Endangered Turtle May Delay Cemetery Project

By KAITLIN KEANE

Norwell

A handful of Norwell residents have voiced concerns about plans for a cemetery at Stetson Meadows.

But the abutter that could cause the most substantial delay in the project was absent from the hearing: the Eastern box turtle.

The endangered species is listed as a natural inhabitant of the 20 acres off Route 3 where the cemetery would be built, adding unforeseen hurdles to the development process.

Because the cemetery on Washington Street was nearing capacity, voters at town meeting last year approved the land as the site for a new town cemetery.

Robert Merrill, an engineer hired to design the project, told selectmen Wednesday that the presence of the species means the town must work within the guidelines of the state’s Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program.

Selectmen voted to allow Merrill to begin negotiations with the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. The town will probably have to set aside another parcel of conserved land near the site as mitigation for developing the turtles’ habitat, Merrill said.

"Once you realize it is (an endangered habitat), you put on the brakes," said Merrill, referring to the need to start working with the state agency immediately. "Without their agreement about how to proceed, your project is dead in the water."

While the turtle issue was the reason for Merrill’s meeting with selectmen, many residents used the hearing to express concern about the project’s direction.

Echoing the request of several other residents, planning board Chairman Bruce Graham told selectmen that a landscape architect should be involved in the project’s design phase.

He asked that a committee be formed to oversee the process – a step that Selectman Richard Merritt strongly opposed.

Merritt said town meeting voters gave the cemetery commission the power to control the project. Spreading that power to another committee would delay the project and undermine town meeting, he said.

But Graham and other residents said the plans presented by Merrill looked nothing like what town meeting voters asked for. An amendment tacked onto the town meeting article required that the cemetery have a "natural, woodland-park style" setting.

Merrill said the plans he had, which showed rows of graves, were strictly preliminary.

"This is so far apart from what so many of us at town meeting a year ago thought it would look like," Graham said. "My concern is not that we need a cemetery, it is what it will look like."

Kaitlin Keane may be reached at kkeane@ledger.com.

Originally published by By KAITLIN KEANE, The Patriot Ledger.

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