SCARBOROUGH — Scarborough Town Council approved an expenditure from the Scarborough Land Bond in the amount of $210,000 to assist the Scarborough Land Trust’s acquisition of 380 Payne Road.

This was the second reading, to approve the expenditure, in the amount of $210,o00 from the land Acquisition Reserve Fund for the purpose of purchasing 380 Payne Road.

“The purchase of the parcel is a rare opportunity to acquire a piece of the puzzle that completes a big block purchase in the 8 Corners Habitat Corridor,” said Scarborough Parks and Conservation Land Board Chair Suzanne Foley-Ferguson in a previous statement.

The land was just donated to the Scarborough Land Trust by the Downs. This property is on the other side of Payne Road but also abutting Wormwood. The large block also includes both sides of a long length of the Nonesuch River. Different plots of land in the area have been preserved over the years and the Land Trust keeps adding parcels to it.

The purchase will assist the Land Trust in protecting water quality in the marsh, wildlife habitat for many birds and animals, and connections to other trails, according to the Land Trust.

“Most of the land abides sensitive wetlands,” said Town Council Chair John Cloutier, “so, it is important for us to protect the land. The property is currently under contract, we have given our town manager authorization to sign any agreement that is necessary. The one thing they are waiting on is the appraisal, just making sure the property comes back and appraises close to the amount that they are asking for or they will have to do some renegotiations if it does not. But, I think that everyone was expecting for it to appraise and for everything to come back fine.”

In November 2019, voters approved an additional $2.5 million for land conservation and historic preservation. The Parks and Conservation Land Board was created to evaluate properties for conservation and recommend to the Town Council the use of land bond monies for the purpose of acquisition and stewardship of conserved lands.

“We sent to the voters a couple of years ago an authorization to issue up to $2.5 million in bonds for conservation for these types of acquisitions,” Cloutier said. “Even though we didn’t have specific projects in front of us at the time we knew that they would be coming and if you have to go to the voters every time something like this comes up that can obviously delay things quiet a bit.  With that authorization when an opportunity comes up we have a town committee that looks at it because the Land Trust is a separate organization and then they make a recommendation to the council if they think it is a good fit, and that is what happened with this one. A committee evaluated it and determined it to be a good acquisition to conserve and it was welcome news to the council. It was unanimously supported.”

 

 

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