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A primary question is how did this easement ever make it to the City Council? The easement grants National Grid the power to remove trees, shrubs, and bushes. DEM holds the conservation easement for the land, which specifically prohibits the removal of trees and other plants and prohibits the construction of any structures including poles and lines. Did city officials forget about these details? They did not inform DEM of the easement. I know because the DEM official I emailed had no knowledge of the proposed National Grid easement. Conservation easements have specific legal protections that include IRS regulations.

To make matters worse, someone has surveyed and staked the actual Laten Knight Road right-of-way. If the stakes are accurate, then nearly all of the 80-90 trees scheduled for destruction are protected by the conservation easement and the John L. Curran State Park law (32-1-5.1), not just the small area mentioned in the article. If National Grid insists on this route, then they should be required to place underground any power lines proposed for any stretch of roadway that does not contain 19th century power line technology. Laten Knight and Lippitt Ave. are the only roadways that I know of in western Cranston that not marred by power lines and poles.