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12-24-2025 11:16pm
Special Town Meeting to Be Held after Citizen Petition Successfully Clears Hurdle of Certification
Darlene Cancell
Editor
Westwood Select Board must hold a Special Town Meeting on the topic of its ongoing litigation against Westwood Land Trust, following the Westwood Board of Registrars' certification on Wednesday, December 24th of 344 signatures on a citizen petition.
Erin Sibley, sponsor of the successful citizen petition, told Westwood Minute on Wednesday morning, "I just spoke with [Westwood Town Clerk] Dottie Powers and 344 [of] 356 of our signatures (96.6%) were certified. That's officially an A+.”
Ms. Sibley said she understood that Ms. Powers would also forward the citizen petition to Westwood Select Board on Wednesday morning.
Under the state law, Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 39, Section 10, upon the receipt of a request for a Special Town Meeting signed by 200 registered voters, "[t]he selectmen shall call a special town meeting . . . to be held not later than forty-five days after the receipt of such request," and shall include in the warrant all subjects requested by the petition.
Therefore, it appears that on a date occurring approximately within the next six weeks, on or before February 7, 2026, Westwood residents can expect to have the opportunity to attend a Special Town Meeting to vote and discuss the following topics raised by Ms. Sibley's citizen petition:
Article I:
To see if the Town will vote to recommend that the Select Board, Town Counsel, or any duly authorized Town official or employee immediately withdraw, discontinue, and cease further pursuit of the Town’s current lawsuit against the Westwood Land Trust;
Article II:
To see if the Town will vote to prohibit the expenditure of any Town funds, from any source, in furtherance of said litigation;
Article III:
To see if the Town will vote to require a full public accounting of all Town funds spent to date in furtherance of said litigation; and
Article IV:
To see if the Town will vote to recommend that no member of the Select Board, Town Counsel, or any Town official or employee initiate, pursue, fund, or engage in any further legal, administrative, or strategic action related to this matter, or take any other action relative thereto, without first holding an open, in-person public meeting where Town residents may speak and be heard.
Along with the above articles, the petition also requested that Ms. Sibley be allowed to present the articles at the Special Town Meeting and that other town residents be allowed to speak up and discuss the articles at the meeting.
It was just over a week ago that Ms. Sibley and a coalition of likeminded residents began collecting signatures on the petition to force a discussion on Town of Westwood, by and through its Select Board v. Westwood Land Trust, Inc. (Mass. Super. Ct. 2025). They had a goal of 250 signatures, which would comfortably put them beyond the 200 signatures required to force a Special Town Meeting. By Monday, December 22nd, Ms. Sibley’s coalition had 344 signatures in hand.
Ms. Sibley expressed gratitude for residents who both collected signatures and provided signatures. She also named Town Clerk Dottie Powers, Assistant Town Clerk Janice Donovan, and Pam Cumings. "It is a lot of work to certify each signature, and we appreciate their doing it so quickly," she said.
At issue in the litigation is whether the Superior Court should compel Westwood Land Trust to allow approximately 8 acres of a 28 acre conservation area to be put to agricultural use under a conservation restriction (CR) held by the land trust. Residents siding with the land trust have largely done so by stating interests of conservation or avoiding costly litigation funded by taxpayers. Residents siding with the town have expressed support of The Bean Family Farm, which intends to farm those eight acres if Westwood Select Board is successful in its civil suit against the land trust.
Additionally, residents have expressed a desire for more specific information about the motivation behind the suit that they feel is not forthcoming from town officials. It is this perceived lack of transparency that Ms. Sibley says compelled her to lead the effort behind the citizen petition.
