NORTHFIELD — A complex, multi-party deal to buy the Northfield Forest, preserve it for recreational use and protect it from development has fallen through, according to Town Administrator Brian Noble.
Noble said Northfield Mount Hermon School, the land’s current owner, backed out of the deal over the weekend. Two articles on Monday’s annual Town Meeting warrant in Northfield asked voters to approve spending $100,000 purchasing the land. Noble said those articles would be passed over.
The sale would have involved two separate transactions — one to sell the forest land to the town and the state, and another to sell a water company located nearby. The Trust for Public Land, a national land conservation nonprofit was working to seal the deal.
J.T. Horn, a senior project manager with the Trust who has been working on the deal for about three years, said the process reached an impasse when it became clear that negotiations over the purchase of the water company were failing.
A Connecticut-based water company, Valley Water Systems, had expressed interest in buying the company — East Northfield Water Co. — earlier this year.
“Our goal has been to permanently conserve 1,650 acres, but in order to do that we had to acquire and find a new owner-operator for the East Northfield Water Co.,” Horn said. “It’s not the town’s fault and it’s not Northfield Mount Hermon School’s fault. It’s just hard to conserve land and find a new owner-operator for a small water company. It’s a challenging project and we need a little more time.”
He said the Trust would continue working to find a way to resolve the impasse.
“We feel it would be inappropriate to ask the voters to vote on something when the current contract has expired without a valid agreement,” Horn said. “We think it’s appropriate to pass these over.”
The school released a statement Monday afternoon: “In 2013, NMH entered into option agreements with The Trust for Public Land to sell the East Northfield Water Company and the surrounding forest land owned by the school. The transactions were complex and TPL encountered unforeseen difficulties. As a result, the dates for exercising the option and closing the sales were extended five times. Although purchasers for the water company and forest were identified, and negotiations continued for three years, the option was not exercised, resulting in the termination of the option agreements on April 30, 2016. Because TPL was unable to consummate the transactions, the school will continue to own the forests and the East Northfield Water Co. The school greatly appreciates TPL’s efforts and, if circumstances change, is open to the possibility of conducting new negotiations.”
The land was expected to sell for about $2.3 million in 2014. Northfield would have purchased part of the land and placed it under conservation restrictions, while the state Department of Conservation and Recreation would have purchased the remaining 1,333 acres and turned it into a new state park.
The purchase involved four funding sources including a $250,000 grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, a $1.1 million grant from the state Energy and Environmental Affairs office, the $100,000 contribution from Northfield’s Community Preservation Act Committee and contributions from the Department of Conservation and Recreation’s capital budget.
Northfield Mount Hermon moved from its Northfield campus to Gill in 2004.