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11/03/2015 02:49 PMOnce again the town has won a state grant to support acquisition of new open space. This time, the town received $390,000 from the state open space grant fund to support the purchase of 84 acres known as Toby Hill Woods.
The town will buy the land from Toby Hill Associates. This firm, the owner-developer, already has spent more than a decade building out several subdivisions in phases in the Toby Hill area, which is north of the high school.
This last 84 acres was originally planned to be developed as a residential subdivision. As the developer examined it, though, the land would have been difficult and expensive to develop. Access through the area would have required construction of two bridges, and blasting would have been required due to the substantial presence of ledge in the property. As a result, the developer decided to approach the town to see if it would like to buy the final 84 acres to preserve as open space.
Features that made the land difficult to develop for homes make it interesting and valuable to preserve as open space.
“The Toby Hills Woods open space purchase will help preserve the waterway and the source of McVeagh Brook, a major tributary to the Patchogue River. It also has scenic views,” said Tom ODell, chairman of the town’s Conservation Commission.
The water that flows through the 84-acre property continues south through the town forest, the McVeagh Road Recreation Area, and finally, on to the Patchogue River.
“This new open space purchase will help preserve a continuous greenway to protect the water resource. It will also include public trails eventually,” said ODell.
The Conservation Commission already has developed plans to link this new land to abutting Westbrook Land Trust property that extends to Route 153. With this land link, recreational hikers could connect to The Preserve by crossing Route 153 and entering that open space through the four-acre Preserve land on Route 153 in Westbrook. That access point parcel was purchased by the Town of Old Saybrook and the State of Connecticut when the two parties bought the over 900 acres of land to protect as open space.
Town Planner Meg Parulis told the Board of Selectmen that the 84-acre Toby Hill Woods property was assessed at $600,000.
To assemble the total funds needed, the town plans to use $210,000 of unspent funds still remaining in the town’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) open space fund plus the new $390,000 state open space grant. The purchase agreement includes a December 2015 closing date.
This the second recent state open space grant the town has received.
In November 2014, the town received a $650,000 state grant to buy 186 acres of open space in two parcels known as the Miele and Russo properties. Those parcels were within the state-designated Menunketesuck Greenway, whose protection is a major goal of the town’s Conservation Commission.
In August, the town approved a $105,000 appropriation from the town’s DEEP Open Space grant fund to buy 7.67 acres of undeveloped forest land known as the St. John property. This purchase abuts and links to the town’s Chapman Mill Pond open space land.
Chapman Mill Pond Parking
Soon walkers seeking access to the Chapman Mill Pond open space trails will have a place to park their cars.
Over the past month, a parcel on Route 145 owned by the town has been cleared of trees and stumps to allow a contractor to construct a parking lot on the site.
With the lot now cleared, the town will soon seek bids for a contractor to construct a parking lot on it. The goal is to have the parking area ready for use by the end of the year.
The costs to develop this new parking lot for town open space users were offset by a $57,000 state grant the Town received.
The parcel lies just north of the state Department of Transportation salt shed on Route 145.