edward
02-27-2009, 01:35 PM
By Stephanie Ebbert
Globe Staff / February 27, 2009
WESTWOOD - Typically residents of idyllic towns like this one are known for fending off the big footprints of encroaching development to preserve their open fields and horse farms. Here, residents seem to be working with a doctored script. They're trying to block a horse farm.
On Sandy Valley Road, a rarefied row of million-dollar homes, neighbors have hired an attorney and an environmental consultant to thwart the development of an elite equestrian training farm and stop a parade of meticulously trained horses in their tracks.
"These horses are going to be grazing right next to these streams, and they're going to be causing a lot of pollution," said Anthony DeBenedictis, who expressed concern about manure and urine seeping into water resources. "It's just the wrong place for this project. We feel it's in a highly sensitive water resource area."
Manure is not the only concern. Opponents are worried about flies, the threat of the mosquito-borne Eastern equine encephalitis virus, and falling property values if horse trailers and waste haulers are allowed to clog their narrow road with traffic. They are also incensed that Wildstar Farm's propo nents would encourage horses to use trails in the adjacent Lowell Woods - conservation land the town helped pay to preserve.
"We're going to have people walking dogs and horses on a very narrow trail," said Ernie Greppin, who is not among the dozen or so residents in the legal fight but nonetheless frowns on sharing the trails. "Somebody ultimately is going to be seriously hurt."
This once-rural town southwest of Boston, bordered by Dedham and Dover, was once dominated by dairy farms. Narrow roads and low-lying rock walls maintain a rustic character, but make no mistake: It's a suburb now. The town has more than 14,000 people and just 18 horses. There's an historic-looking barn on Sandy Valley Road, but it is being built to house a swimming pool behind a 5,000-square-foot home.
Sandy Valley Road winds through a scenic neighborhood of sprawling homes on massive lots. The ethos of preservation is paramount, and one well-known resident, former attorney general Scott Harshbarger, was once ordered to restore a stone wall that had been torn down. Drainage problems have left the street pockmarked with potholes, but the real estate is remarkable. One 6,432-square-foot brick-and-clapboard Colonial, built in 1991, is on sale for $2.9 million.
In that setting, controversy was the last thing on Polly Kornblith's mind when she invited the neighbors over for champagne last July, after closing on the $3 million, 12-acre property and moving into a brick house built on the site in 1936. Neighbors, she contends, congratulated her for preserving the prior property owner's dream of keeping horses there. The last owner had won approval from the town's conservation commission for a smaller but similar plan. Neighbors who didn't fight that plan say they were under the impression the owner intended to keep only her own horses.
The facility that Kornblith and her husband, Michael Newman, are proposing would have a 22-stall stable with indoor and outdoor training areas for elite dressage, an Olympic-level sport requiring horses and riders to complete precision drills.
"This area is a hotbed of equestrian activity. Dover, Sherborn, Millis, Medfield, there's quite a number of stables in all those communities," Kornblith said. "We decided that we were interested in creating a high-quality, high-end dressage facility."
To offset the cost, she envisioned leasing stable space to other horse owners.
But as word spread about the scope of her plans, the doubts began to swell. Neighbors felt misled. The plans seemed to get bigger - and harder to pin down - as they learned more, opponents said. The plans Kornblith presented to town officials were incomplete, and the neighbors' lawyer began attacking them on the details as the residents peppered town officials with questions about oversight.
Town officials have said the stables qualify for an agricultural exemption and can be built in a residential area. Similar exemptions would apply to day care, educational, and religious facilities, and even group homes, said Town Administrator Mike Jaillet.
Still, the horse farm plan faces scrutiny from the Conservation Commission, Planning Board, and the Board of Health, where residents intend to challenge the project's proximity to streams. (Town health regulations call for new stables and manure storage facilities to be 200 feet from drinking water tributaries.)
"The horses generate an awful lot of urine. How many are on hormones?" Charlie Donahue said, recounting his comments at a recent, heated Conservation Commission meeting. "They get treated for worms. What happens if something like 2,000 gallons of urine go downhill to the swamp area," which ultimately feeds drinking water supplies, he asked.
The proposed horse barn would not be seen from Sandy Valley Road. But residents are concerned about the facility bringing new traffic to the street, which dead-ends at a parking area for Lowell Woods. They bristled when Wildstar Farm's previous website touted its proximity to Lowell Woods and invited horses onto the trail.
"We have town-owned land funded by the taxpayers for the use of the citizens of Westwood," said Craig Foscaldo, a Sandy Valley Road resident serving as spokesman for the neighbors opposing the horse farm. "They want to open up town property to run a for-profit, commercial business."
Horseback riding is permitted along many of the state's hiking trails with no explicit rules for navigation other than the obvious: Everyone needs to be respectful of the other users, said Wendy Fox, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Conservation and Recreation.
Donna Riccardi, a Westwood resident who walks with her children and three dogs on the trail, said she respects her neighbors' concerns and wouldn't want to see the peaceful character of Lowell Woods changed. But she hopes they can find common ground.
"With all the different types of development going on," she said, "a horse farm isn't the worst."
Kornblith doesn't intend to give up easily. Asked whether it will be worth the fight to achieve her dream in a hostile neighborhood, Kornblith responded: "This is why we moved here. We made a huge investment emotionally, not just financially, in purchasing this property. This is where we want to be.
"We feel like we're carrying on the tradition of the town. It's a pastoral setting. We're preserving the feel of Westwood versus what's happened with other tracts of land. We're here to stay."
