It was a good month in Seymour and Oxford for open space preservation — the Seymour Land Conservation Trust is about 13 acres of open space richer, and the Oxford Land Trust is about 11 acres richer.
Technically, the property for the Seymour Land Trust is in Beacon Falls.
But the land trust was more than happy to take the property into its portfolio of more than 200 acres of open space, when the Seymour Board of Selectmen voted unanimously May 17 to give the land to the trust.
The town had owned the land for about a decade, according to First Selectman Paul Roy, having received it as open space from the Rolling Hills subdivision development on the Beacon Falls town line.
“We’re looking at developing it as a nature trail,” said Frank Conroy Jr., president of the Seymour Land Trust.
The Town of Seymour also benefits by giving the land to the trust. The town will save on tax payments it was making to Beacon Falls, said First Selectman Paul Roy.
“We had been paying tax of $3700 a year to Beacon Falls,” Roy said. “We’re always trying to figure ways to save.”
W. Kurt Miller, a Republican member of the Board of Selectmen said Seymour was wise to give it to the land trust.
“It’s protected for open space and those are things we need to do,” Miller said.
The Seymour Land Conservation Trust owns a number of nature trails and is best known for its Legion Pool trout fishing pond.
In the end, the people who enjoy the open space probably more than the hikers and nature lovers are the neighboring property owners, Conroy said.
“They’re satisfied nothing else but a nature trail will be there,” he said.
A map of the new land trust property is listed below. The Seymour land is listed at the top of the map.
Oxford’s land gift came from a property owner, Gray Eagle LLC. The property owner made an arrangement to gift the land off Hollis Drive near Towantic Brook to the land trust in exchange for about $2,400 in property tax credits.
First Selectwoman Mary Ann Drayton-Rogers called it a good deal for Oxford, following the Board of Selectmen’s May 18 meeting.
Republican Selectman David Yish agreed.
“We thought that was a small price to pay for a donation,” Yish said.
Drayton-Rogers said the land will eventually become part of a greenway in the area.
