Town of Dalton offers Agriculturally Protected Bardin Property for Sale
DALTON, Mass. — Nine years of wading through regulations that complicated the sale of the Bardin property, the town of Dalton is now accepting bids.
The minimum bid is $148,200, or $1,000 per acre, and according to the Agricultural Preservation Restriction program, the land must be managed agriculturally.
Bids will be received until June 20 at 3 p.m. at the Town Manager's office, temporarily located at 488 Main Street
The request for proposals is linked on the Town's website.
The town came into possession of the three parcels, totaling 148.2 acres, that is under the state's Agricultural Preservation Restriction program in 2016 in a taking for delinquent taxes.
The town had first placed a lien against the property in 2009.
The sale on the 3 parcels was complicated by the fact that the APR could not be subdivided and could only be sold when unified.
The problem was that the APR became subdivided when the town took possession of three lots located in Dalton, separating them from the four acres in Windsor.
The fourth parcel under the APR is still owned by the Bardin estate in Windsor and an agricultural preservation restriction covers all four contiguous pieces of the farm.
This issue was apparently not brought up in land court when the town took the land.
"The Town of Dalton has no control over the disposition of the land in Windsor," said Dalton Town Manager Tom Hutcheson. "The land needs to get back into agricultural production, and the state has the right of first refusal to buy the property if it wishes. The Town is taking this action now to move the process forward."
More information here.
Tags: land sales,
