Kayaks, Water Access Eyed For Tonset Road Parcel

ORLEANS – A Tonset Road property purchased by the town last fall could provide public access to Town Cove and serve as a launching spot for kayaks.

Town meeting voters in October authorized the purchase of 72 Tonset Rd. for $2.5 million in free cash. The 2.2-acre parcel, which currently includes a three-bedroom home with an attached garage, abuts Sea Call Farm.

At the time, town officials said the property would be for “general municipal use,” with potential options falling in the categories of recreation, conservation and housing. On April 30, Michael Solitro, the town’s special projects coordinator, gave the select board more details into how the town plans to utilize the property. Right now, he said, the town’s primary focus is to allow for additional public access to Town Cove through the property.

“The priority in the spring here is to get people to the water, to have access,” he said.

Solitro also said an application is before the conservation commission to allow a kayak stand that could hold as many as 24 kayaks on the property. The commission held a hearing on the proposal on May 6.

 According to Solitro, the stand would be located in the area of an existing flag pole near walking trails that connect the parcel to the neighboring farm, which is also owned by the town.

“Those natural kinds of connections exist and are passable by foot,” he said.

The property could accommodate between eight and 10 resident-only parking spots, Solitro said, noting that the department of public works is looking at ways of best situating those spots on the property.

Asked if there are plans to charge for kayak use on the property, Solitro said no decisions have been made on that point as of yet.
“There should be,” said Mefford Runyon of the select board.

Select board members said that demand for kayak use could be heavy, noting that a lack of available parking at other town landings limit the use of kayaks elsewhere in town. Select Board Chair Mark Mathison said more discussion needs to be given to who can use the kayaks on the property and whether the parking spaces should be reserved for residents.

“We want to make sure we’re being fair to people in terms of having the ability to access the rack and be able to get to the water,” he said. “So I think there’s got to be a discussion about how we allocate those spaces.”

Natural Resources Manager Nate Sears said he frequently fields calls from people wanting to store kayaks at town landings.

“There’s going to be a significant demand similar to moorings, I would assume,” he said. He suggested that a lottery system might be the most equitable way of assigning use of the kayaks.

Runyon, meanwhile, said the town should explore the possibility of allowing space for more parking and kayaks on the property in the future. Solitro said there are “multiple options for the town to potentially accommodate that.”

“Whatever happens this summer is not something being cast in bronze here,” Mathison said. “We’ve got the property, we want to give people access to the water. There’s a quick way to get that, and then a long-range plan will follow.”

As for the house, details as to how it will be utilized still need ironing out. Town Manager Kim Newman said the home is vacant and still has all of the contents and possessions inside from the previous owner.

“What we’re going to do with the future of the house is really secondary to prioritizing the water access,” she said. She said there is still more that needs to be done with the house, including declaring the contents inside “surplus.”

There are options for using the house, Newman said. Those could include meeting space and housing. 

“Depending on the true condition of the property,” she said. “It’s really hard to gauge right now.”

Solitro said that a “short-term task force” could be formed to look at the existing site and propose more immediate options for its further use. The task force, which would be composed of both town staffers and members of the public, would evaluate things such as “site conditions, public access, conservation opportunities and community priorities,” according to a memo prepared for the select board.

“This is exciting,” Michael Herman of the select board of early plans for the property.