Coventry Taking Johnson’s Pond & Dam By Eminent Domain

COVENTRY, RI — Soscia Holdings LLC rebuffed Coventry’s $1.5 million offer for the 216 acre Johnson’s Pond property, so Friday the town  begins taking Johnson’s Pond & Dam, and associated property, 147 acres, by eminent domain, for $157,000, Friday morning.

“They should have taken the 1.5 (million dollars),” said Stephen Angell, the town’s solicitor, inside Council Chambers at Coventry Town Hall, 1670 Flat River Road, during Thursday night’s Council meeting.

Soscia Holdings, LLC, owned in part by Doug Soscia purchased the land, including the dam and water rights on the pond  for $1.7 million in 2020.Johnson’s Pond Association President Marc Lemoi said the property might have been assessed higher at one time, but that was prior to unspecified alterations the owner made to the dam in early April, endangering the integrity of the structure and prompting an order from the Department of Environmental Management to order Soscia Holdings to draw down the water level to preserve the spillway.

Angell said there is no precedent for the action, but their legal basis for the eminent domain taking is based in the Coventry Town Charter.

“That’s  why we’ve been very careful with what we’ve done,” Angell said. So, the town is only taking the parts deemed, legally, as necessary and advantageous for the town to own.

Rather than condemning the entire footprint, the town will only condemn and seize the portions including Johnson’s Pond, Johnson’s Pond Dam, and the land around it needed to access and maintain the dam, totaling about 147 acres. Angell said the town will do it that way because it will cost less.

The roughly 69 acres remaining is developable land downstream from the dam, zoned industrial and accessible via Industrial Lane.

The Council voted to consider the resolution allowing Angell to present the plan in court. Council President Hillary Lima commented before taking the vote, “Let’s take our town back,” referencing the years-long battle with Soscia Holdings LLC over the management of the pond and dam.

The Council voted unanimously to approve the plan. The 20-person crowd inside Council Chambers applauded the vote.

After the meeting, Angell said the town will need to wait for a court ruling on their effort to condemn and take the land, which could happen quickly or take months.  Once the town has a positive ruling, however, he said, in the form of a vesting order, the town will own the dam and pond and will be able to work immediately to repair the dam and restore water levels on the pond.

He said the town will raise the water level as close to the spillway as possible, “Which is a hell of a lot closer than 40 inches,” Angell said. The water level at the dam has remained very low since April.

If they’re able to win ownership of the dam early enough, “We’ll literally jump into the water and try to give folks a summer,” he said.

Angell said he expects Soscia Holdings to fight the attempt, but he is confident that argument will center on the price of the taking, not their ability to seize the land. But, he said, the town’s original offer is off the table.

 

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