New Canaan taxpayers may need to help fund the purchase of a Valley Road parcel that includes a well-known 18th Century house, the town’s highest elected official said this week.
1124 Valley Road. Credit: Michael Dinan
Owned by the First Taxing District of Norwalk Water Department, the red-painted house by the Grupes Reservoir at 1124 Valley Road and 4-acre property it sits on for years has been intently pursued by preservationists and open space advocates in New Canaan.
During a discussion Tuesday about New Canaan’s need to decide just which old buildings in town it wants to save, First Selectman Kevin Moynihan noted that the New Canaan Land Trust has offered $1.2 toward acquiring the property.
“I am still working aggressively to try to save the ‘Grupes House’ on Valley Road,” Moynihan said during a regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen, held at Town Hall. “That may require some town funding, if we are going to participate with partners who are putting up over $1 million to try to preserve that, really one of oldest houses in New Canaan.”
Long aware of the property, which abuts the the 10.3-acre Browne Wildlife Sanctuary, Land Trust officials and preservationists have been trying to figure out a way to acquire and protect the property since it hit the market three years ago at $2.25 million. Its owners in February applied for a demolition permit for the house, kickstarting an extended and at times contentious negotiation between the town and Taxing District.
A committee of the town in March imposed a 90-day delay on the demolition. Town officials in April said they were interesting in taking the property by eminent domain, while the Land Trust offered to pay $1.2 million for it.
Taxing District officials have said they’ve offered to sell the house itself to the New Canaan Land Trust, with about .8 acres around it, for less than the $1.2 million that the organization has offered to pay for the entire parcel, and have offered in the past to let the Land Trust or any other interested party physically remove the home if they want it.
In May, the property’s owners pulled their application to demolish the antique and reiterated that they would sell the house on Valley Road, though not the entire parcel. (The property last was appraised at $1,590,600, according to tax records.) In doing so, the Taxing District said it had “determined that the value of the property to achieve our mission to provide the highest quality drinking water at some of the lowest prices in Connecticut to the customers in our service area far exceeds the current appraised dollar value that could be received from a possible sale of the property.”
Since then, the town filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Taxing District, seeking to find out its plans vis-a-vis the Valley Road property.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Selectman Kit Devereaux asked for an update on the FOIA request.
“They have given us a total of one memo and three emails, which I do not think is very responsive to our FOIA request,” Moynihan said.
“They operate in this town through the good graces of the Town of New Canaan and i just don’t think they seriously understand their obligations under FOIA. But we will get to bottom of what their plans are and what the house status is.”
As it is, the house is empty and “perhaps in jeopardy,” Moynihan said.
“But in that case we have partners willing to put up more than $1 million and so I think that is worth fighting for.”
I don’t see why the town should spend more than $1M on an old house that has a market value of less than $800K. The town should focus it’s efforts on long term infrastructure improvements rather than reducing the tax base with taxpayer money.
I would like to correct a misconception forwarded by the previous commentator. The Town of New Canaan would not spend “more than $1M” to save the Grupe-Nichols-Browne House. Rather, the First Selectman and Board of Selectmen have played a very important role in managing negotiations with the owners of the historic homestead – First Taxing District of Norwalk Water Department. A dedicated group of preservationists and open space advocates have secured serious financial commitments to save the structure which once served a 200-acre farm in the scenic Northeast corner of our Town, but have been unable to arrive at a fair price for the house and land held by the Water Department. That is why the Town Leaders have taken on the intermediary role. As for real estate taxes foregone, the commentator might be interested to know that the First Taxing District of Norwalk Water Department pays less than $10,000 per annum despite owning 160 acres of land, reservoirs, a water treatment facility and pipelines in New Canaan.
Thank You Skip,
If the town is willing to spend one million dollars on a elevator can’t we just settle this whole matter save it no matter what it takes. It’s not only money that will do it…
N. Jensen…