Shallow Pond residents want public ways, critique town "oversight"

Residents of the Shallow Pond neighborhood are requesting that the town adopt its private roads as public roads, arguing that their original designation as private roads was a mistake that the town should now correct. The select board declined to take action on the petition but indicated that it would incorporate it into the fall town meeting warrant.

One resident, Michael Hertz, said that town regulations require that developers create a homeowners’ association for new neighborhoods, but the developer’s plans for Shallow Pond 40 years ago did not include plans for one, and the town did not enforce the regulation. Normally, homeowners’ associations cover the cost of maintaining private roads, but Shallow Pond’s six roads have been maintained by neither the town nor a homeowners’ association since they were built, Hertz said.

“Shallow Pond residents have functioned like taxpayers of a public neighborhood without receiving equivalent services,” he said. “The town has provided emergency services, collected full property taxes, and treated the area as part of the broader community. So why is this specific neighborhood being asked to absorb infrastructure costs that are typically distributed across the entire tax base?”

Hertz said that residents were not informed that the neighborhood’s six roads—Kathleen Drive, Donna Drive, Andrews Way, Barbara's Way, Penny Lane, and Shallow Pond Lane—were not the responsibility of the town.

Since the responsibility has not been officially designated to a homeowners’ association or the town, Hertz worried that individual homeowners would have to cover structural failures to the roads or water system.

He also claimed that he had obtained a town document from 2003 indicating that the town intended to accept the roads in the neighborhoods as public ways, but it never followed through.

A June 2012 state law allows the town to adopt private roads as public ones if they meet functional requirements, and to renovate private roads to meet those functional requirements in order to publicize them. Residents are advocating for the town to undergo that process with the neighborhood's six roads, just as it has with several other roads since the law went into effect.

“It's about fairness, precedent, municipal responsibility,” Hertz said. “It's about how the town addresses a legacy issue that developed over time under its own jurisdiction.”

Select board members were sympathetic to his cause but said they did not feel comfortable making any binding decisions before consulting the department of public works. 

Town Manager Derek Brindisi said DPW is currently drafting a policy on the acceptance of private roads as public.

“There's a lot of questions that we don't have the answers to tonight,” said Lauren Lind, director of planning and development. “What is the deed and title research that needs to be done? Who assumes that ownership cost?"

Select Board Member William Keohan supported voting to reserve a town meeting article for the issue, though the warrant opens in 11 months. Every other select board member chose to wait for more information.

“I understand the needs of this particular neighborhood and the unique circumstances they're in, but we represent a town of neighborhoods. I think a lot of neighborhoods would say that one or more considerations that they have are unique,” Select Board Member Kevin Canty said. “We need to make a decision that is fair and equitable to 65,000 people.”

Several Shallow Pond residents spoke during public comment to advocate for the select board taking action as soon as possible.

“The town has been doing this for 40 years. It just keeps pushing the problem further and further,” one Shallow Pond resident said. “And guess what? Those utilities are not getting any younger. They're going to fail eventually.”

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