A Good Plan To Preserve Open Space

The recent decision by the Board of Selectmen to cut $150,000 from its current budget proposal requested by the Conservation Commission for the purchase of open space was a setback for local land conservationists. They were hoping to build on the momentum of the state’s initiative to purchase 15,300 acres of utility lands in southwest Connecticut, including 602 acres in Newtown. Coupled with available state money for matching grants for the acquisition of open space, the $150,000 would provide the town with a great opportunity to add to its open space holdings at a bargain rate.

But this year, the town is struggling with too many anticipated expenses – including financing for a new school for grades five and six and the anticipated purchase of Fairfield Hills – and not enough revenue. In an effort to keep the tax rate from rising more than an anticipated 2.4 mills, the Legislative Council has asked the Board of Education to shave an additional $200,000 from a school spending plan the school board says is already nicked and bleeding. In setting priorities for town spending, the immediate needs of education have properly taken precedence over the anticipated long-term benefits of open space.

The Legislative Council hit on a plan this week, however, that should please conservationists without placing additional burdens on the taxpayer or exacting further sacrifices from the school system. The council voted to allocate $750,000 in anticipated revenues from the sale of the town-owned properties along Queen Street to the town’s capital and non-recurring reserve account, formally noting their intention to use those funds for open space acquisition. The council, inspired in no small part by a generous $10,000 donation by private citizen Mary Burnham for the purchase of open space, hoped to underscore its commitment to the goals of the Conservation Commission to provide for Newtown not only the ambiance that open space provides for our neighborhoods, but also added protection for our watercourses, watersheds, and adjacent lands.

With deed restrictions on the sale of the Queen Street properties, the town can raise capital with no loss of existing open space to be used to extend protection to other sensitive properties that now lie vulnerable in the path of Newtown’s continuing development. Having set this course, the council also takes the disposition of the Queen Street properties out of limbo. It, like so many other town initiatives, had been backed up in the queue of things to consider after the purchase and development of Fairfield Hills are resolved. The decision by the council will now allow the town to go ahead and put the Queen Street properties on the market without further delay. Once this year’s budget is passed, we hope the selectmen will expedite the sale of these properties so open space acquisitions elsewhere can commence as soon as possible.