SENATE, No. 2420
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
In the Year Two Thousand and Seven.
AN ACT AUTHORIZING THE DIVISION OF CAPITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT
AND
MAINTENANCE
TO GRANT AN EASEMENT IN CERTAIN
LAND
IN THE TOWN
OF
HOLDEN
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 40E through
40J, inclusive of chapter 7 of the general laws or any other general or special
law to the contrary, the commissioner of the division of capital asset
management and maintenance may, in consultation with the commissioner of the
department of conservation and recreation services, convey a permanent,
exclusive easement under, over, in and through a parcel of land containing
approximately 13.82 acres, located in the town of Holden on Route 31, Paxton –
Holden Road, which is currently under the control of the department of
conservation and recreation services and held for watershed conservation
purposes, to the Worcester Natural History Society, a Massachusetts non-profit
corporation, its successors and assigns, for the purpose of traveling over such
easement area to and from said road and land of the Worcester Natural History
Society in the towns of Holden and Paxton. The easement shall include the right to (i) create, maintain, repair and
replace a paved driveway in the easement area, (ii) install, maintain, repair,
replace and flow utilities to service the land of the Worcester Natural History
Society, and (iii) use the easement area for all purposes which streets and
ways are used in the town of
Holden
. The burdened property owned by the
commonwealth being a portion of the property more particularly described in an
Order of Taking dated
June
21, 2001
and recorded with the Worcester District Registry of Deeds
in Book 24446, Page 353. The benefited
property owned by the Worcester Natural History Society being more particularly
described in a deed recorded with the Worcester District Registry of Deeds in
Book 3014, Page 521. The proposed
easement area to be approximately 25 feet wide and located in the general area
of an existing gravel driveway over the commonwealth’s property and currently
used to access said property of the Worcester Natural History Society.
SECTION 2. The Worcester Natural History Society shall
assume all costs associated with any engineering, surveys, deed preparation and
other expenses deemed necessary by the commissioner to effectuate the
conveyance authorized in section 1.
SECTION 3. In exchange for the conveyance authorized in
section 1, the Worcester Natural History Society shall (i) execute and deliver
to the commissioner of the division of capital asset management and maintenance
an instrument to abandon all of its rights, title and interest in a twenty-five
foot right of way over the property of the commonwealth, created by an
instrument recorded with the Worcester District Registry of Deeds in Book 4105,
Page 151; and (ii) convey to the commonwealth or jointly to the commonwealth
and to any other qualified governmental entity, charitable corporation or trust
acceptable to the secretary of the executive office of environmental affairs, a
Conservation Restriction, as defined in Chapter 184, sections 31-33 of the
general laws, in, over and on a portion of its property, encumbering not less
than 3 acres of land