Multiple steps to ensure Estabrook access preceded town’s legal action

I deeply value the town’s efforts to preserve public access to Estabrook Woods on Estabrook Road. The Acton Bridge (May 16) fails to remind readers that filing a lawsuit against landowners to ensure permanent public access was a last resort.

The town first worked to address landowners’ concerns about dog walkers and other issues that arose. In response to landowners’ request, in 2016 the town reduced parking on Estabrook Road from 25 cars to 11. (Now, just five.) The Select Board created the Estabrook Woods Access Study Committee, with representation from landowners. The town followed recommendations of the committee’s November 2016 report. 

The town designed possible off-street parking lots for Punkatasset Preserve, the town’s part of Estabrook Woods. Ultimately, the town determined that maintaining Monument Street parking was best. The town then improved Punkatasset on-street parking, limited the number of dogs per person, required leashes for dogs, and improved signage about appropriate care of the woods.

In 2017, keeping with committee recommendations, the town negotiated for permanent public access with landowners adjacent to the unpaved portion of Estabrook Road. That year, one landowner erected a lockable gate where a chain had hung across the road since 1932. This landowner “threatened to begin litigation” against the town (The Acton Journal, October 26, 2017). The town believed that the litigation would have “threatened the public’s access to Estabrook Road” and decided that initiating a suit was the best course of action to protect the public’s right of access (Select Board statement, October 22, 2019).

It is unfortunate that ensuring permanent public access required legal action. However, $1.97 million over seven-plus years of litigation is only about $20 per year for each registered Acton voter.

Nora Murphy

Monument Street