The New Canaan Land Trust has acquired a long-disused property on upper Valley Road, guaranteeing preservation of an antique structure once slated for demolition and providing a first-ever headquarters for the esteemed local nonprofit organization.
The acquisition of 1124 Valley Road, final as of April 19, ends years of enmity between the town and 2.23-acre property’s former owner, the First Taxing District of Norwalk.
The town in 2018 had offered to acquire what was then a full four-acre parcel for $1.2 million. But the Taxing District rejected that offer. After applying for a demolition permit and then withdrawing it, the Taxing District later rejected the town’s offer to purchase just the house with .8 acres carved out around it, for $250,000—a figure New Canaan had arrived at following an appraisal of the property. Then former First Selectman Kevin Moynihan (a retired lawyer who routinely overspent the town’s legal budget) threatened to take it by eminent domain. The property abuts the Grupes Reservoir connects directly to the Browne Preserve, one of the first properties to come under the protection of the Land Trust.