June 16, 2008

Board of Selectmen
90 South Main Street
Sharon, MA 02067

Dear Members of the Board of Selectmen:

I am writing to you regarding my major concerns about Brickstone’s proposed amendments to the Development Agreement.

Water Lines.   My first concern is regarding water lines for Coach Lane and Boulder Lane. The proposed Development Agreement now states that at the “Developer’s election,” Brickstone can either install the water lines down Coach Lane and Boulder Lane or provide the town with $300,000.nbsp; Mr. Twohig presented this change as something that the town could choose if they so wished – this is not true. Additionally, the method that Mr. Twohig used to determine the cost of installing the water lines seems incorrect - $300,000 would fall short of the actual cost. Since the cost of installing the water lines at some unspecified point in the future is unknown, and obtaining permits from the Town of Stoughton for such work is not assured, the Selectmen must maintain the provision in the Development Agreement that Brickstone install the water lines. Furthermore, Mr. Twohig represented the choice of not installing water lines down Boulder and Coach as something that was requested by the Town. This would be an outrageous action by the Town as the Town should not be taking away promised water lines, but instead running water lines to all affected homes right to the door as the Town has chosen this route of potential contamination.

Mountain Street Access.   My second concern regards Mountain Street. Mr. Twohig represented that due to the topography of the site and the closeness of Mountain Street to the building area it is now necessary to use Mountain Street as a construction entrance. It is unbelievable to me that Brickstone could have done the site preparation and planning that it did before May of 2007 without noticing the topography of the site or how far Mountain Street and Bay Road are from the construction site. There has not been any catastrophic event that has changed in any way the configuration of this area. Mountain Street was specifically negotiated NOT to be used for anything other than emergency access. The argument that the steel beams etc. need to be closer to the site is absurd considering that they will travel many miles to get to the site. There are many building situations where buildings are constructed set back from the road and the steel beams travel the distance. Not all building projects abut two roads. The developer agreed to this knowing full well what they were going to face from the road/construction prospective. Nothing has changed and there is no reason for the Town to agree to this change when this was a very specific promise made to voters. It is not a very far leap from this request to a later request which states that due to the site location and nearness of Mountain Street and amount of Wetlands on Bay Road that Mountain Street be used as another entrance to the property permanently. Anyone who states that this would never happen should note that this is exactly what is happening with the current request.

Relocation of Buildings.  My third major concern involves the relocation of buildings more than 100 feet. Brickstone wishes to move the buildings more than that now and will bring the plans to a meeting so that people may approve this. However, if the language in section 11.6 is approved, that would not happen in the future. Brickstone would be able to move the buildings whenever and wherever they chose without any review or approval required from the Town. Why should the Town give away this right? What is wrong with the Town having some type of say in changes to the site that the Town voted for at Town meeting? Giving away this right allows changes that were not voted on at Town meeting.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Cheryl Weinstein

July 1,2008

Board of Selectmen
Sharon Town Hall
90 South Main Street
Sharon, MA 02067

Dear Selectmen Powell, Roach and Heitin,

It has come to our attention that Brickstone Properties is currently using Mountain Street in Sharon as access for testing and/or construction for the proposed Sharon Hills development. Specifically, on Thursday, June 26,2008, abutters saw trucks parked along the Mountain Street shoulder and heard drills coming from the woods. Since there is currently no Bay Road access to the site, we have to assume the construction and/or testing vehicles came from Mountain Street.

Section 8.2 of the Development Agreement states that "[s]econdary access from the Project to Mountain Street shall be gated and only used for emergency access or egress and shall be equipped with an "Optical" receiver provided by the Developer." Abutters were repeatedly assured prior to the Town Meeting vote that Mountain Street would not be used for access. The use of Mountain Street thus constitutes a violation of the Development Agreement.

We respectfully request that you hold Brickstone and its contractors and consultants to the terms of the Development Agreement and stop the use of Mountain Street for access to the site.
Sincerely,

Kyla Bennett, New England PEER

Cheryl Weinstein, Neighbors Against Destructive Development