Groton Open Space Association

Hopkinton, RI Trust Proposes $5 M. Bond Issue For Open Space

HOPKINTON, RHODE ISLAND–The Hopkinton Land Trust is proposing a $5 million bond issue for acquiring 1,000 acres of open space to prevent it from being broken up by residential developers. The trust argues, based on recently developed figures, that new residential subdivisions cost the town far more than they generate in property tax revenues. .

The Westerly Sun reported that Land Trust member W. Edward Wood presented the new cost-revenue figures to the Town Council meeting Nov. 24, 2003. The figures, contained in a study by a University of Rhode Island researcher, indicates that each new home gives rise to 1.27 students in the town’s school system. The study by Ariana E. Johnson, a graduate student in URI’s Department of Community Planning and Landscape Architecture, said the town spends $6,330 a year for each student, while taking in only $2,983 in property taxes for each new home.

The study used a 14-lot subdivision built in 1996 as an example and showed that by the year 2000 the municipal costs to service the development were $60,000, compared to revenues of just $40,000. Wood said that Hopkinton’s closeness to I-95, its relatively low land prices and its 191 undeveloped parcels of more than 20 acres make it vulnerable to future residential development, the Sun report by Ryan McBride said. The town now has 3,600 acres, or 12% of its total area, designated as permanent open space, while 3,300 acres have temporary protection under the Farm Forest Open Space program.

Groton, Connecticut, is in a similar position, proportionally. Approximately 11% of Groton’s total 20,300 acres is solidly preserved as open space by the state, the town or private land trusts, according to an analysis presented to the Groton Town Council May 6, 2003, by a GOSA director. Another 10% is temporarily preserved as the golf course, cemeteries, public water supply watershed and open area around public facilities.