There will soon be new places to hike in Westport, as the Board of Selectmen last week voted to spend $180,000 in town and grant funds to purchase a conservation restriction on a large tract of land off Main Road.

The so-called Snell Creek parcel at 559 Main Road was formerly owned by the Pettey family but is now the property of the Buzzards Bay Coalition, which purchased it privately last year after the select board passed on its right of first refusal. The land, which runs west from 559 Main Road, contains the headwaters of Snell Brook, one of six cold water streams in Westport and only nine similar waterbodies in the state of Massachusetts. Portions of the land abut another tract containing portions of Angeline Brook, another similar cold water stream.

Alan Decker, of the coalition, told select board members last week that the coalition’s plan is blaze walking trails through the property, and he said a parking lot or two could be installed — one at the Main Road entrance to the property, another on the north side. While it’s unclear if both or just one would be built, Decker told the board that the maximum size of either would be 30 by 100 feet, for a total of 3,000 square feet.

Apart from that, he said, “it will be managed much like our other properties,” for passive recreational use.

The select board unanimously approved the expenditure of $180,000 to purchase the restriction. Of the total, $150,000 was approved by voters at last year’s Town Meeting, and the town also received a $30,000 grant to aid in the purchase.

Would-be buyer purchases home

When the coalition moved last year to obtain the town’s right of first refusal to purchase the land and a small home on the site, it came as a surprise to Dartmouth resident Stephanie Cormier, who had already signed a purchase and sales agreement with the Petteys, and dreamed of opening a horse farm there.

The Petteys had owned the property since 1923 and for years it had been classified under Massachusetts' Chapter 61A, an agricultural conservation program that gives property owners tax incentives to hold their land for agricultural purposes. It also requires that landowners enrolled in the program offer the property to the town when they consider selling.

In May 2022, the Petteys informed town officials of their intention to sell to Cormier, a move that activated a clause in 61A that gave the town three options: Purchase, decline the town's right of first refusal to purchase, or assign that right to another entity. It also gave the town 120 days to decide which route to take. Ultimately, the select board chose to assign its right to the trust, though  Cormier was just days away from closing on her purchase. Though they said they were sorry to step in in front of her, board members said at the time that the property was too valuable and sensitive to just walk away from.

"Unfortunately when Mr. Pettey came to the town (in May 2022) ... at first they didn't feel like they had any interest in it," then-select board member Brian Valcourt said. "After further review ...  many people realized how important it was to actually save this. It's a very difficult decision that this board has to make and it does not do this lightly."

The board's unanimous decision to assign the town's right of first refusal to the coalition brought Cormier to tears. But in the months after the sale, coalition members worked out a deal to sell her a two-acre portion of the property along Main Road, as well as the house on the site.