Nothing fishy about Northeastern's plan to expand its marine center in Nahant, court says

The Massachusetts Appeals Court ruled today that Northeastern University can go ahead and expand its Marine Science Center on its 20-acre site at the tip of Nahant.

Northeastern bought the site from the federal government in 1966. At issue was its plans, announced in 2018, to expand its sea-air campus onto part of 12 undeveloped acres of the site. The town and a group of residents both sued, charging the school had some nerve trying to build on land they claimed the school had said it would never touch - right next to an 8-acre parcel the town bought, also from the feds, in part on the belief its land and the undeveloped Northeastern land would form a big old nature preserve.

In its ruling today, the appeals court upheld a lower court's decision to toss the town/resident suits, in part because the land is privately owned, which means it's not subject to Article 97 of the state constitution, which bars the conversion of public conservation land into other uses:

We conclude that the plaintiffs have no reasonable expectation of establishing that Northeastern dedicated the twelve acres at issue to the public for use as an ecological preserve. As a result, the land is still privately held by Northeastern and is not subject to art. 97. Additionally, we conclude that the town has no reasonable expectation of proving that Northeastern made an "unambiguous promise" to preserve any of its land as an ecological preserve, a wildlife refuge, or as open space. ... Accordingly, the allowance of summary judgment in favor of Northeastern on all claims was proper.

When the federal government decided to give up the former military installation back in the 1960s, it first offered it to the town for use as a park.

But Town Meeting rejected the idea out of fear that rabble from across the causeway would inundate the sleepy hamlet in a mad, desperate bid to look out at the ocean, that "all of Boston, Somerville, Chelsea, etc, [would] occupy it because we would leave this wide open to the world," the chairwoman of the town Conservation Commission said at the time (as cited in Essex Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Karp ruling dismissing one of the suits).

Because of Nahant's disgust with out of towners, the government then put the land up for sale, and Northeastern bought 20 acres. A few years later, the town bought another 8 acres from the feds for its park.