[Massplanners] abandonment of roadway with complications

[Elizabeth Ware]

Okay,
I have a Friday question that I am asking on a Tuesday.

The town has several graveling/quarrying operations in town.  One operator would like to expand his quarry south of an existing town street and eventually assume the ownership of the street, for public safety reasons.  The street layout is 50' in width by about ½ mile long, resulting in about 3 acres of land within the roadway right of way.  The quarry owner is willing to construct about 1-1/2 miles of roadway to relocate the existing road layout that he would like to take over.

I suspect that the expansion of the quarry will not be an issue.  It will be carefully reviewed and is subject to a special permit.

The road right of way requires a town meeting vote to abandon, which would give the quarry owner, who owns both sides of the street, the rights to the center line of the roadway.................but there's more.

The land below the roadway (3 acres of it!), is shown on the quarry owner's plans to be quarried, therefore appears to have some value in mineral rights.  So, if the town is abandoning the roadway, it looks like the town is giving the quarry owner three acres times the depth of quarry in granite mineral rights.  Nope, we can't give that away ..........it wouldn't look good, would appear to show preference to the quarry owner and doesn't follow the procurement laws of the town "selling" something.  Our procurement officer has never encountered a situation this quirky.

As permit ombudsman, I'm trying to figure out the most logical and efficient steps to permit the quarry expansion, but it gets a little complex with the mineral rights issues.

I'd love to hear thoughts and suggestions regarding this issue.

Thank you,

Betsy Ware

Director of Community Development
Town of Dracut, MA.
Tel: 978-453-4557
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