With $100K deal, 20 acres of forest saved from development
NEWTOWN — Volunteers with the oldest private land trust in Connecticut have teamed up with the town to buy 20 acres of forest off the development market to preserve as open space.
The $100,000 deal, negotiated by the nonprofit Newtown Forest Association and approved by town leaders late last
month, preserves 20 acres of land zoned for single-family development on the north border of the Head O’Meadow Elementary School campus on Boggs Hill Road.
The wooded property is the latest piece of protected land in a growing corridor of green south of Route 302 that features 150 acres of open space owned by either Newtown or the NFA.
“We couldn’t have done this without the town, or without the family selling us the property for what we would call a bargain purchase,” said Guy Peterson, president and treasurer of the 97-year-old NFA. “These things take a long time.”
After years of informal talks and negotiations with the family that owned the $300,000 property, NFA secured an agreement to buy the land for $100,000, said Bart Smith, vice president of the NFA.
The town for its part agreed to give $100,000 of open space acquisition money to the NFA to close the deal.
“The money was already allocated and readily available from a previous bond,” said George Benson, Newtown’s planning director, referring to money the town had left over from a separate open space deal to buy the development rights from the iconic Castle Hill Farm. “This was received well by everyone in town because it’s a win for everyone.”
The 20-acre open space deal creates a 3-mile corridor of preserved land from Bentagrass Lane south to Palestine and Hundred Acre roads, where the NFA owns 30 acres of the former Cherry Grove Farm.
The goal is to create trails for newly acquired 20 acres that connect to the trail system in the other preserves, Peterson said.
“We probably won’t do that for another year or so,” Peterson said on Wednesday. “Right now we are looking to acquire another parcel also abutting this (new) property in the near future.”
The Boggs Hill Road woods property is the latest addition to NFA’s 1,100 acres of protected wilderness and farmland. That makes the NFA Newtown’s largest private landowner.
The acquisition follows a $600,000 open space deal late last year that protected a 31-acre parcel of Castle Hill farmland from development, while allowing the Paproski family to continue to own and farm it.
The deal, brokered by the Connecticut Farmland Trust, ensured that pastoral views of rural Newtown along Route 302 will be preserved for generations to come.
Orginally Newtown had pledged $450,000 toward the deal but wound up splitting the cost with the Natural Resources Conservation Service. That gave the town money left over to give to the NFA for the latest preservation project.
“This was the best possible scenario for all of us,” Benson said.