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[CORRECTION: the original version of this story mentioned two units being converted to duplexes in the Pine Lakes neighborhood, consistent with earlier funding requests. The full project would convert four single family units to duplexes. The story has been updated accordingly.]
An opponent of proposed affordable duplexes in the Pine Lakes neighborhood was spotted at the Sudbury Town Center Monday, September 23. The protester was wearing an outfit reminiscent of fictional serial killer “Jason” from the “Friday the 13th” movie series and a hockey mask covering his face. The unidentified protester held two signs that combined to say “Pine Lakes No Duplex.” What appeared to be the severed head of a doll was stuck on the top of a stick on one of the signs.
The protest caught a lot of attention from people driving through Town Center, leading many residents to question what it was all about on local social media channels.
The display was apparently in response to a Sudbury Housing Authority project that would convert four existing affordable units in the Pine Lakes neighborhood from single-family homes to duplexes. The Healey administration recently announced that the Sudbury Housing Authority had been awarded $1,200,000 for the project.
On Tuesday morning, the chair of the Goodnow Library Trustees, Jean Nam, took to a local social media group to voice her opposition to the project after allegedly having spoken with the protester holding the signs. She did not identify him.
Nam then posted a Google map she had created with icons denoting the home locations of over one dozen local officials she claimed were responsible for making decisions on housing. She did not identify the committees or boards these officials serve on.
Nam’s post explained why she created the map:
“Just as a thought exercise, I mapped out the homes of the people making these decisions. They are highlighted with red markers in this map. Interesting how they are all pretty far away from the Pine Lakes neighborhood.”
While some residents engaged in debate on social media about housing strategies and locations, others voiced concern about the map identifying the home addresses of Town committee members and officials. There was little discussion of the appearance of the protester. As of this publishing, the map had been removed from the post with the following comment added by Nam:
“Update: The map has been removed. Apologies if it was offensive to anyone. I was just trying to make the point that most of the decision makers don’t live anywhere near the proposed projects, and there are other parcels in town which may be an alternative.”
According to the Regional Housing Services Office, Sudbury has 775 affordable units, including 297 market rate units, which are broadly dispersed throughout the town.
On Tuesday night, the issue was elevated by Select Board member Janie Dretler, who made an opening comment at the start of the Select Board meeting:
“I think we need to do better as a community. Today we had an elected official post a map of locations of where other local officials live in our community. Of course our addresses are public for the most part, not everybody chooses to have their address posted on our website. But it’s really distressing when another elected official does this.”
She went on to add:
“But it’s really distressing to me that, to me, volunteering should be a selfless act. Especially in public service. We’re here to serve everybody in this community. But pitting people against each other… I don’t know what the purpose of this was. I really don’t. It’s disturbing to me. You know we’ve had other elected officials post things on social media that were not true recently. And they also did not decide to set the record straight. So what I’m going to ask Sudbury to do is to do better. Just do better. I try to do better. I think some of my colleagues try to do better. But tonight we’re going to be appointing a number of volunteers who are going to be offering to spend their time on this community, and I want this to be a very welcoming opportunity for them and welcoming experience for them. And I’m kind of disheartened today to see what’s occurring in this community.”
On Wednesday morning, the Pine Lakes duplex protester returned to Town Center wearing the same outfit and mask, holding the same signs, complete with the doll’s head on top of a stick.