A reminder to include language limiting potential future density increases, and concern about pricing were the two points of discussion at a public hearing on the proposed sale of a sliver of town land off Sunset Lane to an adjacent homeowner.
The proposed land sale is headed to a town meeting on Aug. 13, at 7:30 in town hall.
The sliver in question is about 1,300 square feet, less than a 30th of an acre, and the proposal is to sell it for about $6,000. It is among a group of town-owned land slivers along Sunset Lane that were created when the street was relocated after the adjacent railroad line stopped functioning on what was once called “Railroad Avenue.”
The slivers are narrow sections of land, formerly part of the town road right-of-way, that are no longer needed for the road.
They appear to a casual observer to be part of the small yards in front of Sunset Lane’s small houses, and are generally tended by homeowners as part of their lawn or garden.
The selectmen decided to offer to sell them to the homeowners who are already caring for them — but not to offer them to anyone else. The idea was to sell them with the condition that the additional land wouldn’t be used to justify any increase in the housing density — subdivisions, or the addition of accessory apartments, or the like.
A July 23 public hearing concerned the sale of 1,316 square feet of land for $5,987. At the hearing Selectman Andy Bodner reminded the board of this commitment to limit the land’s usefulness in development proposals.
Board members agreed that at a previous sale the wording wasn’t attached to the land sliver, as the board had intended.
“We did want to have that language in the deed,” Selectwoman Maureen Kozlark said.
“We know it wasn’t included in the deed last time,” Selectwoman Di Masters said.
From the audience, Edward Tyrrell offered the opinion that the town should be seeking more money for the land, based on two previous slivers that had been sold to homeowers about two years ago.
“Those slivers were sold again,” Mr. Tyrrell said. And he said that “the land they were added to” had become “more valuable” as a result.
Board members weren’t about to increase the $4.55 per square foot asking price, which had been recommended by town Assessor Al Garzi for the land, given that it would carry a deed restriction making it, essentially, without any development value.
But they agreed that this time the restrictions on the land should be made clear, in legal language, so the land cannot become part of a density increase through any assemblage of property.
“That language has to go into the deed,” First Selectman Rudy Marconi said. “That will be presented at town meeting.”