Sciarappa Farm Purchase Back On Wilmington Town Meeting Warrant

WILMINGTON, MA -- Less than 24 hours after his colleagues on the Wilmington board of selectmen came to a stalemate on a controversial proposal to consider purchasing Sciarappa Farm in a special town meeting, Michael McCoy had collected enough signatures to force the issue. On Monday night, selectmen voted 2-2 with Greg Bendel abstaining on whether or not to call for the special town meeting as part of the Annual Town Meeting on May 5.

McCoy has claimed that an article on the Annual Town Meeting warrant will, if passed, clear the way for local developer Michael Welch to build 760 condominiums on a 76-acre Andover Street parcel. Welch denies he plans to build a development of that magnitude, but that has not deterred McCoy from moving forward with his efforts to derail the zoning law change.

The special town meeting ultimately serves as a plan B for McCoy and his supporters. If the zoning rules are changed, McCoy hopes he can convince town meeting to raise the money to purchase the farm or, if a purchase can;t be negotiated, use the town's power of eminent domain to take the property. The Wilmington Apple reported Tuesday that McCoy had begun collecting signatures before Monday's selectmen's meeting and submitted them to the town clerk's office on Tuesday.

Eminent domain allows governments to take private property at a fair market price for projects that "benefit the public." The tactic was traditionally used for projects such as schools and roads, but in recent decades government officials have loosened the definition of what constitutes a public good. In this case, McCoy is arguing that the town's purchase of Sciarappa Farm is a public good because it preserves the land as open space and limits the impact a new housing development would have on the town's resources.

But that use of the eminent domain power didn't sit well with Selectman Ed Loud. While Loud initially joined McCoy and Kevin Caira in support of adding the special town meeting, he reversed his position at Monday night's meeting.

"I wouldn't want my land taken," Loud said at Monday night's board of selectmen meeting in explaining why he changed his position.

For more on this story, see the Wilmington Apple. Subscribe to Wilmington Patch for more local news and real-time alerts.

Photo of Sciarappa Farm by Dave Copeland.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).