“Mount Richmond” To Be Removed This Week From Old South Road Property
David Creed •
The process of removing "Mount Richmond" - the huge mound of sand and fill on the properties managed by former Richmond Great Point Development LLC partner Shane Valero at 65 and 67 Old South Road - has begun. The removal is expected to take at least one week according to Valero’s attorney Jim Merberg, and is the result of a lawsuit filed by town building commissioner Paul Murphy in July.
The huge mound at the entrance to the new Richmond Great Point subdivision has been there for nearly a year - so long that island residents have started calling it "Mount Richmond" - and it has become what some have described as an attractive nuisance with kids attempting to climb and reach its summit.
President of Richmond Great Point Development Phil Pastan told the Current last month that his company was unaware of how Valero was using his property or the details of the lawsuit in a letter to the editor in August.
"While neither I, nor the Richmond Great Point Development team members can rightly take credit for the monument, we nevertheless embrace the moniker with which you have branded Mr. Valero’s sand mountain and will regard it as a tribute to the positive impacts our development has unmistakenly had with the new generation of families and residents now enjoying the quality and standard of living they deserve," Pastan said.
Richmond Great Point Development declined to answer whether the sand and fill had come from the new development, or if any of it was planned to be used during construction.
A court order was filed on August 10th by Superior Court Judge Mark Gildea for Valero to remove all sand and earth material from 65 and 67 Old South Road within the next 45 days. The 45-day mark from Aug. 10 was Tuesday, Sept. 24.
"They were trying to make space in Valeros (60 Old South Road), which is commercial property, and they had to clear out a huge area which is filled with soil and other stuff and wood debris,” Merberg said. “They had to clean out a whole bunch of stuff to make room for the pile, but now that area has been cleared, and they're starting from the back of the pile and going forward. I actually let town council know that today (September 24). They were going to do it over these last four days, but it was raining every day. There was so much mud they couldn't move anything without getting the truck stuck. They're on the job now. They're going to be moving the entire pile.”
Murphy told the Current Tuesday afternoon that Town Counsel has been in contact with Merberg to discuss the matter but had no further information to share at the time.
Merberg said the initial hope was for the sand to be used to address the erosion at the Sconset Bluff.
“They were hoping that the town and the ConCom and the people who live on Baxter Road would finish up their deal, and they were going to take that sand directly and dump it over this way,” Merberg said. “Unfortunately, they have to move it over across the street and then move it again. They have to reload it and move it again, which is a problem. The ConCom was meeting about it, postponed the meeting, and then had a meeting but couldn’t come to an agreement. They were trying to do the practical way, which is to just load it on trucks, dump it over the bank where it's eventually going instead of having to move it and then do it. We were hoping that they were going to have it solved, but they didn't solve it in time. So he's going to move it.”
“It's going to shrink down,” Merberg continued. “It is probably going to take at least one week even though they put 30 yards in the truck every time. There's a lot of sand over there, but they'll get it out of there.”
The process of reaching an agreement to have the piles of sand removed began after Murphy claimed in the lawsuit he filed on behalf of the town against Shane Valero and LB Nantucket, LLC that Valero has been violating the Nantucket zoning code by stockpiling large amount.
Up until 2022, Valero was a partner in Richmond Great Point Development LLC, the entity that is currently developing the 70-acre property off Old South Road that was purchased by Richmond Great Point founder Phil Pastan from Walter Glowacki in 2013 for just over $30 million. The project includes 225 apartments and 94 homes and duplexes, many of which have already been completed.
