LEVERETT — Mediation in mid-July could resolve an ongoing Land Court lawsuit, filed nearly a year ago by the owners of a Shutesbury Road property against the town and its Conservation Commission, that has prevented the public from using the easiest access to 65 acres of town conservation land in East Leverett.

With the simplest route to the Gordon King Life Estate, a former Christmas tree farm that is also known as the Blueberry Patch, blocked by a gate and “no trespassing” signs next to the home at 101 Shutesbury Road, the parties to the lawsuit, filed June 14, 2024, recently agreed to attempt to mediate the situation.

A pretrial conference had been set for May 19 before Judge Michael D. Vhay, but this was postponed at the request of the plaintiffs, Norma S. Evans, David A. Evans and Julie Evans Marlowe, and the defendants, which are the town of Leverett and its Conservation Commission.

Vhay agreed to put off the pretrial conference until July 17 to await a joint report on mediation efforts. A survey and title examination are already complete.

“It was determined that in order to mediate this case effectively, a developer should access the property and determine if an alternate route from the public way to the conservation land was possible and practical,” the joint motion for the continuance reads, signed by attorneys Michael Pill of Green Miles Lipton LLP of Northampton, representing the Evans family, and Donna L. MacNicol of Greenfield, representing the town.

Levesque Development Inc. of Westfield has been hired to do the work on identifying the best route to the property, though that won’t be complete until July.

The site was deeded to the town by longtime resident Gordon King in late 2000. Since then, volunteers have placed a memorial bench for King, who died at 98 in 2016, on a covered bridge built by his sons. King taught arboriculture and the park management program at the Stockbridge School of Agriculture at the University of Massachusetts.

In recent years, many of those accessing the site have gone in through Shutesbury Road, also parking their vehicles on or near the private residence, rather than taking longer routes through the East Leverett Meadow, near the intersection of Cushman and Teawaddle Hill roads, or the 4-H Forest.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.