A very thoughtful letter regarding the current controversial issue surrounding the access and control of access to Estabrook Woods by Michael Dettelbach:
To the Editor:
Contrary to assertions in the Nov. 29, 2018 edition of the Journal: judging from the October Town Meeting vote on Article 11, many Concord citizens do support the Town’s effort to clarify the status of the Estabrook Road trail. This was also the highest-priority recommendation of the Town’s Estabrook Woods Access Study Committee, which the Town appointed in April 2016. When the Committee submitted its final recommendations to the Select Board in November 2016, it asked the Board urgently to “work with town counsel and direct abutters on Estabrook Road to resolve legal uncertainties regarding the dirt road trail at the end of the paved public road in order to secure permanent public access at this location.”
This is because, during the Committee’s deliberations, the abutting landowners threatened to shut off public access to the Estabrook trail entirely, unless the Town made permanent the temporary parking restrictions along Estabrook Road imposed in spring 2016, which cut capacity from 25 cars to 11. As the Committee reported, “the uncertainty over the legal rights of direct abutters to close the access and their intent to close it if additional spaces are added was a factor” in the majority recommendation (with significant minority dissent) to maintain the parking restrictions, even if it proved impossible to expand parking at Punkatasset–the Committee’s other priority recommendation.
So I thank the Select Board for following the recommendation of the Estabrook Woods Access Study Committee and seeking clarity on the legal status of the Estabrook trail. By asserting a right to close off a trail–the colonial road to Carlisle–that has been in continuous public use for generations, in an effort to reduce public access to land preserved by a complex public-private partnership, the landowners left the Town little choice.
The landowners didn’t have to go there and threaten to block the trail. The Estabrook Committee had succeeded in moving a contentious and longstanding matter to a place of public consciousness and collaboration, working together to manage the challenges of keeping Estabrook clean and congenial. That included the possibility of lifting some portion of the temporary parking ban at Estabrook Road and restoring some of the lost access, should expanding parking at the Punkatasset entrance prove impossible. And indeed, over the course of the Committee’s 2016 deliberations, public awareness and treatment of the trail improved noticeably. But rather than continue to work with the Town and the public, the landowners threatened to block the trail altogether. It may indeed turn out that they are within their rights to do so. But we do have to find out, now.
Or, might the landowners simply affirm that there is a permanent right of public access along the old Estabrook Road, so we can forego the courts and return to managing this public good, together?
Michael Dettelbach
Assabet Avenue