Town and Buzzards Bay Coalition to potentially purchase The Residences at Hawthorne

A warrant that would replace the Residences at Hawthorne with senior housing will appear at the Fall Town Meeting, which would be known as the Paskamansett Valley proposal. 

The Buzzards Bay Coalition is partnering with the Town of Dartmouth to conserve the land where the Hawthorne Country Club used to be. 

The original plans for the property were to build 138 units of 40B housing, to be known as the Residences at Hawthorne. The Residences at Hawthorne, LLC, who are the owners of the property, are willing to sell the property to a developer with the Coalition. 

During the Fall Town Meeting, town meeting members will be voting on whether to use $1 million from the Community Preservation Committee to purchase between 25 to 27 acres of land. The Coalition will match this, as the land will cost around $2 million. 

The Paskamansett Valley will have 65 units of 55+ housing. The units will be market rate, and will not count toward the town’s necessary 10% of affordable housing. 

The rest of the property will be bought by the Coalition for an estimated $7 million, and conserved. 

Mark Rasmussen, the President of the Buzzards Bay Coalition, stated they want to conserve this land for four reasons: it will guide growth away from sensitive resources such as the water supply and the Paskamansett River; which will protect the river and public drinking water; the adjacent land is mapped as “Core Habitat” and “Critical Natural Landscape” by the Massachusetts Natural Heritage and Endangered Species program; and it would expand the river conservation corridor.

The conserved land will eventually have public access trails, and Rasmussen stated he hopes that the Coalition can connect this trail to other conserved land in the area. 

The Coalition will develop trails after the development is built, which they expect will take about two years. As trails typically take about two years to complete, the estimated timeline is around four years. 

The estimated cost of the development property is $2 million, but the property has yet to be appraised. If the property costs more, the Community Preservation Committee will meet again on Wednesday, Oct. 14 to decide how much they will ask for at Town Meeting. 

Before Town Meeting, the Coalition, the Town and The Residences at Hawthorne, LLC must write a Memorandum of Understanding and a Purchase and Sale agreement. Rasmussen and Town Administrator Cody Haddad state they expect these documents to be completed by the Fall Town Meeting. 

If the warrant is not approved during Town Meeting, then the developers of the Hawthorne will go back to the original plans to build the 138 units. 

“It combines promoting responsible housing in town, … responsibly controlling growth and doing great conservation,” said Rasmussen.