Town officials closed a $1.2 million deal to preserve 66 acres of open space, First Selectman Mary Ann Drayton-Rogers announced Monday.
The land, the purchase of which was approved by residents at a town meeting, is surrounded on three sides by the Rockhouse Hill Sanctuary and is near the playing fields at Oxford High School.
The land is zoned for residential use.
The land is important because a subdivision in the middle of the 400-plus acre Rockhouse Hill Sanctuary would have been a “nightmare to contemplate,” said Peter Petrochko, president of the Oxford Land Trust, a group that advocates for open space preservation.
“Fortunately, that did not happen,” he said.
The town is using $400,000 from its open space fund for the purchase. It is using short-term notes and bonds for the balance.
Oxford has a chance of getting a grant from the state Department of Environmental Protection, which could cover 65 percent of the market price of the land.
According to minutes from the town meeting where the purchase was approved, the town had two appraisals done on the land. They came in at $950,000 and $1.025 million, respectively.
The contract has additional money to clean up some items on the land, according to the meeting minutes.
The purchase was approved by the boards of Selectmen, Finance, along with the Planning and Zoning Commission.
The purchase will prevent the land from bring developed, Drayton-Rogers said in a prepared statement.
The statement is posted below.
“This property will help maintain the rural character of our community, a much-desired aspect of Oxford, which residents treasure,” Drayton-Rogers said.
“The simple action of signing contracts, culminates more then two years of negotiations between the town and the seller. This acreage has been referred to as the Von Wettberg property, but it represents so much more. It is protecting what could never be replaced if it had been developed for residential use,” she said.
Bishop Von Wettberg was the town’s longtime probate judge.
Oxford is purchasing the land from the Haynes brothers, according to Petrochko.
Property records list the owner as Quaker Farms, LLC. Paul Haynes of Oxford is listed as the manager of the company.
The Land Trust helped with the purchase by spreading the word about the town meeting and educating the public about the importance of open space.
Petrochko noted that Selectman Dave McKane is a land trust founding member.
The contract was signed Thursday, according to Drayton-Rogers.
The land will be used for passive recreation. Motorized vehicles and hunting will not be allowed.
