After Estabrook, development talk casts spotlight on abandoned roads
Like Estabrook, Pond Lane has been the subject of legal questions about an old decision to abandon it as a public road.
Between the roars of passing trains on nearby tracks, faint echoes of Acton’s battle for access to Estabrook Trail are sounding from the driveway at Damonmill Square.
Like Estabrook, Pond Lane has been the subject of legal questions about an old decision to abandon it as a public road.
Unlike Estabrook, attorney and former Select Board chair Henry Dane said Pond Lane’s official discontinuance provides clear answers.
The lane is the main route to a nearly 60-acre parcel up for sale behind Damonmill. The Middlesex County Commissioners formally abandoned the road in 1981. The panel later disbanded.
In 2001, then-Town Planner Marcia Rasmussen questioned whether the decision ended legal access to the rear plot.
In 2016, Dane wrote a legal opinion for the Rappoli family — which owns the property — saying that wasn’t the case.
While both roads were abandoned through the same process, Dane told The Bridge that the status of Pond Lane was less of a gray area than Estabrook because the county commissioners specified that they didn’t intend to nix any preexisting rights.
The Rappoli property is also registered land, meaning it went through a process where the state Land Court reviewed the property. The court affirmed that site users can enter and exit via Pond Lane.
Dane’s message might have settled the access question. Current Town Planner Elizabeth Hughes said she doesn’t think the owners resolved a separate quandary: whether the discontinuance ended their ability to upgrade the road to accommodate a development without permission from the Damonmill owner.
Asked about Hughes’ question, the Rappolis’ broker — Keith Gurtler — said, “As I understand it, the owner does not need permission to extend the road.”
H. Larue Renfroe owns several properties around Pond Lane. The Bridge reached out to Renfroe through one of his companies but did not hear back.
Estabrook Trail was the subject of a years-long fight between the town and landowners. The state Supreme Judicial Court ruled against the landowners last month, saying Estabrook’s discontinuance didn’t end public access.
While the circumstances are different, and while there’s no similar lawsuit involving Pond Lane, Gurtler said the SJC ruling is good news for his clients.
“I think it helps our case,” he said.
