"Whoa! Neighbors fight horse farm; Westwood residents allege health hazards" by Stephanie Ebbert, Globe Staff | February 27, 2009
WESTWOOD - .... On Sandy Valley Road, a rarefied row of million-dollar homes, neighbors have hired an attorney and an environmental consultant to thwart the development of an elite equestrian training farm and stop a parade of meticulously trained horses in their tracks....
Manure is not the only concern. Opponents are worried about flies, the threat of the mosquito-borne Eastern equine encephalitis virus, and falling property values if horse trailers and waste haulers are allowed to clog their narrow road with traffic. They are also incensed that Wildstar Farm's propo nents would encourage horses to use trails in the adjacent Lowell Woods - conservation land the town helped pay to preserve....
Sandy Valley Road winds through a scenic neighborhood of sprawling homes on massive lots....
In that setting, controversy was the last thing on Polly Kornblith's mind when she invited the neighbors over for champagne last July, after closing on the $3 million, 12-acre property and moving into a brick house built on the site in 1936. Neighbors, she contends, congratulated her for preserving the prior property owner's dream of keeping horses there. The last owner had won approval from the town's conservation commission for a smaller but similar plan. Neighbors who didn't fight that plan say they were under the impression the owner intended to keep only her own horses.
The facility that Kornblith and her husband, Michael Newman, are proposing would have a 22-stall stable with indoor and outdoor training areas for elite dressage, an Olympic-level sport requiring horses and riders to complete precision drills....
But as word spread about the scope of her plans, the doubts began to swell. Neighbors felt misled. The plans seemed to get bigger - and harder to pin down - as they learned more, opponents said. The plans Kornblith presented to town officials were incomplete, and the neighbors' lawyer began attacking them on the details as the residents peppered town officials with questions about oversight.
Town officials have said the stables qualify for an agricultural exemption and can be built in a residential area. Similar exemptions would apply to day care, educational, and religious facilities, and even group homes, said Town Administrator Mike Jaillet....
Kornblith doesn't intend to give up easily. Asked whether it will be worth the fight to achieve her dream in a hostile neighborhood, Kornblith responded:
"This is why we moved here. We made a huge investment emotionally, not just financially, in purchasing this property. This is where we want to be.... We're here to stay."
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