Ipswich residents appeal to preserve land trust - Metro - The Boston Globe.
So ends an article in the Boston Globe about the attempt of 167 tenants to be come the new beneficiaries of a trust that has been in existence for 350 years, in return for about $26 million.
The intended beneficiaries were the children of the town of Ipswich, and I simply can't see any logic by which they should be replaced by these private self-selected individuals.
The article begins:
A legal battle over a wind-swept summer colony rising over Crane Beach is reaching a conclusion, as Ipswich residents mount a last-ditch fight to stop the $32.5 million sale of the property and prevent the breakup of a Colonial-era land trust that was set up to benefit the Ipswich public schools.
The residents contend that the sale of property on what is known as Little Neck violates the terms of a will written in 1660 by William Paine, a wealthy English settler and merchant, who stated the land should never be sold, and that rents collected benefit Ipswich schoolchildren.
One hundred and sixty-seven cottages dot the rocky peninsula. A group of Ipswich residents argue that the 352-year-old land trust should not be broken, and that the sale price is too low for prime waterfront land.
“We feel that the court hasn’t actually made any findings on whether it’s OK to break this will,’’ said Douglas DeAngelis, an Ipswich parent, and one of 14 residents who filed the appeal.
To sell it off at all is a crime against the children of Ipswich in 2030, 2040, 2050, 2060, 2100, 2200, 2300, 2400 and beyond, but especially so in a down market, at a bargain price.
What sort of people would agree to this?
They're "solving" a half-vast problem -- failure to collect market-level land rents on this fabulous permanent asset in recent decades -- with a vast and permanent "solution" which permanently disadvantages the intended beneficiaries, and benefits the 167 tenants hugely!
Unconscionable.
Tell the current tenants to pay their back rents, and bring the current rents up to market levels within the next, say, 3 years. If they don't like it, they're welcome to leave, This was never intended to be subsidized vacation housing for a lucky few; it was designed to benefit the local public schools, and permitting it to be twisted into something else is just plain wrong.
This blog has more observations and history on this story. See them collected at http://lvtfan.typepad.com/lvtfans_blog/feoffees-land/.
Thanks for keeping us up-to-date with this story. I think that many of us around the world are shaking our heads over the situation. Here's hoping that William Paine's will prevails in the end.
Posted by: Derek Ross | February 20, 2012 at 11:35 AM