Bureaucracy Squashes Widow’s Hope To Recover Land Taken By Eminent Domain
“Two months ago an 89-year-old Andover widow, Carolyn Sheehan, said in this column that she hoped someone in government would let her buy back 11.3 acres that the state Department of Transportation took by eminent domain 27 years ago for a planned expressway that was never built.
But in May, state legislators adjourned their 2014 session without passing a bill that would have helped her.
And now it’s become apparent that Sheehan — and any other former landowners who might want to repurchase pieces of the 400-acre corridor that the state acquired three decades ago — probably should abandon any hope for the foreseeable future.
That’s because the DOT has decided to proceed slowly with what it says will be a public process (which it hasn’t yet disclosed details of) to decide whether to dispose of the strip of land running through Bolton, Coventry and Andover — or to use it for some “green” purpose such as hiking and biking trails.”
Lender, Josh. Courant News 14 June 2014.