Lebanon
The wooded parcel — tucked between Dulac Street, Storrs Hill Ski Area and homes on Slayton Hill Road — is considered a high priority for conservation because of its 14 acres of wetlands. The woodlands also contain a network of trails, historic cellar holes and 875 feet of land along the Mascoma River.
“I think this is a really exciting opportunity,” City Councilor Karen Liot Hill said during a meeting on Wednesday. “This is something that we cannot get back once it goes away.”
With the help of the Upper Valley Land Trust, the city will use $125,000 from its conservation trust fund to purchase the land sometime in April. A $168,000 grant from the state Department of Environmental Services also will go toward the sale.
City officials have overwhelmingly approved the purchase in recent months. The Conservation Commission voted in January to back the move, citing the land’s important natural resources and a want to protect it from development. The parcel was slotted in 2006 as the possible home for a future 318-unit development, but that project later was withdrawn.
“(The grant) is meant to protect wetlands and wildlife habitat,” said Peg Merrens, vice president of conservation at the land trust. “Those are the primary goals of the funds that are coming to this.”
Grant restrictions will prohibit the city from logging the land for profit, Merrens said. But Lebanon could still create trails for recreation and cut trees to support wildlife, she said.
City officials have been eyeing purchase of the property for years, Merrens said. It’s one of two parcels commonly called the “Ticknor Woodlands,” named after the family that once farmed the land. The other lot, which is made up of 75 acres to the south, was purchased by the city in 2012.
City councilors on Wednesday also were presented with a petition that called for the city to review the impact of development in Lebanon. About 20 people came to present the petition, which supporters say garnered more than 400 signatures.
“I’m not exactly sure what the right steps are but I want to recognize that this is before us and I think we have a duty to respond to it,” Assistant Mayor Suzanne Prentiss said later in the meeting. “I don’t know how exactly we should go about that at the particular moment for this petition.”
Interim City Manager Paula Maville said she will go through the petition and try to determine how the city can respond. City Councilors asked Maville to update them during their next meeting on Feb. 15.
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.