Glastonbury voters will decide in Tuesday’s election whether to authorize the town to borrow $3 million to preserve land, either by buying it outright or buying development rights.
A 1988 town ordinance established the town’s Reserve for Land Acquisition and Preservation, Town Manager Richard J. Johnson said in a July report to the Town Council. Since then, voters have approved $31 million for the fund in 11 referendums, and the town has used the money to preserve about 50 parcels totaling about 2,200 acres, the town manager wrote.
Money available totals $800,000 and it “could be fully allocated subject to action on pending land purchases,” Johnson wrote.
Under a town ordinance, land bought through the program can be used not only for open space and farmland preservation but also for purposes such as recreation, schools and municipal facilities, and to preserve the property’s historical or archeological value.
A major argument council members have made for major open-space purchases is that they save the town the money it would have to spend on public services, such as schools, for new residents if the land were developed with housing.
The town’s biggest recent land purchase that used money from the fund was of 542 acres of mostly wooded land in the northern part of town from a Metropolitan District Commission pension fund.
That purchase, approved last year by the Town Council, cost $8 million. The state contributed $1 million while the remainder of the money came from the Reserve for Land Acquisition and Preservation and the town’s fund balance.
