Selectboard Negotiates $1.2 Million Purchase from Richard LeBoeuf
Voters Will Weigh Future Benefits Against Current Costs
by Nancy Wood,
February 11, 2010, page 1.....

The Selectboard signed a purchase and sales agreement with Richard LeBoeuf on January 29 to buy 51 acres in the center of the West Village, and approved an article for the warning for Town Meeting asking the voters to authorize bonds for the purchase price of $1.2 million.

The vote will be by Australian ballot, which means there will be no discussion during Town Meeting. An information meeting is planned for Monday, March 1, at 7:30 p.m. in the CCS multi-purpose room after the CCS budget hearing. In order to provide ample opportunity for voters to get the facts about the purchase, the Selectboard is scheduling other meetings at various locations around town, including one at the Senior Center on Wednesday, February 17, at 7 p.m.

The board will also be present to answer questions at the “Meet the Candidates Night” sponsored by the Charlotte Grange, at the Senior Center on Monday, February 15, at 7 p.m.

The land lies on the south side of Ferry Road behind the Town Hall. It connects directly with the Burns property that the town already owns. It also extends east to Route 7, and includes the vacant land at the intersection of Route 7 and Ferry Road. It includes open fields, wooded areas, ponds and wetlands.

The action took place at a special Selectboard meeting on Friday, January 29, that continued most of the day. It was the culmination of several weeks of intensive negotiations. Talks originally started in April, were discontinued, and then began again in early January. Richard LeBoeuf said he woke up that morning, and asked himself, “Am I doing the right thing?” He said, “My father told me never to sell that land.” His father, Albert LeBoeuf, was Charlotte’s village blacksmith for many years. Many of the tools from the blacksmith shop are now at the Shelburne Museum.

Richard LeBoeuf, who is 79 years old, was deeded 25 acres and the residence where he lives by his parents Albert and Odiana LeBoeuf in 1980. He purchased another 29 acres, at the intersection of Ferry Road and Route 7, in 1994. That parcel was owned previously by Robert and Roberta Wood, who purchased it from William O. and Irene Spear.

LeBoeuf will keep his residence and several acres on Ferry Road, including the acre where the U.S. Post Office is located. The town has agreed to buy the remaining 51 acres of vacant land, subject to approval of the voters. A few final details need to be resolved, including LeBoeuf securing planning permission to subdivide the residential lot from the land being sold.

LeBoeuf is hoping to fulfill a longtime dream of adding on to the summer cottage that he owns at Cedar Beach so that he can live there all or a portion of the year.

Selectboard Chair Charles Russell said the purchase is important to the town for future expansion of municipal buildings. He said, “The state has told us we can’t build anything more on this land,” referring to the lot where the Town Hall, Library and Quinlan School are now located. Much of the lot is wetland, and Russell said the new property would provide enough additional space to allow for wetlands mitigation if there is further development of town facilities.

LeBoeuf said that he would like to see the town use a portion of the land to develop elderly housing. He spent a considerable amount of money a decade ago for planning and engineering designs for a sand filtration system to support an elderly housing project that he had hoped to develop. He had secured septic easements with Earl Burns and Robert Mack, Sr. The easement on the Mack property has now expired.

Bill Kiendl, a Charlotte resident and partner in V/T Commercial Real Estate with whom the Selectboard consulted during the year about the LeBoeuf property, told The Charlotte News that it is an “important piece of property that over time will define the Town of Charlotte.” He cautioned that the town should not be the developer, but rather should determine how it fits in the master plan and establish zoning requirements for density and residential and commercial use, so that private and/or nonprofit developers can get the permits needed for future development, using their own money.

Kiendl said there are lots of reasons why it makes sense for the town to own both the LeBoeuf and Burns properties, as the Burns property has lots of septic capacity. Possible uses that he envisions include senior and affordable, as well as market-rate, housing in a clustered situation. He suggested that for now it should be “land banked until the economy turns.”

Moe Harvey, Charlotte lister and former Selectboard member and chair, said, “There is no question in my mind that the town should own and control the LeBoeuf property for future use.” However, he questions the price in a down real estate market. “Is this the time to burden taxpayers with additional debt?” he asks. Harvey calculated the price being offered at $23,529 per acre and said the “price should be way down per acre.”

Kiendl, on the other hand, said that he felt it was a “fair value for all parties involved.” He added, “The voters will decide if this is the right time.”

Wade Weathers, a former Charlotte resident (who hopes to return soon) and a principal in LandVest, agreed that the “longer term prospects are wonderful for the Town.” He added, “Whether or not you had to spend the money today is the question… I don’t think there is a lot of potential for growth right away.” He had the opportunity to examine the potential for the land several years ago. At that time, he said, all kinds of ideas were floated, such as elderly and moderate-income housing and recreation. But the “biggest concern” was that there are a lot of wetlands and much of the land would have to remain as open space.

Spin Richardson is a friend of Richard LeBoeuf who helped guide him through the negotiations. He said he could express with one word why it is important for the town to purchase the property: the “future.” He said, “It is important to control that property in the future. It would be sad if we looked back 20 years from now and hadn’t bought it.”

The Selectboard unanimously supported the motion to sign a purchase and sale agreement for the land. Present for the vote on January 29 were members Charles Russell, Jenny Cole, Ed Stone and Frank Thornton. Winslow Ladue attended by telephone.
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Information about the LeBoeuf Land Purchase will be available at the following meetings:

Monday, February 15 – 7 p.m., “Meet the Candidates Night” at the Senior Center, sponsored by the Charlotte Grange

Wednesday, February 17 – 7 p.m., Special Meeting with the Selectboard at the Senior Center

Monday, March 1 – 7:30 p.m., Selectboard’s Information Meeting at the CCS Multi-purpose Room (following the CCS budget hearing at 7 p.m.)

Check with the Town Clerk’s office for additional meetings that are being planned.

The vote will be by Australian ballot at Town Meeting, Tuesday, March 2, 2010, at CCS. The polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Absentee ballots are available now at the Town Clerk’s office, where you also can vote in person.

The aerial photo, taken by George Lathrop in April 1942, looks east over the “four corners” of the West Village. The vacant land between Greenbush Road and Route 7 (in its original alignment) has now been filled in with the Senior Center and Fire & Rescue Services on the north (left side of Ferry Road), and the Town Hall and Library and Post Office on the south (right side of Ferry Road). The 51 acres that the Town has offered to buy extends south and east to Route 7. This photo belongs to the Collection of Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History, Middlebury, Vermont, and is used here with their permission.