Plymouth: Press Release: 3/28/25 Notice of Intent to Sue 71 Hedges Pond Road Strip Mine
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 28, 2025
Legal Challenge to Sand Mine on Cedarville Conservation Area in Plymouth MA
Citizen Suit Law Notice of Intent
Says Select Board Violated Article 97 of State Constitution by Selling Conservation Land for Sand Mining
Contact:
Meg Sheehan, 508-259-9154
Coordinator, Community Land & Water Coalition
environmentwatchsoutheasternma@gmail.com
Plymouth, Massachusetts. On March 25, 2025, a Citizen Group of 24 residents delivered a Notice of Intent to Sue letter to the Select Board of the Town of Plymouth (MA), the Plymouth Regional Economic Development Foundation, Inc. (“Plymouth Foundation”), a private corporation, and Standish Investments LLC concerning a 33-acre sand mining operation underway at 71 Hedges Pond Road.
The Letter asserts the Select Board violated Article 97 of the Amendments to the Massachusetts Constitution and three other laws when it took the site, known as the Cedarville Conservation Area, out of conservation and sold it for sand mining. The Select Board took the 40-acre Cedarville Conservation Area from Conservation Commission jurisdiction without authority and sold it to the Plymouth Foundation in July 2022 for $1.00 for the purpose of commercial development. On February 7, 2025, the Plymouth Foundation sold the land to Standish Investments, LLC for $3.4 million. Standish Investments, managed by Eric Pontiff, is a sand and gravel mining company in the region. The sand mining at the site entails industrial scale commercial mining for at least 270,000 cubic yards worth $12 million in revenue. In the last three months, Standish has logged the site and taken marketable timber, dug up stumps and graded the land to prepare for earth removal. This drone video shows the denuded site as of March 24, 2025.
The Town’s Building Inspector granted zoning and building permits under the Zoning Bylaw Earth Removal Regulations on January 16, 2025. The Building Inspector claims that the sand mine, which will extract about $12 million in sand from the 33 acres, is “necessary and incidental” for development of the site. This is being challenged legally. Read more here.
The Citizen Group’s Letter is a Notice of Intent to Sue under the “Citizen Suit Law”, Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 214, Section 7A. This law gives a group of at least ten Massachusetts residents legal standing to sue to prevent actual or probable “Damage to the Environment” when the activities violate an environmental protection law. The Group intends to bring a lawsuit to stop further expansion of the sand mining project. Attorney Margaret Sheehan represents the Group. Sheehan is coordinator of Community Land & Water Coalition (CLWC), a non-profit group whose mission is to protect, preserve, and steward the lands and waters of Southeastern Massachusetts.
Select Board’s Illegal Land Transfer
The Notice of Intent to Sue Letter details the facts and law of the Select Board’s illegal transfer of the 40-acre Cedarville Conservation Area to developers. The Cedarville Conservation Area was created by a Town Meeting vote in 1993. The Town designated the land as open space and put it under the “care and custody” of the Conservation Commission. The public has used Area for recreation, including walking, hiking and nature observation.
Because the area was protected conservation land under the jurisdiction of the Conservation Commission, the Select Board was legally required to follow specific procedures before selling it for sand mining and development—but it did not. This was illegal.
First, under Article 97 of the Amendments to Massachusetts Constitution the Select Board was required to obtain a ⅔ supermajority vote of each branch of the State Legislature.
Second, under An Act Preserving Open Space the Select Board was required to obtain an appraisal before selling it and identify equivalent replacement land. While a 2018 Town Meeting vote identified 134 acres that were supposed to be conserved in exchange for the sale of the Cedarville Conservation Area for development, that has never happened. It appears part of the 134 acres is an old Town dump with no conservation value. The Town is now claiming that the Town Meeting vote made the sale legal, but this is inaccurate.
Third, the 1998 Article 97 Land Disposition Policy for no net loss of conservation land was required to be followed.
