Please see New Lawsuit Info for info about the latest lawsuit

Please see Lawsuit Breaking News for info about the Judge’s decision in November

Currently there is litigation pending in the land court with a scheduled trial date of November 12, 2008. The question being decided is whether or not a dog park is considered passive recreational use and therefore permissible use of conservation land.

The Foxboro Conservation Commission unanimously approved such a park in the fall of 2006. This decision was made after extensive public involvement allowing all interested parties to give input on this recommendation and funds were raised so that no town resources would be depleted for establishing this dog park.It is one of several dog parks being operated on Conservation land in Massachusetts. The Conservation Commission stands by its decision and would like to proceed to trial since this issue has never been heard by a court before.

That decision is now being challenged by 17 area residents, despite the fact that the Conservation handbook put out by the Mass. Association of Conservation Commissions specifically references dog parks and their establishment on Conservation land.
In addition with our most recent election in May we saw a change one seat on the Board of Selectmen and with that, the vote has changed from 3-2 in support of the Conservation Commission to 3-2 against supporting the Conservation Commission.

We need your support because the BOS and the Town Manager could try to settle this lawsuit without the Conservation Commission’s permission and/or try to close the dog park and set a dangerous precedent that Selectmen and Town Managers can assert control over Conservation land. If that happens, it will open up a deluge of legal fighting between the 2 boards as to who has authority over conservation land that undoubteldy will go on for some time and become quite costly. We can only avoid this sequence of events if the court is allowed to make a decision on this case.

So, we are asking anyone who wants to help defend the Conservation Commission’s decision and not allow control of their land to be taken away to step up and join in defending this case. We have pulled together 10 area residents who believe in defending this action and we are asking you to join us in this fight. We are also seeking donations to pay for the defense of this case. Check’s should be made payable to Foxboro Dog Park c/o 14 N.High St. Foxboro, Ma 02035.