Christmas came early — right before Thanksgiving — for 29 Connecticut cities and towns when the governor’s office and the state Department of Environmental Protection announced grants totaling $10.2 million towards the purchase of 2,440 acres as open space.
Acquisitions range from $490,000 for the Nature Conservancy to buy 370 forested acres in Salem to $27,440 to the Goshen Land Trust for 14 undeveloped acres with wetlands and a stream to serve as an outdoor classroom for pupils of the Goshen Center School next door.
Connecticut, like many other states, sees land preservation as integral to quality of life for its residents, whether the land is used for recreation, as a buffer between residential and commercial development, or to preserve natural resources, plants and animals.
When land is purchased as open space, it becomes indefinitely ineligible for development. Towns and cities benefit because they do not need to spend tax dollars to build the schools and infrastructure needed to support such development.
But finding the money to finance open space preservation may prove difficult in this anemic economy, state officials say. Facing a yawning two-year budget deficit projected at $6 billion, it’s an open question as to how much more borrowing the state can afford for next year’s round of open space grants.
Tom Tyler, manager of the DEP’s land acquisition and management section, and Rich Harris, spokesman for Gov. M. Jodi Rell, acknowledged that prospects are cloudy for the state to maintain progress toward the 25-year goal of carving out 21 percent of Connecticut’s 3.2 million acres as open space.
So far, Connecticut has achieved 72 percent of its 672,000-acre open-space goal, which the General Assembly set in 1997, Tyler said.
Municipalities, nonprofit land conservation organizations and water companies rely on financial aid from the state’s Open Space and Watershed Land Acquisition Grant program.
According to the governor’s office, state taxpayers funded this year’s grants: $5.7 million in state bond funds and $4.5 million from the 2005 Community Investment Act. Since 1998, the open space grant program has provided more than $94.1 million to purchase 21,624 acres, Rell’s office said.
The bulk of the state’s land acquisitions have been financed with bonds through the Recreation and National Heritage Trust program, he said. Since its creation in 1986, the trust has financed $230 million for the state’s purchase of 53,000 acres, much of it land for new or existing state parks and forests.
For fiscal 2009, the trust has authorized $7.5 million for open-space purchases. That funding must be approved by the state bond commission.
Harris, the governor’s spokesman, said it is too early to say if, or how much, the state will borrow for open space acquisitions at a time when school construction and infrastructure for clean water, roads and sewer are all competing for taxpayers’ dollars.
He said Rell is strongly committed to land preservation but also sensitive to the burden extra borrowings put on the state’s debt service.
“When the state is open to going forward with bonding,’’ Harris said, “I’m sure open space preservation is going to be a priority.’’
Deburring Lab Listed
Deburring Laboratories has put its Berlin industrial headquarters at 73 Woodlawn Road up for sale, with a price tag of $1.05 million.
Sentry Commercial Broker Dave Murdock said the 25,405-square-foot building, which dates to 1966, is the site where the company manufactures deburring machinery and performs plating and polishing services. The building is owned by Rebdan LLC.
Maier Design Moving
After seven years of ownership, Maier Design Group LLC has put its turn-of-the-20th-century West Hartford office headquarters on the market, with an asking price of $725,000.
Sentry Commercial Broker Larry Levere said the architecture and interior designer will change addresses once it sells the three-story, 4,842-square-foot office at 643 Prospect Ave.
The building is owned by 643 Prospect Avenue LLC.
Greg Seay is the Hartford Business Journal Web Editor.
