The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Land trust seeks city funds to buy historic theater
NORWALK — The Norwalk Land Trust has received an endorsement in its effort to buy the historic White Barn Theater property in the Cranbury neighborhood.
The Norwalk Conservation Commission on Tuesday unanimously directed its staff to draft paperwork in support of the NLT’s request for $200,000 from the city’s Open Space Fund to help purchase the property.
“There was a resolution to have staff send a support and recommendation (letter) to the Land Use Committee of the Common Council,” Alexis Cherichetti, Norwalk’s senior environmental officer and staff person to the commission, said after the meeting at City Hall.
The action came after a presentation by NLT board members and supporters of the project.
“This is one of several steps that we’re going through to try to get a grant from the city of Norwalk for the purchase of the White Barn property,” NLT board member Peggy Holton said after the meeting. “There are two more levels of approval. This is step one of a threestep process. It still has to go before the Land Use (Committee). It still has to go to the Common Council.”
The NLT, which already has a conservation easement on the property, announced in late November that it had an agreement in place with the property owner to purchase the entire 15.4-acre parcel at 78 Cranbury Road.
James Fieber, manager of property owner 78 Cranbury Road II, LLC, and his wife donated $1 million toward the purchase of the property. The NLT said it was delighted that 78 Cranbury II, LLC — which has approvals to build 15 luxury homes on the site — was willing to work with the land trust to come to an arrangement that will “preserve the property as open space in perpetuity.”
At the same time, the NLT was charged with raising $1 million in additional donations toward the $5 million purchase price by April 2.
“The price is serious and is going to be a three-year slog,” Holton said Tuesday. “We need all the help we can get. The deadline to close — or, at least, the guaranteed right to close — is this spring. However, it will require that we have a $3 million-plus mortgage to repay over three years.”
The fundraising effort is well underway, with donations large and small coming in. In addition to the Fiebers’ commitment, one person has pledged a $300,000 donation. Several hundred others have made smaller donations, ranging from roughly $25 to $10,000, Holton said.
The NLT has produced a glossy brochure titled “Help Norwalk Land Trust Save the White Barn Property” and mailed it to more than 1,000 people, Holton said.
The property is one of the last open space tracts in Norwalk and Fairfield County. It includes a 1-acre pond, sensitive wetlands and stream that feeds into the Saugatuck River and Long Island Sound, and offers habitat to at-risk wildlife, including little brown bats, great and snowy egrets, spotted turtles and Eastern box turtles, according to the land trust.
The NLT, a nonprofit organization, has under its stewardship 90 acres of open space in Norwalk, including an existing easement on 5.5 acres of the White Barn property. The city contributed $250,000 from its Open Space Fund toward the creation of that easement in 2008, according to Holton.
The city’s Open Space Fund currently stands at $215,000, according to Norwalk Director of Finance Robert Barron.
Until 2002, the barnturned-theater and house at 78 Cranbury Road were the home of Lucille Lortel, proclaimed the “Queen of OffBroadway” by the Museum of the City of New York, and a summer theater for 50 years.
The theater was demolished last July after a twoyear fundraising effort by the White Barn Theater Foundation to save it from a housing development came up short. Fieber said at the time that the theater building had to come down due to its deteriorated condition, but he added that he remained open to discussion about other aspects of the property.
For information, visit norwalklandtrust.org.