Town meeting set on Hillsdale land sale
Mar. 24—SOMERS — A public hearing and a special town meeting is scheduled for Thursday on the proposed sale for $30,000 of a half-acre of vacant town-owned land on Hall Hill Road to the Michigan-based Hillsdale College, which is opening a religious center across multiple properties on that road.
The public hearing begins at 6 p.m. in Town Hall and online via Zoom, followed by the special town meeting where the vote will be taken on whether to sell the land at 750 Hall Hill Road to Hillsdale. Details on how to join the Zoom meeting can be found on the town's website at
At a Board of Selectmen meeting this month, First Selectman C.G. "Bud" Knorr said that since the town purchased the property in 2000, there have been no requests to buy it from the town until Hillsdale's offer.
LAND SALE
WHAT: A public hearing and town meeting on the sale of a half-acre of town-owned land at 750 Hall Hill Road to the Michigan-based Hillsdale College for $30,000
WHEN: 6 p.m. Thursday at Town Hall and online via Zoom
WHY: Hillsdale already owns four properties on Hall Hill Road where it is opening a religious center.
"I think they just want it as an integral part of that property up there," he said.
According to online property records, the town has owned the vacant parcel at 750 Hall Hill Road since 2000, buying it for $6,241 from Homeworks Construction Co. Inc. The land is assessed for $1,800 and appraised at $2,500.
Knorr described Hillsdale's offer as a fair price.
The parcel is a triangular half-acre of land, sandwiched between 740 Hall Hill Road — which Hillsdale already owns — and the Massachusetts state line.
"It's a really small, oddly shaped piece of land," Selectman Timothy Potrikus said today. "I think they just want to own it to complete the jigsaw puzzle that they have up there."
Somers Chief Financial Officer Michael Marinaccio said at the selectmen's meeting that typically the town would ask abutting owners if they had any interest in a property before selling it. But in this case, the only abutters are the state of Massachusetts and Hillsdale itself.
Last summer, Hillsdale was granted special-use permits by the Zoning Commission to operate a religious center on four properties on Hall Hill Road that it has acquired, including the estate of the co-founder of Friendly's — S. Prestley Blake, who died last month, and his wife, Helen.
The four properties are: 708 Hall Hill Road, a $1.4 million mansion set on about 5 acres that belonged to Helen's daughter; No. 732, where the Blakes had a replica of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello mansion built, sitting on around 80 acres; the Blakes' $1.2 million estate at No. 700, which was originally on a 77-acre property but was reconfigured so that 70 acres was transferred to No. 732; and No. 740, which originally included a restored 1890 farmhouse that Hillsdale demolished because it contained asbestos.
Over the course of almost a year—since the college submitted its application in September 2019 until the special-use permits were approved in July 2020—the Zoning Commission held several meetings and public hearings, drawing strong proponents and detractors on the matter.
Eventually all applications were approved, albeit with limits set on the size and type of gatherings held at the religious center, named the Blake Center for Freedom and Faith.
Note: This online story has been updated to correct that the price the town has proposed to sell the half-acre of land to Hillsdale College is for $30,000, not $3,000 as previously reported here. Also, First Selectman C.G. "Bud" Knorr was incorrectly quoted in the previous online version of this story and in print as saying the cost was $3,000, when it is actually $30,000.
For coverage of Ellington and Somers towns, as well as Enfield Public Schools and Board of Education, follow Erika Purdy on Twitter: @ErikaPurdyJI, Facebook: Erika Purdy JI Reporter, and Instagram: @ErikaPurdyJI.
