08/14/2018

Council sets public hearing on proposal to settle paper-street lawsuit

The Town Council will hold a public hearing Sept. 10, 2018 on a proposal for the town to vacate a portion of Surf Side Avenue, an oceanfront "paper" street in the Shore Acres subdivision, in exchange for a $500,000 payment and a commitment from abutters ensuring the residents of Shore Acres continued rights they currently have.

The proposal would mean that the town would forfeit the possibility of developing a walking trail or any other public use on the unconstructed portion of Surf Side Avenue, as envisioned in the 2013 Greenbelt Plan, but would also ensure the residents of Shore Acres continue to have access rights that they currently do.

The proposal would also mean an end to litigation brought by the abutters - Imad Khalidi, David Leopold, Kara Leopold, Andrew Sommer, Susan Ross, Stewart Wooden, Julie Wooden and Pilot Point, LLC - in response to the town's 2016 decision to extend Surf Side Avenue's status as a paper street, along with 31 other paper streets in town.

A paper street is a street that exists on a subdivision plan, but has yet to be accepted by the municipality as a public way. The municipality has the right to one day accept the street, and residents of the subdivision have access rights. In 1997 and in 2017 the Legislature asked municipalities to either vacate, accept or extend their paper streets for the next 20 years, with the current extension lasting until 2037.

However the abutters, in their lawsuit filed in January, contend that because the town failed to accept the Surf Side Avenue since it first appeared on the 1911 Shore Acres subdivision plan; and allowed decks, landscaped gardens and other backyard extensions for more than 20 years, the town no longer has any claim to the street.

Councilors set the hearing on the settlement proposal at their meeting Aug. 13. Town Council Chair Jessica Sullivan emphasized that the council's action was only to schedule a formal hearing. "By doing so we are not initiating the vacation process," Sullivan said.

The draft settlement was crafted at a mediation session July 19 among the plaintiffs, attorneys for the plaintiffs and the town, and Councilors Sara Lennon and Jamie Garvin, Council Chair Jessica Sullivan and Town Manager Matthew Sturgis representing the town. Councilors held an executive session July 30 where there was consensus to schedule the public hearing, and to vote at a separate meeting some time after the hearing but before the October Town Council meeting.

The $500,000 settlement would be placed in the Land Acquisition Fund for future purchase of open space elsewhere in town.

Ten speakers at the Aug. 13 meeting, mostly residents of Shore Acres, said they opposed the settlement, some referring to petitions with more than 1,400 signatures demanding the town accept the street for public use. Others speakers said the settlement should do more to continue the rights of subdivision residents to access Surf Side Avenue.