Civic League Wades Into Dispute Over Camp Richard

Representatives from the Nantucket Civic League sat down with the island’s Boy Scout leaders over the weekend to discuss the dispute over the future of Camp Richard, the 100-acre property at the edge of the state forest.

The Civic League was stunned to learn last month that the Boy Scouts had backed out of their agreement to place a permanent conservation restriction on Camp Richard. Civic League member Allen Reinhard said he, like many others, had simply assumed that the Boy Scouts and the Nantucket Land Council had sealed the deal on the conservation restriction at the conclusion of the legal battle for control of Camp Richard.

“The Civic League had thought this was all done, so we were very surprised,” Reinhard said. “We said ‘what’s going on here’?”

Reinhard and the Civic League have a vested interest in the outcome of the situation. Camp Richard was given to the island’s Boy Scouts decades ago by the Nantucket Civic League in a series of land transfers beginning in 1955.

So after learning that the conservation restriction on the property was now in doubt, the Civic League requested an audience with the Camp Richard Campers Association - the group made up of Nantucket Boy Scout leaders that owns the campground. Reinhard and Lee Saperstein both attended Saturday’s meeting on behalf of the Civic League.

“Our main interest is that we want to be sure the land is protected, so that’s why we want to see a conservation restriction on the property even if we have a reversion clause,” Reinhard said. He was referring to a clause in the original land transfer that stipulates if the campground ever ceased to be used by the Boy Scouts, its ownership would revert back to the Civic League.

“The Civic League has always supported the Boy Scouts, and we want that to continue and that’s our hope that it will,” Reinhard said. “The purpose of the meeting was to try to get clear about their concerns about the conservation restriction and for the Civic League to express our view that we want to guarantee this land is protected. Overall it was a very positive meeting, there was no animosity expressed on anyone’s part.”

The Camp Richard Campers Association has yet to speak out on the record since the Land Council publicly disclosed last month that the agreement for a conservation restriction had fallen apart. Chuck Lenhart, the association’s president, said a statement would be forthcoming soon.

During the protracted legal battle over Camp Richard in the 2010s – when the Cape Cod and Islands Council of the Boy Scouts of America attempted to assert ownership over the campground and sell a portion of it to a developer - the Nantucket Land Council took up the fight on behalf of the Nantucket Boy Scouts and the Nantucket Civic League. The Land Council launched a fundraising campaign and spent roughly $450,000 on a legal challenge that ultimately ended in victory. A Barnstable Superior Court judge ruled that the Camp Richard Campers Association was the rightful owner of the campground.

At the outset of the dispute with the Cape Cod and Islands Council, the Nantucket Land Council and the Camp Richard Association recorded a formal option to protect the 100-acre campground through a conservation restriction, with the Land Council offering a financial contribution of $1.5 million to the island scouting group. That formal option, however, was later rescinded by the Barnstable Superior Court Judge Gary Nickerson who ruled that it violated the injunction he had granted at the start of the legal challenge. The Land Council says it then proceeded with its representation in the court case under a “handshake” agreement with the Camp Richard Campers Association, with the understanding that it would enter into a conservation restriction for the campground following the successful conclusion of the case.

The proposed conservation restriction would continue to allow normal scouting activities on the site - things like hiking trails, primitive campsites, ropes courses, and archery - but would prevent development and other changes to the campground.

But the Camp Richard Campers Association members recently voted 8-7 to not come to the table for further discussions on the conservation restriction. That prompted the Nantucket Land Council to public with its grievance, stating that the Boy Scouts “refuse to keep their promise to protect Camp Richard.”

The news prompted the Civic League to write a four-page letter to the Camp Richard Campers Association on April 4 that reads, in part: “We were surprised, disappointed, and confused by reports of this ‘no’ vote. Apparently, this resulted from a misunderstanding of the purpose, nature, and workings of the CR (conservation restriction) and of the events that prompted the Land Council’s offer to assist in the CRCA’s defense in the earlier litigation. We strongly urge you to reconsider and reverse this narrow ‘no’ vote.”

After Saturday’s meeting, Reinhard described the Camp Richard Campers Association’s concerns about the conservation restriction as relating to the annual “inspection” of the campground that would be required to ensure all the elements of the restriction are adhered to.

“Their concern is that the inspector is going to find a rare moth or something like that and then say ‘these 5 acres are off limits’,” Reinhard said. “I said that’s not how it works. But that’s where they’re coming from.”