MAPC Launches First Public Session on Nagog Hill Orchard's Unresolved Future

LITTLETON — March 6, 2025 — Littleton opens community input process on the future of the town-owned Nagog Hill Orchard. The Metropolitan Area Planning Council, contracted by the town through a state grant, convened the first of two public sessions Thursday evening with Josh Fiala leading a facilitated discussion on shared objectives and criteria for the 94-acre property. The orchard — acquired by Town Meeting vote in 1999, leased to Nagog Fruiters through 2021, and currently without an active farm operator — carries an Agricultural Preservation Restriction on roughly 52 of its acres that requires active commercial farming and that, Fiala told attendees, is currently not being upheld. A Town Meeting vote to sell the property failed last May by a small margin, and the Select Board has since pursued a lease, drawing one candidate with whom negotiations remain open. Lynn Gonzalez, wife of the Nashoba Praying Indians' Sagamore Strong Bear Medicine and a Littleton resident, read a statement from Chief Quiet Storm formally requesting that the land be returned to the Massachusetts Nashoba Praying Indians. A second community session is scheduled for April 14, at which MAPC will present compiled feedback and begin applying criteria to specific future options.