LEYDEN — The town made progress toward road discontinuances and becoming a Green Community with the approval of related warrant articles during a discussion-heavy Special Town Meeting on Monday.

The meeting, held at Town Hall, lasted roughly two hours and was attended by 67 voters. Seven of the nine warrant articles were approved, while two were passed over.

Road discontinuance

Articles 4 through 7 involved designating portions of town-owned Hunt Hill and East Hill roads as private ways. Selectboard member Glenn Caffery explained this designation would permit public access as usual, but would alleviate the town’s responsibility to maintain stretches that are “very steep” and “have never been maintained to standards.”

“The town is at quite a large financial liability if we were charged with fixing up these roads because for a whole variety of reasons, the roads are virtually not something the town could fund fixing up,” Caffery said.

Articles 4 and 5 — the two articles that were ultimately passed over — pertained to a portion of Hunt Hill Road that begins 943 feet from the intersection of Hunt Hill and East Hill roads and runs westerly 3,582 feet to the intersection with Brattleboro Road. The stretch “was passed over several decades ago when the town was trying to clear up the status of many old roads in town,” according to Caffery.

“It hasn’t been maintained for several decades and so we wanted to clarify the status of it for potential buyers, but also, we wanted to protect the town from what would really be impossible exorbitant costs to fix up the road.”

These articles were passed over as landowner Robert Penfield, whose land lies adjacent to the affected road portion, vets “his interests and his concerns” with the town, Caffery said. The vote to abandon the road portion, Caffery continued, could lower the value of the property. Town Counsel Donna MacNicol helped prepare a document, later signed by Penfield, “that would basically freeze the clock on the valuation equation for the property” as the town delays a vote until Annual Town Meeting, Caffery said.

Subsequently, Articles 6 and 7 pertained to a portion of East Hill Road that begins 200 feet south of the intersection with Simon Keets Road and runs southerly 1,470 feet. This stretch “starts plummeting” near Keets Brook, Caffery said.

“That road is really problematic,” he continued. “It’s kind of a streambed. It’s got very high — perhaps ledgy — barriers on each side of it. Also, there is an antique stone culvert down on the lower part of it that would be very expensive — perhaps prohibitively expensive — to ever imagine, even over a period of seven years, ever fixing up. [Passing Articles 6 and 7 is] a way of establishing that clearly so people don’t presume that it’s a road we can fix up because we don’t, in my view, have a capacity to do that.”

“It’s going to cost half a million dollars to fix not even the 943 feet on Hunt Hill Road. So with East Hill Road … just do the math,” Conservation Commission Chair Evan Abramson said. “There’s no grant that’s going to ever give us that much money … so I don’t think it’s worth considering or worrying ourselves about this.”

Andy Baker, a resident who most vocally opposed Articles 4 through 7, argued that the town has put “a lot of time and money” over its history maintaining these roads. Relative to their future, “the whole town has things at stake,” he reasoned. Reasons to maintain the roads that he listed included their value as hiking trails, the historic value of the culvert, and a potential to maximize tax base and grant opportunities.

“We haven’t spent any money in the last 10 to 15 years, and we may never,” Baker said. “It’s all conjecture about what could happen. Other things could happen that make you wish you had these roads and wish we were able to develop these roads.”

Articles 6 and 7 passed by majority vote.

Green designation

Articles 8 and 9 were “both critical steps” toward being designated as a Green Community, Caffery explained. The state’s Green Communities program “provides an opportunity for municipalities to obtain grant funding for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects, as well as publicly demonstrate their commitment to clean energy efforts at the local level,” according to the Massachusetts Metropolitan Area Planning Council website.

Article 8 entailed the adoption of a Stretch Code to regulate the design and construction of buildings for the effective use of energy.

“Basically, the base energy code we’re already subjected to gets stricter and stricter and stricter every three years,” Caffery explained. “The Stretch Code is the more aggressive timeline … but the aggressive timeline of the Stretch Code is really normal in Massachusetts. All our surrounding communities have long ago passed the Stretch Code, so the builders in the area already build to Stretch Code standards.”

Most who voiced an opinion on adopting the Stretch Code did so in support, including Finance Committee members Erica Jensen and Ginger Robinson, who said the financial benefits would be significant. Others, such as Eve Construction & Engineering Inc. owner Rob Snedeker, disagreed, arguing that constructing new homes under these regulations would be unacceptably expensive.

“I pause when we get so aggressive to where we’re going,” Snedeker said, noting that he “stands to make a lot of money” himself if the Stretch Code is adopted. “I don’t know exactly what this latest version is, but the amount of costs that we’d be putting into these new homes is crazy.”

Article 9 entailed changes to town bylaws, and outlines permitted uses for building-mounted and residential ground-mounted solar arrays, as well as uses allowed by special permit and prohibited uses. Both articles passed by majority vote.

Other articles

The other three warrant articles, all of which were approved by majority vote, involved transferring $2,650 from free cash to support the Conservation Commission’s Japanese knotweed removal efforts; transferring $100,000 from free cash to the Fire Department/EMS Development Account; and transferring $50,000 from the Fire Department Stabilization Account to the Fire Department/EMS Development Account.

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