Q&A about the Littleton sewer study grant

By Nathan Lamb

Littleton Independent, Friday, November 19, 2010

Littleton — Littleton resident Robert Zimmerman is director of  the Charles River Watershed Association (CRWA) and—until recently—a member of the town’s Sewer Feasibility Study Committee. Zimmerman recently wrote a grant that will provide the study committee with. $100,000 worth of consulting from the CRWA, and he resigned from the group shortly after, saying he wanted to avoid any conflict of interest.

While the grant was given anonymously, Zimmerman has since secured permission to identify the benefactor, and the Littleton Independent recently caught up with Zimmerman to discuss that and other aspects of the grant.

Q The Barr Foundation was recently identified as the grant provider, why was it initially anonymous and why did they step forward now?

A Barr Foundation grants, as a rule, are all anonymous. They are about a billion-dollar foundation and I believe over the last nine or 10 years they’ve given something like $414 million. All of those grants were anonymous, for whatever the trustee’s reasons…this grant was no different.

Q What was the reason they agreed to be named in this case?

A I called them on the phone and suggested that the anonymity of the grant was for some people a cause for concern. I wouldn’t say it was rampant, but there was certainly some speculation that some organization with a great deal of self-interest was funding CRWA to do this work. CRWA is a charitable organization, we don’t take money from organizations with lots of self interests…there is no money exchanging hands between the Town of Littleton and the CRWA, in either direction.

I felt that, rather than allow that speculation to run rampant, it might be better to request permission from Barr to identify them, and they agreed.

Q What are the questions you were hoping to answer when you wrote this grant?

A The Littleton sewering smart-growth project is unique. This is not a sewering program to sewer the entire 19 square miles of the town. It’s instead a way of letting smart-growth and development and economic development…reduce energy demand, in the form of creating a walking village center where people aren’t getting in their cars to go to one shop to the next.

As an environmental organization with science engineering and legal capabilities, it’s an opportunity for us to use our expertise to help the town make an informed decision about its future.

Q So you’re hoping  wastewater disposal will both help with the economic development and preserve water resources in that area?

A Yes. We call this program smart sewering…the idea is to use water infrastructure as a way to create a density zone without sewering an entire town. Sewering an entire town creates tremendous sprawl pressures, because every piece of property becomes developable…Littleton doesn’t want that, I think it wants to preserve its forested and agricultural open spaces.

…Our desire is to use water infrastructure to promote more dense, multi-use, village/ town center, which will increase property taxes for those properties by allowing for the development of two and three story buildings; you know, the hardware store on the first floor, the law office on the second, and apartments on the third-floor kind of thing.

It’s a unique opportunity. Littleton is, in effect, a clean slate. There are no sewers and there’s an opportunity for us to take a fairly broad look environmentally and economically.

Q What area are you looking at? Is it basically the common?

A We’re looking at the areas the Metropolitan Planning Council, in cooperation with the town and Board of Selectmen identified. There’s a zoning change district, Area A, which is the common area, then there’s an overlay district, Area B, which extends up Route 119 [toward Acton-Toyota] and the other way, toward Groton… It’s up-and-down Route 110 and up-and-down Route 119; the question is how far?…I don’t want to prejudge what the science tells us.

 Q Do you plan to have this study done by town meeting next year?

A That’s my hope.

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