The Dennis Conservation Commission has sent a formal letter to the Dennis Planning Board, asking that the board keep in mind the need for public access to ponds and lakes whenever building plans are submitted for land near open water.
In the letter, dated June 29, the Conservation Commission has offered its help in obtaining rights-of-way to the water, and suggests that public entrance onto all of the town's larger water bodies "perhaps should be an integral part of planning throughout the town."
Conservation Commission Chairman Curt Livingston explained thaat the commission's concern stems fromthe growing number of subdivision plans on the northside of town. He worries that, as has become the case on the southside, there could be "miles (of beach) where the public can't get to the water."
Livingston was approached by Louis Kelley, father of Chairman of Selectmen Henry Kelley, about this issue. Livingston then raised the matter with the full commission.
Kelley was specifically interested in access to Flax Pond, Dennis, in part because he holds some land in that area. Kelley feels that town maps indicate a potential right-ofway to the water that is not being exploited.
State law indicates that the public has the right to use the water of any "great pond" in the Commonwealth. A great pond is defined as one which, in its natural state, is at least ten acres.
But while use of the water is guaranteed, access to it is not. The result is that, in a Catch-22 situation, the public can use water that it has no right to approach.
"That's the basic problem," said Peter Woodbury, Secretary to the Massachusetts Public Access Board, a state agency specifically established to work on these problems. "In a lot of cases,... the private developers have completely taken over the ponds. You have the right to use the water, but the only way you can get to it is by dropping in on a helicopter."
The Public Access Board has the right to take land by eminent domain to insure public access to water. Woodbury said that such an approach is not used, however, because of the ensuing legal problems connected with eminent domain takings.
The state board can also purchase land outright, which it did last April at Barnstable Harbor. "We're suffering budgetary-wise," said Woodbury, adding that he expected no major acquisitions in the mid-Cape area in the foreseeable future.
The Public Access Board has been in existence since late 1962. Woodbury said it owns "a couple hundred acres" across the state, with 87 sites of water access, many of which are town owned.
In trying to get a better understanding of the Dennis situation, the local conservation commission has prepared a list of water holes in the town. Of seven kettleholes in town, only Coles Pond has a ten foot right-of-way for public use. Of nine natural ponds, Flax Pond, Fresh Pond, and Scargo Lake have access. In addition, access is available on Follins Pond, Swan Pond, and at various places along Bass River and the north and south sea shores.
A large number of water bodies which come close to or exceed 10 acres in size have no official public access. They include Aunt Pattys Pond, Eagle Pond, White Pond, Cedar Pond, Grassy Pond, Run Pond, and Simmons Pond.
Swimming and boating conditions vary greatly in these holes. But the commission would like to move toward getting as much access to them as possible, "to start incorporating this into the Planning Board's statues," said Livingston.
While no formal reply to the letter has been sent, at least one board member, Constance Bechard, calls the matter "well worth investigating."