More than 82 farming acres in the shadow of UConn’s Storrs campus are now permanently sheltered from development, state agriculture officials say.
Owners of the 243-year-old Stearns Farm in Mansfield, one of the largest dairy farms in the state, are the latest to sell development rights to their acreage under the state’s Farmland Preservation Program.
The town of Mansfield and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service also partnered in the Stearns transaction, state Ag Commissioner Steven K. Reviczky said Tuesday. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.
Meantime, Stearns’ owners have applied to sell development rights to another 650 of their 1,000 acres, officials said.
To date, Connecticut’s program has preserved 314 farms and more than 41,500 acres through conveyance of development rights to the state, Reviczky said.
The aim is to protect valuable, arable farmland from being sold for residential and commercial development, ensuring sufficient acreage is available for current and future agricultural production.
