Elmwood Farm Planning
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For about 8 years the trustees of Abbott Realty Trust, Alan Greenwald and Ken Crater, have been planning and working toward fulfilling the terms of the Trust. This has not been easy.
The Abbotts wanted to provide for the future support of the organization they founded, now called Community Harvest Project, and their principal asset was their land in Hopkinton: Elmwood Farm. Therefore, their estate planning trust called for the land to be monetized and the funds to go to a new foundation to support CHP.
However, a combination of factors resulted in one delay after another -- wetlands issues, market ups and downs (especially the latter), and sewer availability each presented their challenges. All the while, there remained the thought that we'd like to see Elmwood Farm preserved as a CHP farm and a center for community engagement, much as the CHP farm in Grafton fulfills such a role.
A couple of years ago we started engaging various people in Hopkinton to exchange ideas for the property. These included people active in the Hopkinton Area Land Trust, various town officials, neighbors to the farm, and the Hopkinton Historical Society. These discussions are leading to a downsized plan (see the accompanying graphic for a waypoint in our process) which we hope will accomplish our financial goals, while also being responsive to the concerns and aspirations of a variety of constituencies.
Principles of Conservation Design
In undertaking this next phase of our planning, we hope to adhere to the principles of "conservation development" design:
- Decide what you want to protect, and protect it.
- To the extent possible, use compact, dense siting of housing structures to minimize consumption of land.
- Design with a sensitivity to traditional local development patterns.
For us, the first step is clear: we want to protect the farmhouse and farm. This points to siting any development activity away from this area. This also protects the view from Ash Street -- Elmwood Farm can continue to "read" as a New England farm from the road, which in fact it can continue to be.
The second point is made somewhat difficult by the wetlands configuration of the property. A fairly large roadway loop becomes necessary to avoid wetlands, but this can be minimized by controlling the extent of the total development envelope.
Finally, we're exploring the possibility of single, detached houses on small lots, instead of a townhouse configuration. If arranged in village-like clusters, this could result in a traditional New England neighborhood feel.
