Groton Open Space Association

Land Prices Seen Favoring Green Acquisitions

NEW HAVEN — Recession real estate prices have created a buyer’s market for communities interested in adding to open space, the Connecticut Town & City [correct] newsletter notes.

The newsletter, put out by the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, said in its February issue:

One of the biggest deals was done in Guilford, where the town spent $11.4 million to buy 624 acres of tidal marshes and meadows that extend for about two miles along the East River.

The land was considered especially precious because it completes one of the largest projects in the state’s coastal management program.

The state Department of Environmental Protection said it had been thrilled to work with Guilford on the deal. The DEP contributed $3 million to the purchase price, from a grant won from the federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The deal was one of several that found municipalities or land trusts were taking advantage of lower prices to snap up land that had previously been out of reach.

In Madison, for example, the Trust for Public Land spent $9.7 million to acquire a 42-acre site that at one time was destined to be a 127-unit housing development. Now it will be preserved as a buffer to the beaches of Hammonasset State Park.

In Salem, the [$230,000 Salem Land Trust] purchase of [Zemko] saw mill site also went through [last July] after the owner was unable to find a private buyer at a higher price. [The saw mill property comprises a reported 72 acres.]

David Bingham, a Salem resident and vice chairman of the Connecticut League of Conservation Voters, said the deals were reminiscent of the Great Depression, when the state acquired much of its park land.

Other towns noted in the survey were Glastonbury, New Hartford, Suffield, Wethersfield and Windsor Locks either for approving bond issues or closing deals.