Weston Select Board backs Parcel 9 land swap to advance water tank project

WESTON — August 27, 2024 — Weston Select Board voted 2-1 to designate a five-acre section of Case Estates Parcel 9 as the preferred land swap site for three new water storage tanks, with the Conservation Commission following unanimously. Select Board members Lise Revers and Lori Bent backed the L-shaped parcel along the western and southern borders of the 11-acre Parcel 9, arguing it would satisfy MEPA's equal-or-greater conservation value requirement and create a trail corridor linking Case Estates land on Wellesley Street to reservoir conservation land on Ash Street. Chair Tom Palmer dissented, saying he was "averse to binding future residents" and preferred retaining the parcel's development optionality. Town Manager Leon Gaumont separately warned that DEP has cited deficiencies at all three aging tanks — built between 1931 and 1958 — and asked the board to consider a potential $5 million emergency repair article as a fallback if the three primary water tank articles fail at the December 3 Special Town Meeting. The board also unanimously approved issuing RFPs for the sale of the Case Estates buildings at 131, 133, and 135 Wellesley Street, eight years after the town acquired the properties.