Fourth and finally, conversion of the Cedarville Conservation Area to development use required an environmental review under the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA).
The Select Board violated all four laws. The Notice of Intent to Sue Letter states the Citizen Group will go to court to enforce the laws.
Historic and Ecological Significance of the Cedarville Conservation Area
Historically and as of today, the area is part of the ancient Native American Wampanoag Great Lot. This is an area of land ‘allotted’ to Native Americans. Under the colonial government of Massachusetts, Native American communal lands used for traditional life ways such as hunting, fishing and gathering, were eliminated and Native Americans required to live on the ‘lots’ assigned to them by the government
The Cedarville Conservation Area had high ecological value. It is Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program (NHESP) Priority Habitat #521 for Rare Species. In 2018, following a concocted Town Meeting vote, Town staff arranged for land to be transferred from the jurisdiction of the Conservation Commission to the Select Board. This required a Conservation Commission vote that never happened.
Town Zoning Permit challenged, work continues
On January 16, 2025, the Town Building Inspector issued building and zoning permits based on an application by Standish Investments for a 300,000 square foot “unified complex” of warehouses claiming the earth removal operation is “incidental.” The earth removal will dig a 90 foot hole across the 33 acres. On February 14, 2025 and March 3, 2025, two groups of residents filed legal appeals challenging the Town’s permits. Read more here. The public hearing is scheduled for April 7 at 6 p.m. at Plymouth Town Hall.
The Plymouth Foundation, a “non-profit”
The Plymouth Foundation is a private corporation that claims non-profit status. It operates as an arm of the Town Government. In a separate legal challenge, CLWC asserts the Foundation is a government body that violates the Open Meeting Law. Seven of the eleven Plymouth Foundation directors are municipal employees under the law, including the Select Board Chair Richard Quintal, Jr., the Town Manager Derek Brindisi, and Planning Director Lee Hartmann. They have divided loyalties working for the Foundation that has profited from the sale of the land and as representatives of the Town’s taxpayers who own the Cedarville Conservation Area. Since 2014 the Town taxpayers have paid the Foundation almost $2 million for “services” under a Memorandum of Understanding that was renewed in February 2025.
On February 7, the Foundation gave Pontiff a mortgage to help finance his purchase of the Cedarville Conservation Land. Since the Town employees are directors of the Foundation, they have a financial interest in the sand mining profits and development of the land which appears to conflict with their duty to enforce state and local laws that govern conservation, mining, and development.
The Foundation has conducted at least one other sand and gravel mining operation in the Town. At 103 Hedges Pond Road, the Foundation mined sand and gravel for years under permits granted by the Zoning Board of Appeals, generating revenue for the Foundation.
As of 2023, the Foundation had over $2 million in its checkbook. After the sale of the Cedarville Conservation Area to Pontiff, this ballooned to about $5 million.
Sand mining air pollution, threats to drinking water, forests
Sand mining causes emissions of medically harmful, carcinogenic silica dust, excessive truck traffic, noise and vibrations in adjacent homes, loss of real estate value, and threats to underground drinking water. All residents within the 199-square mile Sole Source Aquifer get their water from the same place: wells. The sand filters and protects the underground Aquifer. Sand mining pollutes the air with medically harmful silica sand. The silica particles that have been contained under topsoil for thousands of years become airborne and can be inhaled by humans and animals. Once silica enters the lungs, there is no way for the body to get rid of it. Silica inhalation can lead to health problems including respiratory and cardio-vascular issues, and even lung cancer and throat cancer. The permits issued for the Hedges Pond Road sand mine do not have adequate conditions to protect residents from airborne silica.
More Information
https://www.stopthedesecration.org/
Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribe Letter to the Town
Letters from the Narragansett Indian Tribe on archeological concerns
Two bills have been filed in the Massachusetts Legislature to address sand mining pollution, including a moratorium and establishing a commission to look at the need for new laws.
Listen to the Podcast Here: https://spotifycreators-web.app.link/e/xShffZBK6Rb
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