A Massachusetts Farmer-Developer Sows Housing
By Micky Baca
June 23, 1996
See the article in its original context from June 23, 1996, Section 9, Page 8 of the New York Times
FORTY years ago, says John Magill, he "fell into" the housing development business in this historic New England town 40 miles southwest of Boston after rebuilding the barns destroyed by fire on his family's dairy farm. Hundreds of homes later, the farmer-turned- developer has set Grafton's closeknit neighborhoods of colonial homes abuzz with a plan to turn 350 acres of his family's 500-acre farm into a $20 million golf course and housing development.
Despite some controversy over its traffic and environmental impact, his plan is expected to go forward. Most residents here know Mr. Magill as a local boy who made good. Some even recall his plowing snow on early winter mornings when he could barely reach the pedals of his father's tractor. The 62-year-old Mr. Magill, who now lives in a sizable home on one of the town's more scenic hills, has done 99 percent of his housing construction in his hometown where, he says, "people got to know me and know I'll give them a fair price for their land."
Mr. Magill is proposing to build the 18-hole golf course surrounded by 160 singlefamily homes just minutes from the early 19th-century buildings and pristine white churches nestled around the community's shady village green. With no other such development in the area, Mr. Magill says he expects an eager market for the $250,000 to $400,000 colonial homes he plans to build.
Called High Fields of Grafton, the project is getting mixed reviews from residents, some of whom worry about the traffic it will bring to the winding roads that surround it. Others in the neighborhood have raised concerns about the cost of running town sewer lines out to the area to accommodate the Magill project and what impact the golf course will have on water quality and supply, according to Town Planner Megan DiPrete. On the other hand, Ms. DiPrete said, there is a "sense of excitement" about the idea of a golf course coming to town and the hope that it will enhance this "steady, well-run and desirable" town of 13,000 10 miles southeast of Worcester.
"If something has to go in, at least a golf course will have open space," says Mildred Bean, chairman of the local Historical Commission and a neighbor to the proposed golf course. "As far as John is concerned, I'm glad it's a small-town boy making good. It could have been a developer from Boston." But Mrs. Bean said that residents of her native town -- a quintessential New England community that served as the location for the filming of Eugene O'Neill's "Ah, Wilderness!" in 1935 -- would have ample opportunity to air their views on the project in perhaps a year and a half of public hearings and scrutiny by town and state officials. The town's Planning Board is now conducting public hearings on whether to grant a special permit for the overall project and then consider the subdivision proposal. The local Conservation Commission will have its say on Mr. Magill's plan to disturb about one acre of wetlands and various state agencies will look at its environmental impact, said Ms.DiPrete.
Five other developments with a total of 184 houses are currently under construction in Grafton, Ms. DiPrete said, some that will take several years to complete. In fact, said Sean Padgett, the planning board's chairman, there is more development here than ever before, even during the boom years of the mid-80's. "People were just discovering Grafton when the bottom fell out," he said, referring to the recession of the early 90's.
Now, Mr. Padgett says his town is on the edge of a development frontmoving out from the Worcester area as well as from the high technologycomplexes along Route 495 to the east.
WHAT'S more, the state's Department of Transportation is scheduled to build a commuter train station linking Grafton to Boston in the next few years. And, said Ms. DiPrete, the private, nonprofit Worcester Business Development Corporation, in conjunction with the town, will begin construction soon of a biotechnology park on 120 acres near the station site. "Frankly, I'm a little nervous that it might bring too much development," Mr. Padgett says.
Mr. Magill, who owns and operates the Grafton Inn, which has been welcoming guests to a restaurant and rooms overlooking the Grafton Common since 1805, said the town could not stop the growth. "I'm for everything really, I like things to grow," said the former farmer. Mr. Magill conceded that it would be a "sad day" to see the cows leavehis family's Silver Spruce Acres farm. He said he hadn't decided whetherto retain the remaining 150 acres not used for the golf coursedevelopment as a dairy farm. If he does, he said, he would likely reducethe herd of 300 that he now maintains, he said.
Mr. Magill's father, Henry, who was a herdsman for a state hospital inRutland, Mass., bought the farm and moved his family to Grafton in1942 when John was 9. Back then, Mr. Magill said, there were some 30farms in the town.
Founded in 1735, Grafton was a self-sufficient farming community for more than a century before it became known for its local industries of leather, bootmaking, textiles and clockmaking. These days the community, which was once a summer place for wealthly city dwellers, is more of a bedroom town for Worcester and Boston, though some industry thrives in its northern section, Ms. DiPrete said.
Currently there are only three remaining farms, Mr. Magill said. He has not lived on his farm in years, but his three employees live there and operate it, he said. Mr. Magill said he discovered his building talents while restoring his father's fire-ravaged barns in 1955. Before long, the 22-year-old made the jump from building barns to putting up a single-family home here and there to building his first major project, a 25-lot subdivision on the town's Pigeon Hill. From single-family homes, Mr. Magill branched into building condominium developments at the height of the market in the mid-80's. He built some 300 units, selling as many as 10 a month during the housing boom.
Mr. Magill said he had borrowed money to finance his first phase of condominiums, but had financed all subsequent developments on his own. He hopes to finance High Fields himself as well, he said. Mr. Magill will not say how much money his company, Magill Associates, earns or how much he is worth personally.
While he owns two of the most historically significant buildings in town, the Inn and a bank building dating to 1840 that houses his offices, Mr. Magill said he was not a "historian." He bought the Inn in 1983, renovated it under the guidance of local historians and has his daughters run it, he said, because "I'm interested in making money."
Despite his millions, Mr. Magill still projects the image of a dairy farmer. Residents say he often does business with a simple handshake, finds the bureaucratic red tape of today's development world frustrating and has a formidable temper. He is more likely to be seen driving the company dump truck or backhoe than the family Mercedes. "My family were working people;" Mr. Magill says, "we're still working people."
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