AN ACT RELEASING CERTAIN LAND IN HATFIELD FROM THE OPERATION OF AN AGRICULTURAL PRESERVATION RESTRICTION.
Whereas , The deferred operation of this act would tend to defeat its purpose, which is to provide forthwith for the release of certain agricultural preservation restrictions, therefore it is hereby declared to be an emergency law, necessary for the immediate preservation of the public convenience.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
SECTION 1. Pursuant to section 40E of chapter 7 and section 32 of chapter 184 of the General Laws but notwithstanding any other general or special law to the contrary, the commissioner of capital asset management and maintenance, in consultation with the commissioner of food and agriculture, may execute a certificate of release of a portion of that agricultural preservation restriction, in this act referred to as "APR", granted by Luther Belden, Inc., a Massachusetts corporation, in this act referred to as "owner", to the commonwealth, dated September 20, 1986, recorded at Book 2984, Page 0295, Hampshire county registry of deeds, the portion being more particularly described as follows:
Two certain parcels of land located on the northerly side of Depot Road in Hatfield, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, shown as "Parcel B" and "Parcel C" on a plan of land entitled: "Plan of Land in Hatfield, Mass., surveyed for Gerald L. and Linda J. LeVitre, scale: 1" = 100'" Daniel L. Werner, P.L.S., Greenfield, MA, dated January 18, 2001; said plan to be recorded in Hampshire county registry of deeds. Parcel B contains 0.517 acres and Parcel C contains 1.55 acres according to the described plan.
SECTION 2. Parcels B and C, described in section 1, to be released, are to be transferred by owner to the owner of nearby land, Gerald L. and Linda J. LeVitre, who have agreed to and shall concurrently transfer to owner 2 parcels of land also shown on the described plan and termed as Parcel A and a parcel referred to as Gerald and Linda LeVitre, Deed Book 3324, Page 55. The 2 parcels owned by LeVitre, that contain 0.517 acres and 6.755 acres, respectively, shall become part of the land of owner that is subject to the APR. In consideration of the release from the APR of Parcels B and C, owner has agreed to, and shall execute concurrently with the described transfers of Parcels B and C to LeVitre, a new, current agricultural preservation restriction and an option to purchase at agricultural value running to the commonwealth, to be recorded at the Hampshire county registry of deeds. The new APR and option shall prohibit the construction of future dwellings and grant the commonwealth an option to purchase at agricultural value an approximately 10-acre portion of the remaining APR land, as described in deed recorded in Book 1936, Page 90, and also on the land being transferred by LeVitre to owner. In the event that owner does not execute the new, current agricultural preservation restriction and option to purchase at agricultural value on the described land and the 2 LeVitre parcels are not duly transferred to owner and become subject to the new APR and option, the existing agricultural preservation restriction shall be reimposed on the 2 released parcels, unless the restriction is released or discharged by the commonwealth in its entirety in the interim.
SECTION 3. Except as partially released by this act, the referenced agricultural preservation restriction shall remain in full force and effect.