Williamstown Conservation Commission Unanimously Endorses Luce Road Farmland Restriction

WILLIAMSTOWN — July 9, 2026 — Williamstown Conservation Commission unanimously endorses a perpetual conservation restriction on a seven-acre farmland parcel on Luce Road. The commission voted unanimously Thursday to find the Grinnell property restriction in the public interest, citing the parcel's soils of statewide agricultural importance, its adjacency to the town's Burbank property and Mount Greylock State Reservation, and its role in the Chenai Brothers dairy operation, which has farmed the land since 1916. Dan Gura, stewardship director at Williamstown Rural Lands Foundation, which will hold and monitor the restriction, told the board the parcel "slots nicely" into a corridor of already-protected open space and provides hedgerow wildlife corridors extending the Greylock buffer. Landowner Bruce Grinnell said he and his wife Judy acquired the parcel intending to conserve it and that the restriction will bind any future owner regardless of sale. The commission also unanimously re-elected Philip McKnight as Chair and Lauren Stevens as Vice Chair, and named Laura Schoenbaum and Delia Marshall to an informal subcommittee to develop a redesign sketch for Bloedel Park in consultation with the Department of Public Works.