Strong Farm Land In Vernon Gets Preservation Status

VERNON, CT — Parcels measuring 51 acres associated with Vernon's Strong Family Farm have been officially preserved, the Connecticut Farmland Trust announced on Wednesday.

The deal includes a parcel between Route 30 and Cemetery Road and another on West Street abutting the Vernon Center Middle School campus.

The move was the culmination of a unique, three-part real estate deal that took five years to work out.

The details are:

• Seven local people first took a combined $1 million from personal savings to buy the land from the family in 2015, then sold it to the Connecticut Farmland Trust in September.
• The CFT then transferred ownership of the land in October to the nonprofit organization that manages the farm and operates an agricultural educational center — Strong Family Farm, Inc.
• The nonprofit group, which is officially independent of the family, will continue running educational programs on the land.

According to the farmland trust, the Strong family, which had owned the farm since 1878, agreed in 2014 to sell the land for $1 million when "there was nobody left to farm it." Zoned for residential use and located in Vernon Center, less than a half-mile from Interstate-84, housing developers had been interested in the farm for years.

The CFT purchased land with funding from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Open Space and Watershed Land Acquisition Grant Program, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Bafflin Foundation, the Northern Connecticut Land Trust, the CFT, the Town of Vernon’s open space fund, and donations from more than 450 individuals who gave $49,721.

The land will continue to be used as a farm, with two local farmers leasing the land – one to grow corn to feed cows and another as a grazing pasture for beef cattle.

"Protecting Strong Farm is a great example of a community coming together to save a beloved landmark. CFT is proud to have worked with such a diverse group of like-minded individuals and to have been the organization that brought this complex project to fruition," said Elisabeth Moore, the executive director of the Connecticut Farmland Trust.

Strong Family Farm figurehead Nancy Strong expressed gratitude that the land remained protected as farmland rather than a target for housing development.

"It’s treasured not just by the family but the community," she said. "We live in a wonderful town. You tend to forget that with the urban sprawl."

Ann Letendre, chair of Vernon’s Open Space Task Force, coordinated a direct-mail campaign to residents to garner community donations, according to the trust. Letendre also spearheaded the small group of Vernon-area residents who purchased the land to take it off the market until funds from grants and donations could be raised.

The group of residents, named Meetinghouse Hill LLC in honor of a historic marker, received $650,000 from the DEEP and $295,000 from the NRCS.

Saving the farmland preserves an irreplaceable part of the town’s history, local historian Jon Roe said. With its views of Hartford, the 33-acre pasture known as Meetinghouse Hill, he said, is "the birthplace ofVernon, the location of our first meeting house and first schoolhouse."

The Bafflin Foundation also awarded a $30,000 matching grant. CFT and Northern CT Land Trust each contributed $10,000. The town of Vernon gave $25,000 from its open space fund toward the purchase price and paid for an initial appraisal and land survey. In addition to the $1 million purchase price, Meetinghouse Hill LLC raised funds for an updated appraisal, legal fees and postage expenses.

Agricultural conservation easements prohibit residential and industrial development but allows construction of agricultural structures on designated areas of the land. Since its founding in 2002, CFT has protected 52 family farms, covering 3,835 acres. CFT is a private 501(c)(3) nonprofit that relies on Connecticut residents to support its operations. CFT is Connecticut's only statewide land trust, and the only land trust in the state dedicated solely to the protection of agricultural land.