The City of Shelton is buying most of a 13.1‑acre poultry farm on Old Town Road to preserve the land as open space.
Aldermen OK’d the purchase at their regular meeting this month. The city will pay $450,000 for the parcel in three installments, with the final payment to be made in July 2014.
The city will not take title to the land until that time, but will be able to use the land and remove an old chicken coop that is in disrepair, according to a press release from the Conservation Commission.
The owner of the property is Basil Dikovsky, who runs a poultry and egg farm on the site.
As part of the sale, Dikovsky will retain a life use for several buildings related to farm operations, and kept a portion of his land to live on.
The purchase expands the Shelton Lakes Greenway, a corridor of natural space encompassing more than 450 acres of woodlands, three reservoirs, a dog park, gardens, and 11 miles of hiking trails.
The land is also close to the Shelton Lakes Rec Path, a four-mile trail linking the city’s downtown with Huntington Center completed last year after 20 years in the making.
The press release from the Conservation Commission characterized the land as “vulnerable.”
“Although the Rec Path itself was not threatened, about a quarter-mile stretch of the popular trail near Wesley Drive overlooks a scenic wooded valley that was part of the farm and could have been subdivided by the owner,” the press release said.
Dikovsky was 2 years old when his parents fled Czechoslovakia during World War I. They purchased the Shelton property in 1934 and began raising chickens there. At its peak in the 1970s as many as 12,000 chickens were at the farm, the press release said.
Click here to read more on the Shelton Trails Committee’s blog.
