The town’s Conservation Commission has shown inter­est in having the town purchase about 4 acres of undeveloped land off Grove Street.

The commission last week directed its representative to the town’s Community Preservation Committee to bring the matter up.

George Cronin, a town board member, came before the Conservation Commission on Wednesday, January 27 to dis­cuss the parcel, which he noted abuts more than 20 acres of con­servation land that is otherwise hard to access. “My family owns a lot off Grove Street with a 15-foot right-of-way. It’s approximately 4 acres. It’s an estate lot. At some point — there’s no timetable set — we’re going to sell the lot,” Cronin told the Conservation Commission.

Cronin said his family would be interested in selling the land to the town. “To me, this group should be the advocate for purchasing this,” Cronin said, referring to the Conservation Commission. Cronin is a former member of the King Philip School Com­mittee and current chairman of the town’s Public Safety Building Committee. If the family sells the land to a private entity, the conserva­tion area would be landlocked, Cronin said. “Someone once told me, ‘Oh well, we don’t need you, because we have a right-of-way.’ Which is true. Right here,” Cronin said, pointing at a map. “But your right-of-way ends at Keeney Pond. And you can’t get across Keeney Pond. So you don’t have a right-of-way.”

John Weddleton, a member of the Conservation Commis­sion, said the town has an ease­ment to the conservation land through some property he owns. (Weddleton recused himself as a board member from the discus­sion, but addressed the matter briefly from the audience.) But another member of the Conservation Commission, Da­vid Lutes, noted that the town could open up access to the con­servation land if it acquires the Cronins’ 4-acre parcel. “If you acquire this, you gain an access off a main road, and parking area which you don’t have,” Lutes said. “… I mean, you could actually turn this into decent hiking property.”

The Community Preserva­tion Committee considered the property in the fall of 2007, but eventually didn’t pursue it. Lutes said he can see a case for having the town buy the property and a case against it. “The argument is that you’re gaining potential access and potential parking for a piece of property. The argument against, is we already have an easement,” Lutes said. “And I think the price thing was the killer.”

Lutes, who was a member of the Community Preservation Committee around the time it came up about two years ago, noted that the town can’t pay more for a parcel of land than ap­praisals

say it’s worth. That gives town officials little wiggle room when negotiating a land pur­chase

with an owner who thinks he can get more elsewhere.

Two years ago, some mem­bers of the Community Preser­vation Committee thought the town should purchase the Cronin land on Grove Street and use it to build below-market-rate hous­ing.

That option didn’t come up during the Conservation Com­mission’s discussion last week. The Community Preservation Committee is the gatekeeper for Community Preservation Act funds, which is what the town would likely have to use in order to purchase the land. Expendi­tures that the committee recom­mends for purposes covered by the act — which are open space and recreation, historic preser­vation, and below-market-rate housing — go to Town Meeting for consideration. The town has a 3 percent property tax surcharge (with certain exemptions) that goes to its Community Preservation Act fund, which is matched by the state at a certain fluctuating per­centage each year. The Commu­nity Preservation Committee is discussing potential recommen­dations in anticipation of annual Town Meeting in May.