Wilton Land Trust Plans to Preserve Ridgefield Road Meadow

WILTON, CT -- The Wilton Land Conservation Trust has reached an agreement with the owner of the 13-acre meadow at 183 Ridgefield Road to take possession of the parcel for public use.

The Land Trust will take title to the property in the spring of 2019, once it raises the $2.3 million needed to buy the site and make it accessible. “This is an ambitious challenge in a very tight time frame,” said Peter Gaboriault, President of the Land Trust, in a media release. "But we’ve already raised $1 million. We think it’s possible and that we have to try.”

The Land Trust will launch its town-wide fundraising campaign in the coming months. Funds raised to date include $250,000 from the members of the Land Trust’s board and $750,000 from the Bauer Family Foundation. The board believes that $500,000 can be raised in the town-wide campaign and hopes the balance will come from a grant under the State’s Open Space grant program.To secure the property for a year and comply with State rules, the land will be held by an intermediary aligned with the Land Trust.

Fieber said: “When the Bauers committed their funds, I agreed to accept a price from the Land Trust at $750,000 below my cost basis to help make this happen and preserve this beautiful open space.”

183 Ridgefield Road, also known as the Schlichting property, is next to the Hillside Cemetery on Ridgefield Road. Recently, it was the subject of several development proposals to build as many as 35 houses on the property and was the impetus for the age-restricted overlay district application for Ridgefield Road.