HOUSE  .  .   .   .   .   .   .  No. 4184

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
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                           HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, November 12, 2019.                         

The committee on Ways and Means, to whom was referred the Bill authorizing the commissioner of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance to grant an easement in the town of Princeton (House, No. 3990), reports recommending that the same ought to pass with an amendment substituting therefor the accompanying bill (House, No. 4184).

For the committee,

AARON MICHLEWITZ.

        FILED ON: 11/12/2019

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 4184

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the One Hundred and Ninety-First General Court
(2019-2020)

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An Act authorizing the commissioner of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance to grant an easement in the town of Princeton.

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. Notwithstanding sections 32 to 37, inclusive, of chapter 7C of the General Laws or any other general or special law to the contrary, the commissioner of capital asset management and maintenance, in consultation with the commissioner of conservation and recreation, may convey, for no monetary consideration, a permanent nonexclusive easement to Hugh McElaney and Christina Chen, in a portion of a certain parcel of land located within the town of Princeton, under the care and control of the department of conservation and recreation and held for conservation and recreation purposes, described in a deed recorded with the Worcester district registry of deeds in book 55054, page 334. The easement may be granted solely for purposes of repairing, maintaining and replacing the subsurface well that currently serves the land now owned by Hugh McElaney and Christina Chen, the benefitted land being described in a deed recorded with the Worcester district registry of deeds in book 17447, page 256, and shall be subject to the further requirements of this act and subject to such additional terms and conditions consistent with this act as the commissioner of capital asset management and maintenance may prescribe in consultation with the department of conservation and recreation.

The easement described in this section shall be comprised of 300 square feet of land, more or less, identified as “Proposed Utility Easement” as shown on the plan of land entitled “Proposed Easement Sketch in Princeton, Massachusetts” dated October 19, 2011, prepared by Hannigan Engineering, Inc. and to be recorded in the Worcester district registry of deeds.

SECTION 2. No easement instrument conveying, by or on behalf of the commonwealth, the easement described in section 1 shall be valid unless such easement instrument provides that the easement shall be used solely for the purposes described in said section 1 and that, following any work in the easement area, the grantee shall restore the surface to the satisfaction of the department of conservation and recreation. The easement instrument shall include a clause that shall state that if the easement ceases to be used by the grantees, or their successors or assigns, for the purposes described in section 1 at any time, the easement shall terminate and all rights shall revert to the commonwealth under the care and control of the department of conservation and recreation, upon such terms and conditions as the commissioner may determine.

SECTION 3. The grantees of the easement described in section 1, Hugh McElaney and Christina Chen, shall assume and be responsible for the cost of any appraisals, surveys and other expenses deemed necessary by the commissioner of capital asset management and maintenance for the granting of said easement.

SECTION 4. The commissioner of capital asset management and maintenance shall establish the value of the easement for both the highest and best use of the easement as currently encumbered and for the purposes described in section 1. If the consideration for the easement conveyed in section 1 is less than fair market value, the commissioner shall place notice in the central register of the conveyances, the amount of the transaction and the difference between the calculated value and price received.