Town Seeks More Info on Creeper Hill Land

Selectmen agreed last night to seek more information on the possible purchase of a 15-acre parcel at 104 Creeper Hill Road.

Sports fields, a Super Park location and a combination of business and conservation land were among the potential uses discussed. Town Meeting would have to approve the land purchase.

The town has 120 days to match the existing offer of $350,000 on the land, which falls under Chapter 61B. That gives the town the right of first refusal when an offer is made on that property.

Several board members suggested that the town buy the property, sell of the front of the property to a business and then use the rest for recreation.

“If you can do both, it’s a win-win,’’ selectman Brook Padgett said. The property is zone for office and light industrial use.

Selectman chairman Peter Adams said that by selling part of the land to a business interest, the town could “get most of our money back’’ and gain needed space for fields.

He said that the flat land on the site would lend itself to fields more readily than other sites in town, which would require more extensive and expensive work to convert them.

Town resident John LaPoint questioned why this particular parcel was being eyed, when the town’s Economic Development Commission has been hoping the town would consider land in the Institute Road area as a possible business location.

“I have a lot of questions about this,’’ he said.

LaPoint is a member of the Economic Development Commission but stressed he was speaking as a private citizen and not on behalf of the commission.

He questioned whether selectman had reached out to the potential buyer, Troiano Trucking, which is currently located across the street.

He said that they might be willing to donate a portion of the land to the town. This will not happen, he said, if the town does not reach out the company.

Michael Scully, chairman of the Super Park Study Committee, questioned whether this potential land purchase would further push down the Super Park in the town’s project priorities.

Adams said this property could be a potential site for the Super Park. Scully said the location was a possibility, but noted that it was on the outskirts of town and not easily accessible to portions of the town.