Randolph — Town Manager Adolfo Bailon has accused the Preservation Trust of Vermont of misleading the town about the scope of lost tax revenues that will result from the protection of 22 acres of land near Exit 4 on Interstate 89 through a conservation easement.

“They didn’t necessarily tell us what they were going to do,” Bailon said Tuesday, “but made it seem like this is a good thing for the town without talking about the tax implications.”

After a protracted battle to prevent developer Jesse “Sam” Sammis from building a hotel or mixed-use development on the land, local conservation group Exit 4 Open Space struck a deal that allowed the Preservation Trust to purchase the 22 acres for its assessed value of $1 million in June 2017.

During the same period, the Montpelier-based Castanea Foundation spent $1.2 million to buy a neighboring 150 acres that had also been slated for development by Sammis.

Now, Bailon says a plan to sell the 22-acre property to Jessica Taffet and her partner, Camden Walters, who is chairman of the Randolph Planning Commission, will come with a conservation easement that will reduce the assessed value to just $17,000, wiping out roughly $20,000 in annual tax revenues.

“Losing $20,000 will have a hit,” Bailon said. “It goes a long way toward providing services like snow plowing and road maintenance.”

Paul Bruhn, executive director of Preservation Trust of Vermont, said his organization couldn’t have actively misled the Selectboard for a simple reason: “We never had any conversations with the Selectboard about it.”

Bruhn said the group’s discussion with stakeholders in the community during its fundraising campaign were focused on benefits, not taxes.

“Our goals were to protect the land, to have it used for agricultural purposes, to protect the scenic views and to encourage development in downtown Randolph,” Bruhn said.

Bailon said he is particularly stung by the fact that, in June, based on a recommendation from the Randolph Conservation Commission, the Selectboard voted, 3-2, to contribute $10,000 to the Preservation Trust’s fundraising campaign.

Selectman Michael Hildenbrand voted against the measure, saying at the time, “I thought the town shouldn’t be involved in it. I thought it would lower the grand list.”

Bailon plans to make a presentation to the Selectboard at its next scheduled meeting on March 7. During that presentation, Bailon said he likely will recommend the town seek to get its $10,000 back.

Hildebrand said he now supports the majority decision of the Selectboard to make the expenditure in June, and is withholding judgment until he learns more from Bailon.

“The town should look at it to make sure the funds are being used in accordance with what we’re providing funds for,” he said. “If we voted for it and we use it in the way it was intended, I have no problem.”

Bailon was hired as town manager six months ago and spent 2002 to 2012 working for Barbara Boxer, a liberal Democrat who represented California in the U.S. Senate.

“I’ve hugged my share of trees,” he said.

But he said his larger issue is that the Preservation Trust acted in a way that is reducing the tax rolls without looping the town into its plans.

“People can do what they want with their property,” he said. “But the challenge that I’m facing is that if Bill Gates wanted to buy every piece of property in Randolph and then level it, they could essentially do that by cutting out the local government. We would be left to face the decrease in revenue.”

David Hurwitz, of Exit 4 Open Space, said complaining about the loss of tax revenues — particularly while not complaining about lost revenues with the larger land parcel — “is pretty ridiculous.”

He said the town is benefiting significantly from the conservation of the land.

“The whole point of it was that the development that was proposed was ill-conceived, out of scale and a threat to the downtown,” Hurwitz said. “It proposed a lot of things like retail space, office space and residential housing, all of which were totally not needed.”

Bruhn said that while the deal is not finalized, Taffett and Walters are expected to purchase the property for an assessed value of $17,000 soon.

Taffett said she and Walters, who were members of Exit 4 Open Space when it was advocating for conservation, plan to begin an orchard of fruit and nut trees on the parcel.

She said the most visible portion of the property will be kept as an open hayfield, and that the trees will be grown primarily on the back of the property.

Matt Hongoltz-Hetling can be reached at mhonghet@vnews.com or 603-727-3211.