Plymouth: AD Makepeace @ Redbrook Seeks $4 million in taxpayer subsidies
Reject AD Makepeace request for $4 million donation of taxpayer money to build what’s required by its 2008 permit
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Town Meeting Warrant Article 16C would give $4 million to private developer – Vote NO!
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Company’s 2008 Planning Board permit requires 108 units of affordable housing, no need for public subsidy
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Planning Board not holding Makepeace accountable
Background
In 2008, the Plymouth Planning Board gave AD Makepeace Co. a special permit under the town’s zoning laws to build about 1,300 housing units along the then pristine Agawam River in south Plymouth. This was a special deal for Makepeace-in exchange for promises of conservation land and affordable housing the town rezoned the land to allow dense development on small lots — increasing the value of Makepeace’s land overnight. Today, despite years of clearing pristine land and rapid construction of expensive housing units, roads and infrastructure, Makepeace has built only 15 of the 108 affordable units
Town’s Community Preservation Committee (CPC) votes to donate $4 million in taxpayer money to Makepeace
Instead of building the affordable housing with its own profits from Redbrook, its sand mining and its solar developments, Makepeace partnered with the Grantham Group to ask Plymouth taxpayers for $4,000,000 from the Community Preservation Committee (CPC) to help underwrite the $25 million project.
Shockingly, in December 2023, by a vote of 5-2 the CPC voted to give Makepeace the $4 million.
The donation has to be approved by the Plymouth Town Meeting to be held on April 6-8, 2024.
Read the January 2024 letter to the editor opposing the $4 million gift to Makepeace: Makepeace passes the buck to Plymouth taxpayers
Another Makepeace scheme
The Makepeace-Grantham request for taxpayer money cloaked as a ‘community benefit’ is another Makepeace scheme for making private profits from its lands.
Whether its claiming its sand and gravel mining business is merely cranberry “agriculture” or selling land to the state and making it look like a donation Makepeace turns public money and legal loopholes into private profits. The company motto is “Inspired by Nature.”
Town Meeting: Vote No on Article 16C: No to $4 million to Makepeace
- Makepeace/Grantham Group wants $4 million from the CPC to underwrite 52 of the 108 affordable housing units Makepeace must build at Redbrook.
- Broken promise: Under a 2008 Planning Board permit for Redbrook Makepeace must build 108 units of affordable housing. It has only built 15 units. The Town rezoned the land for dense development enabling Makepeace to build more houses at a lower cost. In exchange, it had to conserve land and build affordable units.
- The taxpayers should not foot the bill for Makepeace’s permit obligation.
- Makepeace’s plan for the 52 housing units will exclude the most needy – families and children.
- Makepeace claims it is “donating” 4.5 acres of land “valued at $2.5 million” to Grantham to build the units. The Plymouth Assessor values the 4.5 acres at $174,000.00 – not millions. Is Makepeace claiming it will make no money from the project? Really?
- More broken promises? Makepeace is missing conservation land owed to the Zoning Board of Appeals for a mining permit. Ten years ago in 2014, a ZBA permit required Makepeace to put 300 acres of land in conservation for a mining permit. This permit is 135 acres land near Frogfoot River in South Plymouth. The sand and gravel from the mine is worth about $100 million. In 2022, the ZBA ruled the Makepeace had not preserved the land. It’s now 10 years later.
- Who is AD Makepeace? It is a sand and gravel mining company and real estate and industrial solar developer. Since at least 2005, it has been developing and mining thousands of acres of land for profit in Plymouth, Carver and Wareham. Redbrook is one of its development projects. It also owns and operates Read Custom Soils in Carver MA, claimed to be the largest aggregate mining and distribution facility in the Northeast.
You have got to be kidding!