After weeks of closed-door discussions and a wave of public criticism, the Select Board Tuesday cleared the way for a housing developer to buy 138 acres of formerly protected land in Cedarville, with the deciding votes cast by two members who hold personal and political ties to him.
The 3-2 decision to waive the town’s right to match developer Matt Sheridan’s $5 million offer to buy the Landers Farm Road property from P.A. Landers Inc. will allow him to go forward with plans to purchase and develop about 60 percent of the land.
Board members Kevin Canty and David Golden came under pressure to recuse themselves following an Independent report about their relationships to Sheridan, but both voted in favor of the waiver and neither recused themselves from the vote or the negotiations, which were conducted out of public view.
They had earlier filed “disclosure of appearance of conflict of interest” forms with the state ethics commission, acknowledging their relationship with Sheridan.
Sheridan ran Canty’s recent campaign for re-election and is managing Golden’s race for Republican state representative. In addition, the two board members share a mutual close friendship with Sheridan, even though their relationship with each other is fractured.
The board’s verdict on Landers Farm Road came after a more than two-hour closed-door meeting – the latest in a series of such sessions in recent weeks. Chair Deb Iaquinto sided with Canty and Golden, while members Bill Keohan and Dick Quintal voted against waiving the right of first refusal.
Had Canty and Golden recused themselves from voting, the waiver would have failed by a 2-1 margin. The town could then have exercised the right of first refusal provision under the state’s Chapter 61 law – which provides a discounted tax rate for forested property. Under state law, officials are allowed to hold such talks in private if they maintain conducting them in public might affect the sale price. Landers’ intent to sell automatically removed the land – which is divided into two parcels – from Chapter 61 protection.
Sheridan, who has not detailed his plans for the property should he close a deal to purchase it, has a reputation for building moderately priced homes.
But he also has a blemished past.
Six years ago, Sheridan agreed to plead guilty in a case to rig bids with a longtime friend, Tim Dockery, who worked at the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) so he would win lucrative MBTA contracts.
Prosecutors alleged Sheridan received more than $8.2 million in MBTA contracts since he began working with the agency in about 2007 and allegedly paid Dockery cash bribes of about 5 to 10 percent of the payments Sheridan received. They totaled more than $207,000, court records show.
In exchange for those payments, they alleged Dockery helped Sheridan win smaller contracts and get paid on time.
“In addition to cash kickbacks,” prosecutors said in the indictments, “Sheridan paid for an in-ground pool and performed free landscaping work at Dockery’s house as a kickback for the commuter rail station repair contract.”
“Sheridan paid a contractor to install a fiberglass pool, and Sheridan, himself, landscaped Dockery’s backyard including removing an existing above-ground pool and other structures, leveling Dockery’s yard around the pool, and building a brick patio near the pool,” they wrote.
In 2017, Sheridan, then 34, was indicted by a Suffolk County grand jury on two counts of procurement fraud, both felonies. Dockery, his childhood friend from Plymouth, was charged in three separate criminal cases – two of which involved Sheridan.
Sheridan ultimately agreed to plead guilty to two felony counts of “government purchasing.”
He also agreed to cooperate with prosecutors from the attorney general’s office and was “promised a reduced sentence in consideration of his cooperation with law enforcement,” according to a document filed in one of Dockery’s cases.
Dockery pleaded guilty to all charges on Sept. 25, 2023. He was sentenced to one year in the Dukes County Correctional Facility on Martha’s Vineyard, according to court records, followed by two years’ probation.
Sheridan agreed to plead guilty in 2020 and his case was continued without a finding for one year. He was ordered to perform 100 hours of community service and pay $9,310 in restitution. After the year, the cases against him were dismissed.
Contacted Wednesday, Sheridan described the case as being in his distant past.
“It was 10 years ago. I want to put it all behind me,” he said. “I’m trying to build houses for regular people. I was young and stupid when that happened.”
Select Board Chair Deb Iaquinto, who cast the third vote in favor of Sheridan’s deal, expressed anger at not being informed about Sheridan’s corruption case beforehand.
“Never, ever did it come up” during the board’s meetings, she said. “The perception is just horrendous. It was bad enough when there were questions about the perception of conflicts of interest. But I thought we could make it through because we were able to negotiate a good contract.”
“This is adding so much fuel to the fire,” she said.
Canty and Golden said they were aware of the indictments.
Canty said Wednesday he knew of “old charges” against Sheridan, but they didn’t change his opinion of the developer’s intentions for Landers Farm Road – or his character.
“I also know that Matt is a good person who leaves money on the table to help people buy homes at prices that they can afford,” Canty said in an email.
Golden said he was only vaguely aware of the criminal proceedings.
“I don’t have anything to say about Mr. Sheridan,” he said of his campaign manager and friend. “I knew Mr. Sheridan had an indictment in his past, but I really didn’t know what it was about.”
