Estabrook families have rights to private property

A recent letter to The Bridge calculated it cost each Acton voter only $20 per year for seven years (totaling $1.97 million) to sue Estabrook families to secure off-leash dog walking on their private residential property. It was once unfathomable that our town, the very town that spurred a revolution to establish the sacrosanct right to own and defend private property, would launch a lawsuit to strip its own citizens of that right.

In 2017, when the town manager publicly claimed the residential property of fellow citizens was not private, these landowners had a constitutional right to seek an immediate legal declaration and confirmation of their rightful, unclouded property titles. Instead, they offered multiple agreements allowing continued use of their property; town officials rejected each of them, filed a lawsuit without warning, and publicly announced the landowners “threatened” the town. 

Any citizens denied the safety of family and property are entitled to legal defense. This is not a “threat”; it is a guaranteed right. The real “threat” to our town, to our democracy, and to our constitution is when citizens cower and retreat in the face of bullying and resign their hard-won rights.

Estabrook property owners wouldn’t have been sued for seven years and multiple millions had they not generously opened their residential private property to the public; their reward was a crippling lawsuit. Sadly, we can be assured, few citizens will risk following in their footsteps.

It is shameful that any Acton citizen paid one cent of their tax dollars to perpetrate this unprecedented, and now statewide-recognized and impactful, attack on constitutional due process, equal treatment under the law, and private property rights. We can’t help but imagine our patriot ancestors asking: Who are we, and what have we become as a town?

Denise Haartz

Williams Road