Globe Staff / February 27, 2009
WESTWOOD - Typically residents of idyllic towns like this one are known for fending off the big footprints of encroaching development to preserve their open fields and horse farms. Here, residents seem to be working with a doctored script. They're trying to block a horse farm.
On Sandy Valley Road, a rarefied row of million-dollar homes, neighbors have hired an attorney and an environmental consultant to thwart the development of an elite equestrian training farm and stop a parade of meticulously trained horses in their tracks.
"These horses are going to be grazing right next to these streams, and they're going to be causing a lot of pollution," said Anthony DeBenedictis, who expressed concern about manure and urine seeping into water resources. "It's just the wrong place for this project. We feel it's in a highly sensitive water resource area."
Manure is not the only concern. Opponents are worried about flies, the threat of the mosquito-borne Eastern equine encephalitis virus, and falling property values if horse trailers and waste haulers are allowed to clog their narrow road with traffic. They are also incensed that Wildstar Farm's propo nents would encourage horses to use trails in the adjacent Lowell Woods - conservation land the town helped pay to preserve.
"We're going to have people walking dogs and horses on a very narrow trail," said Ernie Greppin, who is not among the dozen or so residents in the legal fight but nonetheless frowns on sharing the trails. "Somebody ultimately is going to be seriously hurt."
This once-rural town southwest of Boston, bordered by Dedham and Dover, was once dominated by dairy farms. Narrow roads and low-lying rock walls maintain a rustic character, but make no mistake: It's a suburb now. The town has more than 14,000 people and just 18 horses. There's an historic-looking barn on Sandy Valley Road, but it is being built to house a swimming pool behind a 5,000-square-foot home.
Sandy Valley Road winds through a scenic neighborhood of sprawling homes on massive lots. The ethos of preservation is paramount, and one well-known resident, former attorney general Scott Harshbarger, was once ordered to restore a stone wall that had been torn down. Drainage problems have left the street pockmarked with potholes, but the real estate is remarkable. One 6,432-square-foot brick-and-clapboard Colonial, built in 1991, is on sale for $2.9 million.
In that setting, controversy was the last thing on Polly Kornblith's mind when she invited the neighbors over for champagne last July, after closing on the $3 million, 12-acre property and moving into a brick house built on the site in 1936. Neighbors, she contends, congratulated her for preserving the prior property owner's dream of keeping horses there. The last owner had won approval from the town's conservation commission for a smaller but similar plan. Neighbors who didn't fight that plan say they were under the impression the owner intended to keep only her own horses.
The facility that Kornblith and her husband, Michael Newman, are proposing would have a 22-stall stable with indoor and outdoor training areas for elite dressage, an Olympic-level sport requiring horses and riders to complete precision drills.
"This area is a hotbed of equestrian activity. Dover, Sherborn, Millis, Medfield, there's quite a number of stables in all those communities," Kornblith said. "We decided that we were interested in creating a high-quality, high-end dressage facility."
To offset the cost, she envisioned leasing stable space to other horse owners.
But as word spread about the scope of her plans, the doubts began to swell. Neighbors felt misled. The plans seemed to get bigger - and harder to pin down - as they learned more, opponents said. The plans Kornblith presented to town officials were incomplete, and the neighbors' lawyer began attacking them on the details as the residents peppered town officials with questions about oversight.
Town officials have said the stables qualify for an agricultural exemption and can be built in a residential area. Similar exemptions would apply to day care, educational, and religious facilities, and even group homes, said Town Administrator Mike Jaillet.
Still, the horse farm plan faces scrutiny from the Conservation Commission, Planning Board, and the Board of Health, where residents intend to challenge the project's proximity to streams. (Town health regulations call for new stables and manure storage facilities to be 200 feet from drinking water tributaries.)
"The horses generate an awful lot of urine. How many are on hormones?" Charlie Donahue said, recounting his comments at a recent, heated Conservation Commission meeting. "They get treated for worms. What happens if something like 2,000 gallons of urine go downhill to the swamp area," which ultimately feeds drinking water supplies, he asked.
The proposed horse barn would not be seen from Sandy Valley Road. But residents are concerned about the facility bringing new traffic to the street, which dead-ends at a parking area for Lowell Woods. They bristled when Wildstar Farm's previous website touted its proximity to Lowell Woods and invited horses onto the trail.
"We have town-owned land funded by the taxpayers for the use of the citizens of Westwood," said Craig Foscaldo, a Sandy Valley Road resident serving as spokesman for the neighbors opposing the horse farm. "They want to open up town property to run a for-profit, commercial business."
Horseback riding is permitted along many of the state's hiking trails with no explicit rules for navigation other than the obvious: Everyone needs to be respectful of the other users, said Wendy Fox, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Conservation and Recreation.
Donna Riccardi, a Westwood resident who walks with her children and three dogs on the trail, said she respects her neighbors' concerns and wouldn't want to see the peaceful character of Lowell Woods changed. But she hopes they can find common ground.
"With all the different types of development going on," she said, "a horse farm isn't the worst."
Kornblith doesn't intend to give up easily. Asked whether it will be worth the fight to achieve her dream in a hostile neighborhood, Kornblith responded: "This is why we moved here. We made a huge investment emotionally, not just financially, in purchasing this property. This is where we want to be.
"We feel like we're carrying on the tradition of the town. It's a pastoral setting. We're preserving the feel of Westwood versus what's happened with other tracts of land. We're here to stay."