He declined to comment further.
Keohan, too, said he did not know about Sheridan’s run-in with the law until a reporter told him Wednesday, “but it does give me pause about this conflict debate.”
During the public session that followed Tuesday’s executive session, the board ratified its vote and then conducted a sometimes-tense discussion about the process, the outcome, and its ramifications. No one brought up Canty and Golden’s connections to Sheridan.
In providing “context” for the decision, Iaquinto said the board received “dozens of letters, emails, phone calls from residents about the property,” as well as a stream of public comments during meetings. She said the board was advised to meet behind closed doors to “protect the best interests of the town,” but was now “free to talk about” the Landers Farm Road decision.
Iaquinto said given the town’s tight finances, buying the land was “not financially feasible.” Another option – transferring the town’s right of first refusal to the Community Land & Water Coalition – was dismissed because “we didn’t receive sufficient information to support going forward with that.”
Meg Sheehan, the nonprofit’s co-founder, said last week it could seek to raise the purchase money through state grants, private donations, and other sources.
That left on the table the offer from Sheridan Home Builders. Iaquinto said she and Keohan negotiated a “conditional waiver” with Sheridan, “focusing on benefits that we felt would be of value to the community.” It resulted in a memorandum of understanding that was then brought before the full board in executive session.
“We were able to agree on conditions that the board feels would help us achieve a number of key public objectives,” she said, including “goals for affordable housing, goals for conservation and well protection, pedestrian infrastructure and more.”
Iaquinto noted the project would also move the town closer to reaching a 10 percent affordable housing threshold. Under state law, doing so would give it power to reject so-called 40B developments, which are exempt from most zoning rules.
In the case of Landers Farm Road, she said, Sheridan has agreed to keep at least 40 percent of the land – about 51.5 acres – as open space, including some cranberry bogs. He’ll also limit earth removal at the site to what the town deems “incidental to the primary use.”
Other conditions include constructing walking paths and sidewalks, an access road to Hedges Pond Road, and the possibility of building a wastewater treatment plant to “avoid septic systems,” Iaquinto said.
One of the key selling points, she said, is Sheridan’s focus on “starter homes…a price point that has been missing in Plymouth.” Sheridan has previously defined that as modest-size houses starting at about $500,000.
Canty also cited the affordability of the homes Sheridan plans as a major benefit. The developer, he said, “has a demonstrated track record in this community of creating working class housing that’s sold for significantly less than it could be sold for because he wants to help people achieve their dream of home ownership in Plymouth.”
Sheridan, he said, has a history of “preserving open space” and “donating it to the public for permanent protection.”
As Plymouth becomes more expensive, Canty added, it “is leaving people behind, particularly 35 and unders – people who can’t afford to live in this community. Even if they grew up here, they can’t afford to stay, and it’s not sustainable.”
Sheridan’s plan – though not detailed because he does not yet own the property – strikes a “balance” between providing needed housing and the preservation of open space, Canty said.
Keohan was less enthusiastic, saying the town missed an opportunity by sacrificing its right of first refusal for Landers Farm Road.
“We should hold the Chapter 61 process sacrosanct. We need to understand we have until August 15th to make a decision,” he said, referring to the deadline for the town to invoke right of first refusal. “We should not be rushing into a decision.”
The agreement worked out with Sheridan was not the only option, Keohan said.
“We also have this other option about conservation and preservation in working with other organizations,” he said.
Keohan said there wasn’t “enough public input” on the issue and the board could have done more to “engage the community.”
Quintal, who cast the other vote in opposition to the Sheridan deal, said the board didn’t give the Community Land & Water Coalition enough time to determine whether it could finance the $5 million acquisition.
“Whether they have the money or the resources, I don’t believe you can find that out in 10 days or seven days or whatever it was,” he said. “That’s ridiculous…I wasn’t happy with the way this unfolded.”
Like Keohan, he said the public didn’t have a chance to properly weigh in.
Golden said Tuesday the decision to not purchase the property will preserve a big chunk of land while providing needed housing.
“We’re getting 51 acres of open space that’s connecting to existing conservation space at zero dollars to the taxpayer,” he said. “I think that’s a pretty good deal. And all the while we’re getting closer to our 10 percent mark.”
Golden disagreed with Quintal’s assertion that residents’ voices weren’t adequately heard.
“We had several meetings where profuse public comment was allowed on this very subject,” he said.
“The board has been listening to you, but we as leaders have to make decisions that are in the best interest of the entire community…We have to work with local people who respect the character of our community, and I think that we’re accomplishing that here.”
Mark Pothier can be reached at mark@plymouthindependent.org. Andrea Estes can be reached at andrea@plymouthindependent.org. David Kidwell of the Independent staff contributed to this report.