The future of the 750-acre Weston Nurseries in Hopkinton will be decided by voters at Town Meeting and in a subsequent election.

The preservation of 750 acres of rolling hills and farmland in Hopkinton is in the voters’ hands.

Proponents of a plan to purchase a vast expanse of green space at the Weston Nurseries on Route 135 suffered another defeat last week. The Hopkinton Land Use Study Committee rebuffed a proposal for the town to buy the property. The vote came on the heels of the Planning Board, the Conservation Commission and the Community Preservation Committee’s recent rejection of the request.

In the wake of the town board votes, the Trust for Public Land, a nonprofit organization dedicated to conserving green space, withdrew its offer to partner with Hopkinton and Taurus Investment Holdings, a Boston-based developer, to purchase the site. Under the TPL/Taurus plan, two-thirds of the land would have been preserved as open space and about 600 residential units would have been built on the remaining portions.

Unless the voters approve the $30.3 million purchase, Boulder Capital, a Weston-based developer, will proceed with plans for 940 townhouses, apartments and multifamily condominiums and 450,000 square feet of commercial space on the property, located not far from the start of the Boston Marathon.

Because the Weston Nurseries property has been designated under Chapter 61A – farmland that is taxed at a reduced rate – Hopkinton has the right of first refusal on the purchase. Voters will have an opportunity to express their wishes at Town Meeting tonight and in an election next Monday, June 18, which asks voters for a Proposition 2? override to pay for the parcel.

‘Total Control’
Mary Pratt, vice chairwoman of the Board of Selectman, has expressed fears that the project will exacerbate traffic problems on already busy roads, as well as add school children to a cash-strapped school system.

Still, she said she is uncertain if voters would be willing to support an increase in the tax rate of about $500 per homeowner to buy the land and halt the proposed development. The selectmen will vote on the proposal following Town Meeting and the election, she said.

“I don’t know what will happen,” said Pratt. “People tell me they don’t want to see the land go to a developer but I just can’t predict the outcome. We’ll have to wait and see what Town Meeting does and let the voters decide. I can’t imagine we would vote against their wishes.”

Elaine Lazarus, Hopkinton’s planning director, said some homeowners have expressed a willingness to keep the open space and are willing to pay more in taxes. But she said the level of support is unclear.

“Now that TPL is out of the picture, the idea may pick up more steam,” she said.

But Finley Perry, Land Use Study Committee chairman, who has praised the Boulder proposal, said he doubts that voters will approve such a giant increase in their taxes.

“It’s pretty difficult to ask homeowners to dig into their pockets and come up with an additional $500 annually for the rest of their time in Hopkinton to pay for the land,” he noted. “Boulder has done an exceptional job producing a smart-growth devolvement that is attractive for the community, revenue-positive and retains 575 acres of open space. It’s a tremendous opportunity to do something really good here and the town has every bit of control as Boulder does. If the town takes that opportunity and does it in a positive way, it will be fantastic.”

Sandra Altamura, a Planning Board member, said she has not given up hope that voters will support the expenditure to pay for the site in a town best known as the marathon’s starting point. Plans are being formulated for a presentation to Town Meeting that details the proposal to buy the land, she said

“It’s very important for people to consider buying it because it would give us total control over the parcel,” she said. “There are lots of people in town who believe that the property is too big and too crucial to hand over to a developer, especially when the Boulder plan can’t be built under current zoning.”

Weston Nurseries, 25 miles west of Boston, is a regional landmark that has lured New England customers for more than 84 years. But the garden center owners, brothers R. Wayne Mezitt and Roger Mezitt, have been embroiled in a family feud over the future of the fourth-generation company. A combination of bickering and declining revenues forced the pair to file for bankruptcy. In February, a federal court judge approved Boulder’s purchase for $20.5 million, an additional $5 million following permitting and another $12.5 million if the town approves 1,700 housing units on the site.

Roy S. MacDowell Jr., president of Boulder Capital, did not return a call seeking comment.

Liisa Jackson, co-founder of Hopkintonians Organized to Preserve and Enhance and a member of the town’s Land Use Planning Committee, said there is a lot of enthusiasm for the idea of purchasing the property.

“There is support for Boulder because their plan sounds aesthetically pleasing, but when you add almost 1,000 houses to a community, that will have a huge impact,” she said. “Our town lost one of its options because a few members on the [Community Preservation Committee] voted not to allocate $2 million in CPA funds for the TPL/Taurus plan. The voters got robbed.”

Robert Murphy, chairman of the Conservation Commission and a member of the Community Preservation Committee, defended the vote against contributing Community Preservation Act funds toward the TPL/Taurus proposal.

“When you look at TPL vs. Boulder, the open-space portion was about the same and in the Boulder case it would not cost the town anything,” he said. “But under TPL, the town would have to come up with about $5.2 million.”

R. Wayne Muzitt said after several years of planning, it appears the Boulder project will advance this summer. “We are moving forward and my hope is that the town embraces the Boulder deal because it’s something we can all live with. Is it the best deal? Who knows? But Boulder is committed to preserving lots of open space. It’s probably the right thing to do in terms of the town’s best interest.”

Peter Carbone, managing partner at Taurus, and TPL Project Director Arthur Badger Blackett did not return repeated calls seeking comment. But in a letter to the Board of Selectman that was posted on HopNews.com last month, Blackett wrote that while the town may be unable to pay the $30.3 million to buy the property, the TPL/Taurus plan only would have required a $5.2 million investment by the town, on top of $2 million from the Community Preservation Act funds.

“When the Community Preservation Committee vote [rejected it] Â… our proposed plan had a very serious gap,” Blackett wrote. “As a consequence, we regret that we will not be able to purchase the property Â… it is particularly disappointing after our collective hard work.”