Capital Group Demands $100K Refund From Lancaster; Wants Permission To Use Dormant $200 Million Development Site To Sell Dirt Until 2035

 

On September 26^th Capital Group Properties responded to the town’s demand for a promised $100K contribution: they refuse to pay the second contribution...and demand a refund of the first payment.  They also want the town to modify the agreement so that they can continue “Earth Processing” operations on the site until 2035.

 

Russ Williston
10/17/2025

Capital Group doesn’t intend to make its second $100K contribution to Lancaster.   Furthermore, they want Lancaster to repay the $100K contribution they made last year.  And maybe worst of all: they want an amendment to their agreement with the town so that they can continue to use the project site to hawk earth products until 2035.

Early in September the town sent a demand to Capital Group Properties for a $100K contribution that was due in June as part of their 2022 covenant with Lancaster.

Capital Group Properties responded in a memo dated September 26^th.  Capital Group:     

•  Does not intend to pay the second $100K contribution that was due in June.

• Asserts that the town has not fulfilled the terms of the agreement.
  
  
• Wants the town to return last year’s $100K contribution.
  
  
• Wants the 2022 MOA modified again to allow “Earth Processing” uses at the site to continue through December 31, 2035.

Click here for  a copy of the complete memo.

  

In regard to Lancaster's non-performance, the memo asserts that:

•            Lancaster’s Planning Board was too slow to process a Subdivision Plan submitted on August 9^th, 2023
  
  
• Conservation Commission denied extension of an Order of Resource Area Delineation on February 11, 2025 without justification. 
  
  
• Lancaster failed to provide a “single municipal point of contact” and ensure prompt scheduling of hearings, and says that Section 1.7 of the amended MOA obliged the town to do so.

The memo asserts that Lancaster was obliged by the MOA to approve the applications within 120 days.

The original MOA signed in 2022 required an end to “Earth Product” operations at the project site: the towns expectation was that build-out with more than $200 million in development at the site would commence in 2023.  (To date, there has been no development at the site.)    An amendment in 2023 extended those earth-product operations through 2025.  According to this memo, Capital Group Properties now wants another MOA amendment to allow earth products to be sold from the site through 2035.  

The memo was distributed as part of the Select Board’s meeting packet for their October 20 meeting.   The meeting agenda indicates that they’ll discuss the memo.   The agenda concludes with an “executive session” to discuss litigation with Capital Group Properties.