coffers, he added.

David Weiss, the Needham Golf Club's lawyer, disputed Fanger's assertion that the course has polluted the local water supply with pesticides or has operated without proper Department of Environmental Protection oversight. Weiss also said the club intends to join a volunteer cooperative program run by the United States Golf Association and Audubon International that promotes ecologically sound land management and wildlife habitat protection efforts.

But Fanger said the plaintiffs "believe this is public land improperly put into private hands." Long a harsh critic of what he says is a cozy arrangement between the town and a private business, he asked the judge to allow the plaintiffs to go ahead with the suit if the attorney general, who has the authority to enforce the town's compliance with state law, does not take it up.

The attorney general's office has seen the complaint, but has not made any decision on whether to pursue legal action against the town and the golf club, said spokeswoman Jill Butterworth.

The group's lawsuit also asks the court to rescind the 20-year lease between the town and the club that is slated to take effect in April. The golf club now pays $269,000 a year to the town for use of the land. Under the new lease, the club would pay $215,000.

The judge said she would take the matter under advisement and did not say when she would issue a decision.

"It is not a small matter to authorize it," Dortch-Okara said of allowing the suit to go forward. "There are consequences."

The other residents joining the lawsuit challenging the lease are Richard Freedman, Hope Rubin, Judith L. Fanger, Theodore Baker, Mary Jane Baker, Andrew Arenella, Yves Conturie, Cynthia Conturie, and Barry Wolfield.