State Land Purchase Will Preserve Large Tracts In Newtown

By Steve Bigham

State lawmakers last week agreed to spend $65 million in next year’s state budget for the purchase of some 15,300 acres of BHC land in Fairfield County. It is being called the biggest single land buy in state history, and Newtown is a major benefactor.

More than 600 of those open space acres are located here in town.

The overall cost is about $90 million to be paid off over several years.

The land had been owned by the British-based water company Kelda, which purchased Bridgeport Hydraulic Company in 1999. Ever since, the ultimate fate of the watershed land in southern Newtown had been uncertain. Newtown and several other surrounding towns expressed concern that this picturesque open space (nearly 20,000 acres in Fairfield, Litchfield, and New Haven counties) might eventually be sold to developers. However, the state last year stepped in to say it wanted to use some of the land to create a greenway along the Aspetuck River and link land to the 883-acre Huntington State Park in Bethel and Redding.

Once in state hands, the land will be held by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

First Selectman Herb Rosenthal played an active role in the process, serving as vice chairman of the committee of area selectmen pressing for the preservation of the Kelda land. He said the town could never have afforded to buy the 600 acres on its own.

“From the standpoint of Newtown and our land, I’m very pleased that it will be protected. This is a good thing. It will never be developed. A lot of it is wetland anyway, but it’s certainly forest,” he said.

The first selectman said he was disappointed in the state’s failure to form a regional water authority that would have been a model for the state and helped avoid having to force the taxpayers to foot the bill.

David Leff of the DEP believes this is the kind of move that will have long-lasting effects on the area.

“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to shape the landscape our children and grandchildren deserve to have,” he said. “We all know Fairfield County is rapidly developing. The woods and waters of old are now paved. There’s nothing wrong with development, but they’re not making any new land there.”

Last February, Governor John Rowland and Kelda officials announced they had reached an agreement to preserve all Kelda lands from development. Some had feared Kelda might sell the land to offset the $544 million cost to buy BHC.

The state is paying just over $6,000 per acre for the land, a good deal for any Connecticut land, particularly in Fairfield County.

The state will pay for the purchase using public money from the newly created Charter Oak Open Space Trust Account and the Natural Heritage & Recreation Trust Fund. Some $10 million will come from the Nature Conservancy.

Some of the BHC land in Newtown is deemed Class I land, which cannot be sold for development due to its close proximity to reservoirs, rivers, and streams. However, there is some Class II and III land that could be sold for development. Easton is home to 6,300 acres of BHC-owned land.

The 600-plus acres of land in Newtown form the headwaters of the Aspetuck River. The land also abuts Huntington Park, making it valuable to the state.

The property sits on either side of Hopewell Road and along Equestrian Ridge and Poverty Hollow Roads.

The state will also preserve the additional 44 acres of Class III land near the Newtown/Monroe border (off Swamp Road). This property is considered even more valuable to developers, though it includes wetlands. According to Mr Rosenthal, this land may end up being purchased by the town.

The British water company Yorkshire, PLC, a subsidiary of Kelda Group, purchased the BHC land for $544 million.