The Town of Andover can move forward with a plan to pave the Haggetts Pond Trail following a unanimous vote by the conservation commission Thursday.
The approval came with conditions, including monitoring of tree health for two years and ensuring environmentally-friendly sealants are used for the paving. Haggetts Pond is the Town’s water supply.
The plan to pave the trail was the subject of a heated debate and a special town meeting earlier this year. Andover’s legislative body ultimately rejected zoning changes that would have prevented the paving project, which Town officials say will make the trail more accessible.
“I would respectfully ask this entire committee to deny the project simply due to the fact we’re talking about destroying a priority habitat,” resident Patty Dukeshire told the commission. “We don’t have many priority habitats left to destroy. We should be conserving them. We have other alternatives for a trail project and we should look into those.”
A grassroots effort to block the project was initially thwarted as the proposal went before various Town boards, eventually prompting opponents to petition for the special town meeting. Opponents of the measures pointed to other zoning bylaw changes, which usually come after months or years of study that includes efforts to collect public input.