Land Swap Forum Planned

With a rallying cry of “Stop the Swap,” opponents of a plan to trade 17 acres of state land in the Tylerville section of Haddam for 87 acres of privately owned land in Higganum have scheduled an informational forum for Thursday, at 7 p.m. at the UConn extension center on Route 154 in Haddam.

The forum, according to a flyer printed on the group’s website, is open to all state residents and will feature experts who will address “this Give-A-Way of public property.”

Opponents of the land swap proposal, which is backed by state Sen. Eileen Daily, D-Westbrook, and pending in the Senate, argue it would set a dangerous precedent and represent an abandonment of the public trust by giving away lands purchased by the state and intended for conservation.

Proponents argue the plan would help boost economic development in Tylerville and secure for the state a much larger tract of forestland in Higganum that abuts the Cockaponset State Forest.

This is the third consecutive year that Daily has sought the swap, in part on behalf of the owners of the Riverhouse at Goodspeed Station, a banquet facility on Bridge Road located on property that abuts the 17 acres, which overlooks the Connecticut River.

The Riverhouse owners have said they want to build a “boutique hotel” on the 17 acres, along with associated retail developments they say would boost the economy in the area.

Opponents, however, have questioned numerous aspects of the plan, including whether it is intended to lure the Goodspeed Opera House to move across the river to the proposed development.

They also have questioned why the value of the 17 acres dropped so steeply in the 2010 revaluation of all properties in town, figures that were released this winter. The revaluation saw the assessment on the land drop from about $1 million in 2009 to $300,540 in 2010. The assessment is what the town basis its property taxes on and represents 70 percent of appraised value. According to the town’s revaluation of the property, the appraised value of the land is now $429,340. The last revaluation of properties in town was in 2005, when the land was appraised at $1.5 million.

The new appraisal brings the land’s value much closer to that of the 82 acres in Higganum, which under the town’s 2010 revaluation is now appraised at $262,810.

The issue of the value of both properties has become a central one in the land swap controversy because Connecticut law requires that any state land involved in a swap be of lesser or equal value to the property for which it would traded.

While critics have questioned how the 17 acres could lose so much value in 2010, local officials this past week defended the revised property value. Marilyn Baumann, Haddam’s assessor, said the town hired a new company, Vision Appraisal Technology of Massachusetts, which undertook a much more comprehensive and detailed look at all properties in town and took into account variables that might not have been included in previous property revaluations.

Some of those variables, Baumann said, include whether the industrially-zoned land has any zoning or building permits in place or has other improvements that could increase its value. Raw land, she said, is less valuable than improved land. Appraisers also must look at the land in relation to overall market conditions for similarly zoned land when calculating its worth.

The 17 acres, she said, is raw land that has little frontage on Bridge Road, no permits in place and may be contaminated with pollutants, factors that went into developing its revaluation.

Asked whether previous assessors and revaluation firms erred when calculating the land’s value, Baumann said she did not know.

However, an appraisal conducted by the state in 2002 put the land’s value at $1.2 million. The state bought the property in June of 2003 for $1.35 million.

Baumann pointed out that other industrial land in town owned by the state also saw sharp value declines under the 2010 revaluation.

“It brought down a lot of values in town,” she said.

For instance, the assessment on the more than 1,100-acre Cockaponset State Forest dropped from $7.3 million in 2009 to $3.8 million under the 2010 revaluation conducted by Vision Appraisal.  Another 4-acre parcel the town owns on Elm Street near the Connecticut River dropped from an assessed value of $953,030 in 2009 to $652,440 in 2010.