Farmland or Development? Granby Voters Have Decisions to Make

There’s a $3 million question that residents will have to answer this January and it’s drawing mixed reactions from local officials and town residents.

Should Granby purchase the 124-acre Evonsion Farm at 101 East Street?

The purchase would be part of an $11.4 million bonding package that voters will be asked to approve on Jan. 17, 2012, when the polls open for a referendum designed to address big-ticket capital improvements for both the town and school district.

There are several underlying issues concerning the town’s future that have led officials to consider buying the property; one overt and the other subtle.

First Selectman John Adams said the primary reason behind the purchase is to preserve open space; but a secondary benefit, according to Adams and Town Manager William Smith, lies in the need to prepare for other potential long-term needs including the development of athletic fields or construction of a new school.

Granby continues to expand, and some estimates suggest the population could increase to as much as 30,000 residents, Adams said. The town’s population is currently around 11,000.

If the town is successful in acquiring the farm, no changes would be made in the foreseeable future, however.

“[Building a school or athletic fields] might be something done 20 years down the road,” Adams said. “It would continue to operate as a farm, and the town would allow the farmers to use the land.”

Adams said acquiring the land to preserve open space would also mean that private developers would be prevented from converting the farmland into residential property.

Numerous private developers have expressed their interest in acquiring and building houses on the land, said Ray Evonsion, who owns the farm with his brother Steven. One set of plans propose subdivisions and the construction of 80 houses on the land, Adams said, and would have a significant negative financial impact on the town.

Adams said it costs $360,000 to educate two children for 13 years each in the Granby school system. The taxes generated from one residence valued between $500,000 to even $750,000 wouldn’t support the cost of educating the children, let alone the cost of supplying other town services to the entire family, he said.

“That house will never produce those tax revenues,” Adams said.

Why $3 Million?

One question residents have regarding the purchase is how exactly a $3 million figure was identified for the 128-acre property.

T.W. Henry Real Estate Appaisers, an East Granby company, valued the property at $2.6 million in February 2009, including houses, a barn and utility buildings in their report, Smith said.

“The town is asking for $3 million to secure the property, but we’ll negotiate any consequences to situations that have taken place subsequent to the last appraisal,” Smith said.

A parcel of land and house located at 101 East St. from Ray Evonsion to Dale Evonsion for $84,000, which could change the 2009 figure.

“We’re going to pay based on present value,” Smith said, noting the bond request is a maximum spending limit and the town may not spend that much. “We have to weigh those things into the final negotiated amount.”

From Farm Country to Suburb

Recent history suggests an ever-evolving shift away from Granby’s agrarian roots to Hartford suburb, Ray Evonsion said. The Evonsion family has owned the farm, the largest parcel in town according to Evonsion, since 1951.

In the last eight years, Evonsion, 70, and his brother Steven Evonsion, 67, have been fielding offers to sell the farm because no one in the family wants to work the land anymore.

“It’s too hard to make a living anymore,” Ray Evonsion said. “There used to be eight farms on East Street, and that’s only a couple of miles long. Now there is just one farm left on the street. There are only two farms left in all of Granby. It’s a downright shame.”

Given the difficulty he’s had making a living off the land — Steven Evonsion is not a farmer — Ray Evonsion said that the brothers don’t have much of a choice.

“There’s no other recourse,” he said. “We’re 70 years old. Who’s going to use it?”

If the family is going to sell, however, Evonsion said that his preference is that the town be the buyer.

“I’d rather look out and see kids playing than houses,” he said. “We’d much rather that the town got it. Steven is an avid outdoors person. He’d love to see it as open space, a school or playing fields.”

All these points will be moot, however, if voters reject the spending proposal at the referendum.

“We hope voters approve the measure and we conclude the purchase,” Adams said.