Residents will vote on whether or not a private roadway off of Main Street, Sagamore Place, will become a public way or stay private at the upcoming Town Meeting after the Select Board and Planning Board voted to move it forward.
“Sagamore Place… meets the town’s requirements for acceptance as a public way,” Selectman Joe Connell said. “According to Director of Planning and Conservation Emilie Cademartori and Director of Public Works John Tomasz, the laying out of the way is part of the process for accepting a roadway, which is always before the voters at our annual Town Meeting.”
Connell explained that when the town accepts a roadway, it takes on the responsibility of maintaining it.
Town Counsel Thomas Mullen explained the process of accepting a public way.
“The process begins with the Planning Board… and finally gives its blessing only when the subdivision is constructed to its satisfaction. That construction has to do only with the roadway and the installation of utilities,” Mullen said.
Mullen said that frequently, there are disputes between a developer and the individual lot owners located on the roadway, but the city “does not have a dog in that fight.”
“That’s not part of the whole process of accepting a public way,” Mullen said. “What’s at issue in accepting a public way is the installation of the way and the utilities and the Planning Board has determined that the installation was properly done here.”
Mullen said that the public hearing is the first step in getting the roadway accepted as a public way and that the second step will be a simple majority vote at Town Meeting.
“And then I will file with the Registry of Deeds… to make it a public way forever,” Mullen said.
Mullen said that “accepting a public way is an unqualified good thing for residents of the way,” because if residents find problems like potholes, it is easier for them to call Town Hall and have DPW fill them in than to have to deal with a developer.
Mullen added that snow removal and lighting issues would not be the abutters’ responsibility anymore if the road becomes public.
“There is nothing to be said against it,” Mullen said. “In many cases, the abutters owned to the center of the line of the way, and are therefore responsible for things like potholes. Nobody wants that.”
In the end, the Select Board unanimously voted to lay out Sagamore Place as a public way. In a subsequent Planning Board meeting, the board recommended that Town Meeting adopt the warrant article.
