The town will contribute about $100,000 toward the purchase of an antique house on upper Valley Road that a prominent local nonprofit organization is in the process of purchasing, New Canaan’s highest elected official said. As he’d indicated last month, First Selectman Kevin Moynihan told the Board of Finance during its April 11 meeting that the New Canaan Land Trust “has succeeded in negotiating a purchase of the 1124 Valley Road house, which we’ve been trying to protect for the last four years.”
Referring to the public agency that has owned the four-acre property since 2006, Moynihan continued, “The First Taxing District of Norwalk is trying to improve relations with their neighbors, including the town of New Canaan, and they would like us to participate in their purchase on a 1-to-5 ratio. They’re getting an extra acre of open space to connect the two properties, the Brown Preserve of about 10 acres, and the two acres they’re purchasing. We have the Land Acquisition Fund for that purpose and I think the process is that the Board of Selectmen has to approve it. And they [Land Trust officials] may have to come through all the bodies.”
Asked what the town’s contribution to the sale would be, Moynihan said, “Probably less than $100,000.”
“I don’t want to announce their purchase price because they haven’t announced it,” he said during a general update to the Board.