[C]onservation advocates must raise $120,000 over the next week in order to fund a 22-acre land purchase at Highway 89’s Exit 4, where plans for a massive hotel and shopping center have been scuttled in favor of a goat farm.
The majority of a 172-acre parcel slated for the development has been sold already to a Montpelier-based conservation organization called Castanea Foundation for $1.2 million, and the remaining 22-acre parcel is in the process of being sold for $1 million to the Preservation Trust of Vermont.
The Preservation Trust has until June 15 to raise the money. Paul Bruhn, executive director of the nonprofit, says about $880,000 has been pulled in thus far.
The entire 172-acre plot has been appraised for more than $3 million, Bruhn said, and it’s being sold for $2.2 million in total. The site is near the village of Randolph and the Rochester Mountains. It encompasses agricultural land, wetlands and an abandoned golf range.
“We were able to do this acquisition at a price … substantially below both the appraised value and the value [assessed] for tax purposes,” Bruhn said.
A substantial portion of the remaining 22 acres is prime agricultural land, he said. Views from the parcel are “iconic,” Bruhn said. Conservation of the parcel will ensure that those views from I-89 aren’t obstructed in future. Finally, commercial development on Exit 4 would threaten the vitality of nearby Randolph’s downtown economy, Bruhn said.
If Preservation Trust can buy the 22-acre parcel that remains, the group will place a conservation easement on it and resell it — probably to a farmer, although a buyer has not yet been identified, Bruhn said.
The Castanea Foundation is putting an easement on the larger property, and will sell it to Ayers Brook Farm, which is run by principals affiliated with Vermont Creamery, a goat dairy.
If the Preservation Trust can’t raise the money by June 15, the deal is off, according to Sam Sammis, the owner of the property and a real-estate broker and developer from Connecticut.
Sammis had planned for 40 years to develop the area at the Interstate 89 exit. In 2015, he sought permits from the state to put 274 residential units, 280,000 square feet of office space, 236,000 square feet of industrial space and a 180-room hotel on the land, along with a highway rest stop.
Sammis recently abandoned the proposal and negotiated with local residents who wanted to preserve the property.
If the Preservation Trust can’t raise the capital to buy it, the land will likely be sold to another developer, Sammis says.
The 22 acres the Preservation Trust is seeking to conserve is “the most developable” land of the entire 172 acres, Bruhn says.
Bruhn said he’s optimistic he will reach the fundraising goal.
The Preservation Trust had commitments of about $150,000 when it announced a month ago that the purchase was in the works, Bruhn said. The other $730,000 now set aside for the land buy has been raised since then. Around 400 donors have given money to the effort, he said.
“We’ve have made amazing progress since the announcement a few weeks ago,” Bruhn said. “We have a week to go, and we are absolutely determined we’re going to get to the goal.”
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