Easton residents petition to protect remaining South Park piece
EASTON — While residents were voting in a referendum last week, a local group of activists was collecting signatures to push the town to place a conservation easement on the remaining town-owned South Park piece.
A vote to approve the sale of 18.7 acres of the property to the Aspetuck Land Trust passed with 1,058 residents voting in favor and 574 voting against. But the remaining 10 acres of the property has been the subject of much controversy in past months, as residents fear it will be used for development such as affordable housing.
A petition organized by Preserve 06612, a local group pushing to preserve the entire property on South Park Avenue, aims to convene a town meeting with the goal of forcing a vote to place a conservation easement on the remaining land. It secured more than 740 signatures, enough signatures to bring the issue to the Board of Selectman for a subsequent town meeting and vote.
First Selectman David Bindelglass said the town finished verifying the signatures on Tuesday evening, as it is required to do by law.
“We are working on a date for a special town meeting,” he said.
Bindelglass said the town meeting will help officials finalize language for whatever motion they put to a town vote. He said there are a number of questions unanswered
on the petition, including what would happen to the New England Prayer Center, which operates on that property.
“The petition, right now, isn’t clear,” he said. “Does this mean we’re kicking them off and bulldozing
their house? I don’t know the answer. I want, and the people deserve, clear language on what they are voting on.”
Bindelglass said there is enough controversy that the issue should go to referendum, given that about
900 more people voted in the referendum than the number of people who signed the petition.
“That’s the way we’ve handled every difficult question that’s come before the town since I’ve been here,” he said.
As part of the sale to the Aspetuck Land Trust, the larger portion of the land will have a permanent conservation easement.
“Preserve 06612’s goal is to secure a conservation easement, a voluntary restriction of certain uses of a property to protect natural, productive, or cultural features, on the 10 acres still owned by the town,” it said in a release.
The release notes that residents and local organizations dedicated to conservation spoke about the importance and desire to protect the South Park property and its unique habitat in recent town meetings. It says the area has been subject to a myriad of proposals — from farming to open space to development — since the town voted to purchase the land in 2008 to preserve it.
One worry some residents, including Preserve 06612, have is that Easton’s draft affordable housing plan includes a proposal for affordable housing on the 10-acre parcel of South Park. Bindelglass said that component of the plan is just one of a number of strategies officials came up with to address affordability issues in town.
“We had public input, and in public hearings there was support for a number of things including... low income housing on the South Park property,” he said. “Having taken in all the public input, we came up with a list of potential strategies for affordable housing — much in the way that it was also proposed for where the old elementary school is.”
Beverly Dacey, a member of Preserve 06612, called residents to action, saying everyone who passionately championed the need for conservation in Easton and preserving the entire parcel now has this opportunity to fulfill the promise.
“This effort protects our land, water and ecosystem and has extensive bipartisan support,” she said.