Reprinted from The Connecticut Post © Copyright 2009
December 23, 2009

By Susan Silvers

TRUMBULL -- Now it can be told: while First Selectman Raymond G. Baldwin Jr. pushed for the purchase of land surrounding and belonging to St. John Byzantine Catholic Church in Nichols, the property was falling in value, worth roughly $1 million less than his administration planned to pay.

A December 2008 appraisal, retroactive to that August as the Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously advised against a $4.95 million deal to buy nearly 28 acres surrounding the church, pegged the actual value at $3.24 million. The appraisal also valued a smaller parcel of 17 acres that the commission narrowly endorsed buying in October 2008 at $2.73 million, far less than the $3.85 million negotiated deal.

First Selectman Timothy M. Herbst released the appraisal, which can be considered exempt under the Freedom of Information law, after "much thought" and repeated requests from the Connecticut Post.

"This specific appraisal not only raised questions in my mind about the value we were placing on this property for acquisition purposes," he said. "It also causes me to think we need to take a hard look at land acquisition proposals in general," he said.

He said he would ask the Land Acquisition Committee to develop a set of standards as to "how and when" the town buys property so that it is "not reactive" and includes a cost-benefit analysis.

Baldwin said Tuesday that his proposed purchases were based on an appraisal dated perhaps as much as a year before.

Herbst, who was PZC chairman at the time, said he did not remember the dates of previous appraisals, but his August 2008 letter to Baldwin outlining the PZC's objections noted that the latter of two submitted to them valued the property at $450,000 more than the one 13 months before. "We question how the value of this land could increase by roughly 11 percent in one year, when the value of land everywhere else has decreased," Herbst wrote at the time.

Baldwin never submitted either the larger or smaller purchase plan to the Town Council, whose approval would have been necessary after PZC action.

After the August PZC negative decision made winning a two-thirds council majority a requirement, Baldwin said pursuing the deal would be futile, citing the long odds of winning the 14 votes on a panel where his fellow Democrats held a slim 11-10 majority.

But he quickly submitted the scaled down 17-acre purchase proposal to the PZC, which approved it.

Herbst said he voted for the smaller plan because "I did not want to be accused of jeopardizing the negotiations."

Meantime, growing concern about land purchases on the council, which rejected a $20,000 purchase of a sliver of town land next to the Senior Center in August 2008 amid questions over the timeliness of the appraisal and the declining economy in general, prompted the Baldwin administration to seek a new report for the St. John's property. He said he had not done so earlier because such a service can cost several thousand dollars.

But council member Chad Ciocci, R-7, a licensed real estate agent, said "everybody and their grandmother knows that in 2007 the real estate market was crashing in residential and commercial."

Once he received the 2008 report, by a different appraiser, Baldwin said the property's falling value led to more negotiations with the owners of the property, where he cited the new appraisal.

"They didn't want to accept it," he said.

The land surrounding the church could be developed into single-family residences under current zoning regulations, and some residents have sought the town purchase to prevent that or any other project such as an affordable housing.

A proposal for senior housing was turned down by the PZC in 2006.