The Sudbury Monitor

Sewataro File

This page is the Monitor’s standing reference for Camp Sewataro and the Liberty Ledge property – the purchase, the money, the process now underway to decide the property’s future, and the documents behind it all. This page will be updated as the story develops; the newest entries are at the bottom of the timeline. Meeting-by-meeting coverage appears in our regular meeting updates.

The property

Sudbury bought Camp Sewataro in 2019: approximately 44.32 acres across 33 parcels at 1 Liberty Ledge, per Article 25 of the 2019 Annual Town Meeting warrant. Town Meeting authorized borrowing $11.3 million on May 7, 2019, passing the article by more than the required two-thirds; the negotiated purchase price presented to the meeting was $11,269,700, against a $10.37 million appraisal, per the certified Town Meeting proceedings. The purchase was contingent on a Proposition 2 1/2 debt-exclusion ballot question, which voters approved at the June 4, 2019 town election. The town does not run the camp. Under an operator agreement signed September 10, 2019, Camp Sewataro LLC – the family business of longtime camp director Scott Brody – operates the day camp and manages the property, paying the town an annual fee plus a share of camp revenue. The agreement has been amended four times, most recently in February 2026 to set the 2026 resident swim days at the camp pond.

The money

  • What the town owes. The purchase was financed with a 20-year bond issued in fiscal year 2021. The town’s own debt schedules in the 2025 and 2026 Annual Town Meeting warrants list both Sewataro bonds as maturing in 2041, with roughly $8.8 million in principal still outstanding as of the 2026 warrant.
  • Debt service vs. revenue. In fiscal year 2026 the town paid about $731,000 in debt service on the property and took in about $331,000 from the camp, per the finance director’s presentation to the advisory committee on June 4 (0:23:37).
  • Total revenue to date. Since 2020 the town has received $1,918,693 from the camp, per the same presentation (0:22:44).
  • How the payments work. The executed Third Amendment (April 2022) sets a $200,000 annual fee rising three percent per year, plus a revenue share: 25 percent of the operator’s first $1 million in net revenue and one-third above that. The share has ranged from zero in the camp’s first year under the agreement (a loss year, 2020) to $114,692 for the 2024 camp year and $116,404 for 2025, per the camp’s financial statements.
  • The current term. The operator agreement runs through September 9, 2027, with one further five-year extension option; notice for that option cannot be given before January 1, 2027.

