A major landowner in Canton and member of the Planning and Zoning Commission at the center of a neighborhood dispute over building a driveway indicated he may use his 66-acre forested property in Canton for an affordable housing development, according to an email to the Canton Board of Selectmen (BOS).
Some residents of Shallot Meadow Road are opposed to Lansford Perry using town-owned property to build a driveway using a nonexistent “paper road” — or road that only exists on paper — part of a previous development proposal that never got off the ground.
Canton’s Chief Administrative Officer Robert Skinner and a member of the Planning and Zoning Commission returned a lengthy series of questions submitted by residents of Shallot Meadow ahead of a December 13 public hearing on the issue. The answers, taken together, indicate there are few, if any, legal or environmental reasons to deny Perry’s request, but perhaps the biggest question posed by neighbors – what Perry intends to do with the land – remains up in the air.
In a December 5 email to the BOS and a previous email to Inside Investigator, Perry has said the land could be used for agriculture, foresting, building houses for his family members, or, perhaps, an affordable housing development.
In response to residents’ traffic concerns, Perry wrote that Shallot Meadow has ample traffic capacity as the paper road was originally intended to support a development of “a couple dozen homes,” and that the property could potentially support the development of less than 200 “thoughtfully-planned” and “governmentally-encouraged” affordable housing units.
“Denying the requested access to further the local Shallot Meadow neighborhood’s apparent goal of excluding diverse housing and people of protected classes from the Shallot Meadow vicinity is morally repugnant and illegal,” Perry wrote. “Any use of town government authority to further such exclusionary objectives is actionable under federal and state fair housing laws. Individual town officials involved would be personally liable for such illegal conduct.”
Perry currently has two other access driveways to the property, including a shared driveway with newly-elected Canton First Selectman Kevin Witkos, but says those driveways are not usable due to wetlands concerns and the homes that share that driveway access. Perry believes the opposition to his proposal is misplaced and that the public hearing will be biased.
“Public hearings are touted as a democratic means to let regulators ‘better understand the will of the people.’ They usually don’t,” Perry wrote in a December 5 email to the BOS, which appears to substitute for his attendance at the public hearing.
“The people who attend public hearings are a biased unrepresentative tiny minority of those potentially affected by your decision. Thousands of people support agriculture and would support me. Thousands support the creation of more diverse housing in our region and would support me,” Perry continued. “These people would speak in favor of my use of the Shallot Meadow access point if they were informed and present at this hearing. Yet, those people are not here. They all have better things to do, and I have asked them not to attend. I have trusted your ability to remember them in their absence.”
To date, Perry has only proposed to build a driveway which he would maintain, according to Skinner’s response. Skinner said there is no requirement that Perry submit formal building plans in order to build a driveway and that any future building plans would have to be submitted along existing channels.
Skinner also indicated that concerns over a possible conflict of interest because Perry serves as a Planning and Zoning Commissioner and has a shared driveway with Witkos – whose house abuts Perry’s land – are unfounded as both Perry and Witkos have recused themselves from discussion and votes on the matter.
Perry’s request to build the driveway was forwarded to the BOS by the Planning and Zoning Commission. The BOS voted on November 21 to hold a public hearing to assure neighbors that their voices are being heard before any vote on Perry’s request to use the town-owned land for his driveway. That hearing will be held at 7 PM on Wednesday, December 13, 2023, at the Canton Community Center.
Perry’s proposed driveway has become a hot-button topic amongst neighbors of the Shallot Meadow cul-de-sac with both Perry and Shallot Meadow resident Matthew Loparco submitting letters to the BOS accusing one another of being confrontational and threatening.
Perry, one of the town’s largest landowners and property taxpayers, wrote that he believes a “tiny troupe of ‘Neighborhood Defenders’” on Shallot Meadow are trying to “put on a performance” to oppose his driveway.
“Their opposition is based upon the simple goal that they don’t want anyone else using Shallot Meadow,” Perry wrote to the BOS. “Starting from that objective they’ve created a major production with lots of hoopla. But, in the end, it boils down to excluding others. Especially Farmers and Poor People.”
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Two comments: 1) why in G*D’s name is the major landowner and developer in town on the PZC? Talking about foxes in hen houses. 2) Ha, our new First Selectman and former State Senator from Eversource and the New England chair of ALEC, and of course nasty, corrupt Canton police Sergeant is involved in this nonsense. More to come.