COMMERCE PARK LAND COULD BE DONATED FOR OPEN SPACE

More than nine acres of land may be donated to the city for open space.

The land includes 7.38 acres of natural habitat on Augusta Drive and 1.82 acres of wetlands abutting the Still River on Newtown Road. Both properties are in Commerce Park.

Vegetation and animals live in the Augusta Drive land, said the attorney for owners Melvyn J. Powers and Mary P. Land, who want to donate the property.

“Thus, it provides an important habitat close to the Still River,” attorney Hillel Goldman said in a letter to the mayor.

The Seymour Powers Trust owns the Newtown Road land. The late Seymour Powers was a philanthropist who created Commerce Park in the early 1960s.

“These parcels of land will remain open space, and for passive recreational purposes only,” Mayor Mark Boughton said in a letter to City Council. “The city is grateful for this addition to our ever-growing open space inventory.”

An ad hoc committee with City Council is studying the donation before the full council votes whether to accept it. — jperkins@newstimes.com