NAHANT — Nahant’s Board of Selectmen announced earlier this month it is seeking to enact eminent domain over the town’s East Point in the hope of halting Northeastern University’s planned expansion on the property.
Enacting the law, which gives the government the right to purchase private property for public use, would give Nahant the ability to declare part of East Point as a wildlife reserve and protect it from future development.
In a public document released March 19, the Board acknowledged the timing of its announcement and noted that although its main focus remains on the current COVID-19 crisis, time is of the essence because residents will be asked to vote on the issue at the annual Town Meeting scheduled to take place May 16.
“It is in conjunction with this Town Meeting that we initiate this action,” the document read. “We are at a tipping point with the projected environmental impact to East Point, and we believe now is the time to act.”
Citing concern about an expansion’s impact on the local environment, as well as the desire to keep nearby Canoe Beach a public area, the board declared it would seek public approval to designate Community Preservation Act funds — which are used for public areas of need, including affordable housing, historic resources, and recreational spaces — to finance the motion.
The document stated CPA funds do not affect the town’s operating budget or the tax rate in any way.
“This is a request to help fund eminent domain,” said Selectman Josh Antrim in a separate interview. “We’ve attached a few criteria to this request, (including) that we’re proposing this as a 30-year bond. The reason for this is to leave the vast majority of CPA funds available for other projects in future years. We’re trying to do this in a way that minimizes impact on other potential projects.”
Antrim added: “This bond request is for $1.5 million. We would not execute that bond until we have at least $3 million in private donations.”
Northeastern was granted free property rights to the 21-acre plot of land — now the location of the school’s Marine Science Center — by the federal government in 1966.
The university’s plans to expand and build a new Coastal Sustainability Institute were first announced in 2018 and have since been adamantly opposed by several Nahant residents who say their small island town and local wildlife will be severely damaged by so much development.
A January 2020 Superior Court ruling, however, allowed the school to continue its plans after determining the environmental impact of site testing — required before construction can begin — would be “minimal.”
Under the Board of Selectmen’s new proposed plan, Northeastern University would retain ownership of the remaining land, its existing buildings and parking areas, and historical bunkers located on the property.
“I don’t have anything against Northeastern,” Antrim said. “We’re not trying to execute eminent domain over the entire property … We want to protect that area from development. I would like to see it as a public park where people can walk freely.”