How we got here

  • May 7, 2019 – The 2019 Annual Town Meeting passes Article 25, authorizing the town to borrow $11.3 million for the acquisition, by more than a two-thirds vote (proceedings ยท meeting audio). The town’s boards split on the record: the Board of Selectmen supported it 3-2; the Finance Committee (5-2), Park and Recreation Commission (4-1), Capital Improvement Advisory Committee (4-1-1), and Land Acquisition Review Committee all voted against.
  • June 4, 2019 – Voters approve the Proposition 2 1/2 debt-exclusion ballot question at the town election, satisfying the condition in the Town Meeting vote.
  • August-September 2019 – The town completes the purchase and signs the operator agreement with Camp Sewataro LLC.
  • 2020-2022 – Two early amendments adjust the resident scholarship program (February 2020) and the public-access-area plans (June 2020). The Third Amendment (April 2022) extends the term five years, resets the fee structure, and expands public access, accessibility work, and public swimming.
  • 2022 Annual Town Meeting – Town Meeting declines to fund an outside study of the property. Article 16, funding for a land-use consultant for Liberty Ledge/Sewataro, is defeated, and two related articles (Article 15, passive-recreation operations, and Article 57, hiring a land-use consultant) are indefinitely postponed, per the town’s Town Meeting article records.
  • September 9, 2025 – The Select Board votes 3-2 to direct the Town Manager, with staff and legal counsel, to review the Camp Sewataro agreement – its term, extension provisions, and financials – and report back with recommendations by December 16, 2025, per the board’s minutes.
  • January 6, 2026 – After voting down a full-board review 3-2, the board votes 4-1 to create a two-member Liberty Ledge/Sewataro Select Board Subcommittee (members Dan Carty and Janie Dretler), per the board’s minutes.
  • February 3, 2026 – The board votes 3-2 to accept the subcommittee’s work and dissolve it, with the members’ two separate reports to come back to the full board, per the board’s minutes. The subcommittee’s product, a hyperlinked compilation report of the property’s full paper trail, is posted on the committee’s site.
  • February 24, 2026 – Two things happen the same night. The Fourth Amendment sets the 2026 resident swim days at the camp pond: July 3-5 and August 1-2, with an August 15-16 weather fallback. And the board votes 3-1 to adopt the Liberty Ledge/Sewataro Advisory Committee charter: “The Committee shall explore possible uses of this town-owned property and offer an advisory report on recommended uses to the Select Board,” with the report due by October 31, 2026 (board’s minutes).
  • March 31, 2026 – The Select Board votes 3-2 to interview nine candidates for the advisory committee, per the board’s draft March 31 minutes.
  • May 2026 (Annual Town Meeting, convened May 4) – Article 19, a $20,000 appropriation for a consultant to run a “visioning” study of the property, submitted by the Select Board, is defeated 200-75, per the town’s Town Meeting records.
  • May-June 2026 – The advisory committee gets to work: an organizational meeting May 7, a site visit at the property May 19, and regular sessions May 21, June 11, and June 18, per the committee’s posted agendas – including a June 4 meeting devoted to the finance director’s full accounting of the property (recording) and a June 18 session with the Sudbury Housing Authority.
  • June 24, 2026 – The committee holds a public input session; roughly 60 residents participate in person and online (recording). Participants brainstorm 20-year visions for the property on sticky notes, then rank the results with color-weighted dot votes.
  • July 2, 2026 – The committee reviews the input-session results: 195 distinct prioritized ideas, with camp operations the top theme “by a landslide” – 36 notes carrying a weighted score of 156, against 23 for the second-place theme (1:02:02). A member reports the Sudbury Housing Authority toured the property’s buildings and did not appear interested in them; the chair cautions against drawing conclusions (1:12:12). A Park and Recreation Commission voice notes athletic fields at the property have been “struck from the list,” with field planning pointed at Broad Acres and Davis instead (0:35:16).
  • July 9, 2026 – The Sudbury Housing Trust, invited to address the advisory committee on July 16, reaches a consensus to press the case that the entire property be evaluated for its long-term use, housing included, rather than for how best to preserve the camp. Members argue the town never studied the site’s best use when it bought it, and they identify specific parcels: a vacant house at 213 Haynes Road, which they say the camp operator suggested to the Trust, as a near-term candidate for an affordable unit, and the wooded lots off Graystone Lane, separate from the camp, for possible future senior or family housing (0:42:38). The town’s Regional Housing Services Office cautions that no housing study can be completed before the committee’s October 31 report, that the realistic ask is a recommendation for a comprehensive planning study, and that any development would require zoning changes at Town Meeting and a multi-year process (1:21:32). The Trust had toured the property, without a quorum, on June 22.

Where it stands

The advisory committee’s product is a set of recommendations to the Select Board – it has no decision power. Its report is due by October 31, 2026, per the committee’s Select Board-approved charter, and every proposed option gets at least two readings by the Select Board before the board recommends further steps. The next steps on the record:

  • July 16, 2026 – the committee takes up drafts of a resident survey, the next instrument for gathering town-wide input, and hears from the Sudbury Housing Trust, which is bringing an active case for housing on the property.
  • July 30, 2026 – Commission on Disability visit; Housing Trust and Conservation appearances are also in the committee’s guest pipeline.
  • October 31, 2026 – report due to the Select Board, per the committee’s charter.
  • January 1, 2027 – the earliest date the operator’s five-year extension option can be noticed, putting the lease question on the same calendar as the committee’s report.

The documents

The paper trail, all public records:

Coverage so far