Santos Farm Conservation Project
Protect One of the Largest Working Farms in WestportThe iconic Santos Farm on Main Road is perched high on a hill as you drive towards Westport Point. This farm has been a prominent fixture in Westport’s rural landscape for three generations. It encompasses almost 3,000 feet of road frontage along Cornell and Main roads with large fields, pastures, and wetlands. It is also the largest unprotected parcel in the lower Angeline Brook and Dunham’s Brook watersheds. So rarely does one property encapsulate the best of Westport – farmland, water resources, forestland and scenic character.
Saving this farm will:
Facilitate the continuation of the town’s agricultural economy through the resale of protected farmland
Preserve the town’s water quality and natural resources, including Angeline Brook and Dunham’s Brook
Protect the prime agricultural resources and rural character that distinguish the town of Westport
The Plan:
This project will protect 134 acres in total. WLCT will acquire the 123-acre farm on Main Road. WLCT will protect 80 acres of the Main Road farm with an agriculture-focused restriction held by the Town of Westport. WLCT will then sell those 80 acres to a qualified farmer, including a house and farm buildings. WLCT will work with an appraiser, real estate broker and farmland experts to determine a price and process for selling the 80 acres to an established and qualified farmer.
WLCT will convey a conservation restriction to the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife over the remaining 43 acres on the Main Road farm. WLCT will retain ownership of this 43 acres and add it to its Herb Hadfield Conservation Area.
WLCT will purchase a conservation restriction over an 11-acre unprotected parcel on Adamsville Road. The Santos brothers will retain ownership of this land.
Project Budget:
The total cost to accomplish this plan is $5.1 million, making it WLCT’s largest project to date.
- WLCT has received a $2.5 million lead gift
- WLCT has a goal to raise $850,000 from private sources.
- The Town of Westport has approved a $500,000 grant from the Agricultural/Open Space Preservation Trust Fund and a $500,000 grant from the Community Preservation Fund.
- WLCT has applied for a $200,000 State grant
- WLCT estimates the resale price for the 80-acre farmland parcel (including all of the farm infrastructure and a house) to be $550,000.
- WLCT is working with an appraiser and consultants to finalize the resale price.