Work on a new business park off Hedges Pond Road in Cedarville will begin in March, now that the developer has purchased the land and the town has issued a building permit for the first phase of the controversial project.
On Feb. 7, the Plymouth Foundation closed the deal, selling 34 acres at 71 Hedges Pond Road to the park developer, Standish Investment Group, for $3.45 million.
The foundation then paid the Town of Plymouth $2 million from those proceeds to fund design work for traffic improvements including two rotaries along State Road in Cedarville, an arrangement that was baked into the plan from the start.
“I want to thank you, on behalf of the folks in Cedarville,” board member David Golden said to William Hallisey, president of the foundation, who presented the board with a ceremonial big check for $2 million at Tuesday’s meeting. “They have been waiting for this money to come through so that we can start the rotary projects as soon as possible.”
The business park will include a 176,000-square-foot warehouse with multiple loading docks, a 75,000-square-foot recreational facility with two ice hockey rinks, and two 20,000-square-foot buildings suitable for wholesale operations, potentially a lumber yard. Building the park also involves removing 270,000 cubic yards of sand and gravel.
The site was owned by the town for decades and managed by the Conservation Commission for open space and conservation purposes. In the fall of 2018, Plymouth Town Meeting voted unanimously to re-zone a portion of the land to create the Cedarville Village Enterprise District and allow for light industrial and commercial uses. The town also set aside 130 acres of the site as protected conservation land.
The town sold the land to the foundation for $1, with an agreement that the foundation would market the land for development, and when sold, would pay the town $2 million to be earmarked for road improvements at the intersections of State, Hedges Pond and Herring Pond roads, one of the most congested areas in town.
The foundation is a nonprofit independent of the town, but its board members include Town Manager Derek Brindisi, Select Board Chair Richard Quintal, and Lee Hartmann, the town’s director of planning and development.
At various public meetings on the project, residents voiced opposition on grounds the earth removal and clear-cutting of much of the site would degrade the environment and threaten the region’s water supply.
“We all agree that our open space is important. Our aquifer is precious and deserves protecting,” Select Board vice chair Kevin Canty said Tuesday night. “It is also true, that at least as of right now, squirrels and trees, sadly, do not pay taxes. We need to have a balance between open space and economic development.”
Reached after the meeting, Eric Pontiff, principal of Standish Investment Group, told the Independent that construction will begin in mid-March.
“We will build the access road first. That leads to the back of the site, which is the lowest point on the property,” Pontiff said. “Then there is a lot of filling and moving material around to level the site before you will see any trucks hauling material off site.”
Pontiff said he’s in discussions with several entities that have significant interest in occupying the new buildings, but no deals have been finalized.
Brindisi told the Select Board that an engineering firm has been hired to design two rotaries and related roadway work to improve the flow of traffic in the area. The design phase will cost $ 1.2 million, Brindisi said, and the town will apply for state funds to pay for construction.
Some of the remaining proceeds from the sale will be used to draft and record legal documents that will protect the adjoining 130 acres as conservation land “in perpetuity” Brindisi said.
Michael Cohen can be reached at michael@plymouthindependent.org.