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We've Closed on the Pleasant Street--East Property in New London
The Ausbon Sargent Land Preservation Trust continues to protect properties important to the Town of New London. At the March 14th New London Town Meeting, the majority of New London voters gave the Pleasant Street-East project their approval and the conservation easement was recorded on April 25, 2018.
In 2016, the town acquired a 26.38-acre parcel of land, with 550 feet of road frontage along Pleasant Street. The property is located within the Pleasant Lake watershed. Monies for this purchase came from the capital reserve funds set aside for protecting open space. Following an environmental survey of the property, conducted by a wetland scientist, it was determined that more than 25% of the parcel is jurisdictional wetlands. It is not prime land for development, nor should it host any activity that would increase the impervious surfaces.
The Pleasant Street-East easement is best suited for conservation purposes, such as managing the forest and providing habitat for wildlife, extending the Kidder-Cleveland hiking trail located on the Pleasant Street-West property, as well as, allowing for other low-impact recreation. New London’s Conservation Commission Chair, Bob Brown says, “One of the primary attributes of permanently conserving this land is to protect the water quality of Pleasant Lake. Water flows from this parcel across Pleasant Street creating the headwaters of Red Brook, a major tributary to Pleasant Lake. Placing a conservation easement on the property also makes good on the promise we made to voters when we sought their approval to purchase the land in 2016.”
Ausbon Sargent holds an easement on the west side of Pleasant Street and readily agreed to accepting the conservation easement on the Pleasant Street-East property. There are no plans to change the land as the foremost concern is protecting the area, managing the quality of water bound for Pleasant Lake, and preserving a natural setting close to Main Street, New London.
With the addition of the Pleasant Street-East property, Ausbon Sargent now protects 144 properties on 11,289 acres of land in their 12-town Mt. Kearsarge/Ragged/Lake Sunapee region.
