Letter: Re 'Affordable Housing On Our South Park Ave. Property'

"Easton Plans To Put Affordable Housing On Our South Park Ave. Property"

To the Editor,

At the April 25 Easton Town Meeting, an Easton citizen documented the reason why the upper portion of our precious town-owned South Park Ave. property does not have a Conservation Easement preventing development on the property: P&Z and the selectmen want to use it for an affordable housing development. This is spelled out in plain English on page 20 of the plan of the Affordable Housing Committee for Board of Selectmen dated 4/20/22 on the Easton Town Website.

On May 3, the town will vote on a referendum item to sell a portion of this pristine town-owned land to the Aspetuck Land Trust (18.7 acres), leaving the upper part of this property (11.3 acres) unprotected and vulnerable to development -- an affordable housing development in this case.

Easton citizens voted overwhelmingly in 2008 (75% to 25%) to pay $6.15 million to buy this property precisely to prevent it from being developed: "For preservation, conservation and land use control purposes."

This is why every Easton citizen who wants to protect this magnificent property from development needs to vote against this partial sale of our property on May 3 and urge the Board of Selectmen to place a Conservation Easement on the unprotected 11.3 acres, so that it cannot be exploited in the future for any kind development. Only then will it be safe to sell any or all of this property to the Aspetuck Land Trust.

Grant Monsarrat
Easton, CT