Beaten by a mile: Hardwick voters soundly reject proposed horse breeding/racing facility

HARDWICK — Residents here Saturday handily rejected the controversial pitch for a horse breeding, retirement and racing facility at Great Meadowbrook Farm.

With nearly 60% of registered voters turning out, a referendum vote on the racing aspect of the project failed 830 votes to 312 votes, according to an unofficial tally released shortly after 7 p.m.

The vote kills for now a proposal from a group that included the former co-owner of Suffolk Downs to place a horse breeding and retirement facility with an attached racetrack on the 360-acre farm.

Proponents of the project said it would provide economic relief for the town and local economy, while opponents asserted it would threaten the town’s character and violate an agricultural restriction placed on the farm.

Selectmen voted multiple times on the project, which voters eventually forced to Saturday’s referendum based on a state law regarding the siting of racetracks.

Dozens of people — most of whom were opposed to the project — held signs outside the polling place throughout the day Saturday.

Latest defeat

The vote Saturday in Hardwick follows a defeat for the same group — the Commonwealth Equine and Agricultural Center — in Sturbridge, along with defeats for other groups pitching racetrack proposals elsewhere in the state in recent years.

Massachusetts has not hosted thoroughbred racing since Suffolk Downs in East Boston closed down its track in June 2019; Plainridge Park Casino’s standardbred (harness racing) track in Plainville currently offers the only live horse racing in the state.

Commonwealth Equine and Agricultural Center had hoped that Hardwick — a financially struggling town of about 2,600 - would be a willing partner to revive thoroughbred racing.

The group, which includes Richard T. Fields, a former owner of Suffolk Downs, entered into a purchase and sale agreement that expires in February to buy Great Meadowbrook Farm, a sprawling property at 228 Barre Road that has engendered controversy in recent years.

The property — flanked by grand stone walls and bisected by a road that offers stunning sunset and stargazing views — is beloved by many in town, and has been protected by an agricultural restriction for decades.

In recent years, haying has been the only visible economic activity on the land, but many in town raised alarm bells when the property was sold in 2021 and the new owner proposed a marijuana cultivation facility.

The new owner, Worcester restaurateur Weidong “Wilson” Wang, failed to get town approval for the facility, and entered into the purchase and sale with the equine group.

Wang would retain the property if the purchase and sale does not close by February.

Future uncertain

Former state Rep. John Stefanini, chairman of the oversight board for Commonwealth Equine and Agricultural Center, said Saturday that he was unsure what the group’s next steps would be.

Stefanini, who shook hands with leaders for the opposition after the vote was read, stated his admiration for the town multiple times in comments he gave reporters.

“We’re disappointed at the outcome, but understand the concerns and feelings of the community,” he said. “We will need to regroup and consider our next options.”

Stefanini said that several people opposed to the project at Great Meadowbrook Farm told him they would support it if it were sited elsewhere in town.

“Hardwick is a beautiful community. It has a lot of wonderful people and gorgeous vistas, and is filled with opportunities,” Stefanini said.

Stefanini did not mention any specific alternative sites, saying that he and others with his group need time to consider their next steps.

He also declined to say definitively that the group would abandon the prospect of Great Meadowbrook Farm; a decision on that would come by Feb. 24, he said, the deadline for the purchase and sale.

Asked why he believed the proposal failed, Stefanini said there has been a “profound misunderstanding” about his group’s plans, but was quick to say that residents were not to blame.

“The first rule of politics is that accepted perception is reality,” he said, adding that there were many questions and fears swirling about the project that he asserted were not based in fact.

“I thought we answered the questions, but obviously not well enough,” he said.

Asked for the main point he believed was misunderstood, Stefanini said the scope of the project.

“Our proposal was for a breeding facility with two barns; a training facility in open pastures; and a racing operation a few days a year,” he said. “I’m not sure that the fairly basic, simple agricultural program was understood.”

Opponents elated

Opponents of the proposal — who forced a referendum vote on the topic, sent out mailers and canvassed door-to-door — said Saturday they don’t see the project as an agricultural use.

Many opponents, who spent the day waving signs and dancing to music to stay warm outside the polls, said they see the effort as an ill-advised attempt by monied investors to shoehorn a lucrative gambling business onto a town property meant for farming.

They argued the primary use of the property would not have been breeding or retiring horses, but for the turf racetrack, which, if approved by state gaming regulators, could be used for both live and online betting.

Great Meadowbrook Farm has for decades been restricted by a state Agricultural Preservation Restriction, which, in exchange for tax breaks, earmarks the land for agricultural use.

Kate Stillman, owner of Stillman Quality Meats, said she doesn’t see the project as a true agricultural use, and worries that if it were approved, an ominous precedent would be set.

“We can’t make more farmland,” she said. “Every acre we lose leaves us less and less.”

It is unclear whether the state Department of Agricultural Resources would have approved the racetrack as part of the facility, as the project had not yet progressed to that phase.

Stillman — wary of what deep-pocketed investors can achieve — said she wanted to make sure the proposal never got that far.

Stillman, whose own farm is covered by an APR, said the success of the farming industry depends on there being enough working farms.

Without enough farms buying products for animals or services for equipment, she said, prices or availability can worsen, threatening the sustainability of the system.

Beyond that, Stillman said, the people who placed the agricultural restrictions on their land — and the taxpayers — deserve for that land to be used for its intended purpose.

“As stewards of (APR), we take this seriously,” she said.

Stillman, who brought a huge vat of chili and sheets of cornbread for other project opponents Saturday, said she hadn’t slept in two days.

Some opponents said they got to Hardwick Elementary School, where the vote was held, at 5 a.m. to begin setting up, while others had spent weeks canvassing door-to-door.

“I’m so incredibly thankful for everybody who has taken part in this process,” Cara Wilczynski, a town resident who organized a group opposing the project, said Saturday night.

Wilczynski’s group, Hardwick Villages for Responsible Growth, mobilized an all-out effort to stop the proposal, which Wilczynski said she opposes on ethical grounds.

A millennial who lives near the site, Wilczynski said horse racing is not a sport popular with younger generations, and that people would be hurt by the gambling losses they will incur at the track.

Wilczynski said opponents of the facility raised about $30,000 from a variety of townspeople — a sign, she said, that the grassroots was on their side.

Proponents: town needs money

As opponents of the project ate chili and danced to music Saturday afternoon, a smaller number of supporters held “Yes” signage on the other side of the road leading to the elementary school.

Kathy and Henry Kane, a married couple who’ve each lived in town more than six decades, said the reality is the town needs money badly.

Basic services have been scaled back or contracted out, sewer costs are escalating and it’s a perennial struggle to fund the schools, they said.

At Great Meadowbrook Farm, the developers have said they’d offer $500,000 to the town per year, they noted — an amount equivalent to 8% of the town’s budget.

Colin Brown, 18, said the town needs to get a handle on its finances to ensure its survival. He said it’s up to young town residents like himself to ensure there’s still a viable future.

Brown said that, as a result of his support of the project, he has been threatened and sworn at, called a slur for his Polish heritage and received harassing calls from “burner” phones.

As he spoke, a man from the “No” camp crossed the road to allege that rancorous discourse has come from both sides of the debate.

Wilczynski acknowledged after the vote that the issue has caused a lot of friction in town.

“The work really begins tomorrow. There’s a lot of healing that needs to happen in this community,” she said.

Wilczynski agreed the town’s finances need shoring up and that she and other project opponents need to pay more attention to town politics.

“It really does affect us,” she said. “We need to take this momentum and channel it to the benefit of this town.”

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Hardwick voters reject proposed Great Meadowbrook Farm horse facility