“Aquarion would hold 20 acres as class I/class II land, and 8 acres for two lots, leaving 72 acres to be protected for the bargain price of $2 million.”
Pat Seto, Director of Greenwich’s Inland Wetlands and Watercourses AgencyThe 100 acres was valued at $6 million.
Greenwich Land Trust would pay $1 million and the Town would pay $1 million. In the end, Land Trust would own the parcel and maintain it. The Town of Greenwich would have an overlying easement guaranteeing public access.
“I feel like this is a great opportunity for the Town. We spent $1 million for 72 acres of open space for public use and someone else maintains it,” Sesto said. “I’m feeling like that’s a great deal.”
The Greenwich Land Trust will create a management plan every 10 years that the Town would conduct a review to make sure the plan is being implemented.
“It’s a very exciting development for our Town – to add to open space and add to our hiking trails,” said First Selectman Fred Camillo.
Camillo noted that the land is in close proximity to other open space owned by the Town that are available to the general public.
“This kind of connects to the Babcock property,” he said. “To access that from this 72 acre parcel, will we be given access?”
Sesto said Aquarion is open to discussing whether to allow pedestrians to traverse their property to get from one trail system to another, but it is not part of the structured deal.
The Board of Selectmen will do a second read of the proposal on July 22.
Should they vote in favor, the next steps are for the acquisition and easement to go before the P&Z commission for MI approval.
Finally, in September it would go before the RTM.