AMHERST – The former Hickory Ridge Golf Course will soon be a blank canvas for the town of Amherst.

Last week, the town of Amherst hosted a three-day event series open to the public to see the former Hickory Ridge property that the town is in the process of purchasing and invited those attending to share thoughts on what is the future for the 150-acre parcel.

“Hickory Ridge was financially having some difficult times and we engaged with them about four, five years ago to start talking about the future of the course,” said David Zomek, assistant town manager of Amherst and director of conservation and development.

Applied Golf Inc., owners of the Hickory Ridge Course, was open to working out a deal with the town to give Amherst land that they can choose to utilize in a way that meets some of the needs of the community. According to Zomek, through purchase and sale agreements the deal will be for $520,000.

With the upcoming purchase to be finalized soon, Thursday marked the first time the public were invited to see the new land and begin to envision what the 150-acre property could be. With so much open land and almost two miles of the Fort River flowing through this land could be utilized in many ways.

The town has created www.engageamherst.org, a site serving as a forum for community members to submit written comments or suggestions for ideas on town projects. So far, the most popular suggestions for Hickory Ridge include building affordable housing, senior housing or a senior center and multi-purpose paths around the land for walking/biking/running. Some other suggestions on the site have been the construction of a full court basketball court, a disc golf course and new playgrounds. All options being given early on show just how much potential the new land has for the town as well as the community’s interest.

“Right now, we are asking for the public’s input – what do you want to see here?” Zomek said.

While nothing has been approved or even formally suggested to be built on the land yet, as a part of the purchase deal a solar array will be constructed on the land. The solar array will produce 6.2 mw of green energy through the 26-acres that will be leased to a private solar company. The company will pay “pilot” payments to the town of $45,000 to $50,000 a year.

Pilot payments are payments in lieu of taxes to compensate a government for some or all of the property tax revenue lost due to tax exempt ownership. The incentive pay will add a boost to Amherst funds of over $1 million over 20 years and with the input of solar energy, will be a standard in environmentally friendly energy.

Zomek also discussed the possibility of using the property as a connection for surrounding neighborhoods to town areas like the Pomeroy Village Center.

“We have the neighborhoods off of East Hadley Road, and there’s really no easy way for them to connect with the village center. So, one of the central things we know we’re going to do is make a connecting trail so people can walk or ride their bikes from East Hadley Road to the village center,” Zomek said. “We’re going to use the existing cart paths that are already there. We’ve already put in some grants to see if we can get some additional money to build or rebuild some of those as well.”

One other aspect of the purchase is the preservation of certain areas around the course. In the overview handed out at the event from the Town of Amherst it says, “After accounting for environmental constraints, such as floodplain areas and wetlands, portions of the land could be re-envisioned for alternative uses compatible with the natural resources of the site and the abutting neighborhoods.”

On engageamherst.org they also write, “The reasons for purchasing this land include the protection and restoration of vital natural resources…”

Amherst Sustainability Coordinator Stephanie Ciccarello will be overseeing parts of the future project and is focused on preserving the land and giving residents an opportunity to decide on what the best move is for the new land.

"From my perspective I think all of the sensitive ecological resources on this property make it really unique and recognizing and valuing those natural resources is a really important feature to maintain going forward,” Ciccarello said. “Now some of those things can grow back to their natural state and that will provide habitat and will really be beneficial for the wildlife. Given how much impact we have on the landscape, I think having some areas that can grow back and provide habitat for the wildlife is really important.”

Keeping this land environmentally secure seems to be just as important as building new facilities for the town of Amherst. It makes sense when looking at facts about the land like that the Fort River supplies drinking water for the residents of Amherst and its watershed spans across parts of Amherst, Belchertown, Hadley, Pelham, and Shutesbury. The river is also home to several species of freshwater mussel, including one species federally listed as endangered – the dwarf wedgemussel. These are extremely sensitive to pollution and degraded water quality.

Those are just some examples of the types of environmental factors that must be considered during the full process. But for now, it is still the beginning of a lengthy process. Once the land is officially sold to the town, what to do with it will be more apparent in town government settings. Until that point in time, Amherst is welcoming the thoughts and ideas of the public.