Berlin Adds to Open Space with Purchase of 71 Acres

Berlin Mayor Rochette has announced that the Town of Berlin has finalized the $1.2 million purchase of 71.1 acres of property on Chamberlain Highway from the Chotkowski family.

The land will be used as open space and it will provide a key link between the Town’s Hatchery Brook Conservation Area and Bicentennial Park creating an open space area of over 488 acres extending from across the block in both directions — from Chamberlain Highway to Kensington Road and from Orchard Road to Norton Road.

Initial plans for the property will include the creation and improvement of hiking trails to link to adjacent parks. In the future, a small parking lot also may be developed on Chamberlain Highway.

The closing culminates several years of effort to secure this key property in order to connect major open space areas and to add to the town’s major open space protected area in South Kensington.

Rochette said in a statement, “I thank the Berlin Land Trust for assisting the town in the negotiations with the Chotkowski family including entering into the contract to buy the parcel and then assigning that contract to the Town. The purchase will be assisted by a $500,000 grant from the State of Connecticut’s Open Space and Watershed Land Acquisition Program.”

Rochette added, “I thank Governor Malloy and our State Legislative delegation Senator Terry Gerratana, Representative Joe Aresimowicz and Representative Catherine Abercrombie for their continued and ongoing assistance and support for Berlin’s improvement projects.”

“The acquisition of the properties will be another major step forward in Berlin’s open space preservation program and it will provide for an ideal expansion of hiking trails in the block. The Town is also in the process of completing a project on the adjacent Kensington Orchards site on Chamberlain Highway. This project will include a new parking area, relocation of the driveway to the former Girl Scout camp Meribrite that is now part of the Town’s Hatchery Brook Conservation Area. This acquisition is part of the Town’s long term effort to preserve key open space properties and to retain the rural character of the community,” Rochette said.

The Chotkowski family will retain ownership of about 27 acres of land including most of the road frontage and the houses at 1255 and 1301 Chamberlain Highway.

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Photo credit: Town of Berlin.