Parcel of Sweet Brook Farm preserved

By Sten Spinella

WILLIAMSTOWN — A local nonprofit has acquired 10 acres of agricultural land, preserving it specifically for farming so that it doesn’t become the site of a real estate development.

Williamstown Rural Lands in recent years had been seeking the land, part of Sweet Brook Farm that borders Woodcock and Oblong roads. The property belonged to the ex-wife of the farm’s co-owner, and she wouldn’t budge from the price offered by a developer, $745,000. Rural Lands matched it to complete the sale.

“She had a contract to sell about a year ago,” Rural Lands Executive Director Robin Sears said. “We said, ‘Let’s save this, take it out of the jaws, the clenches, of a developer.’ They would’ve put at least one, maybe two or three houses on that land. We wanted to keep it natural and keep it in farming.”

History And Process

The 10 acres had been in the Phelps family for at least a century before the divorce between Pete Phelps and Beth Phelps complicated matters. Sarah Lipinski, the Phelpses’ daughter, who runs Sweet Brook Farm with her husband Darryl Lipinski, said she and her father were resigned to losing access to the 10 acres, and that they figured her mother would eventually sell it.

Once a 10-year state grant that codified use of the land as agricultural ran out in 2021, Lipinski’s mother began receiving offers on the property from real estate developers. With the purchase, Rural Lands will put the land out to bid, with it probably being leased to a local farmer. If multiple bids qualify, Rural Lands will choose the one whose plans are most harmonious with the group’s mission, Sears said.

Sarah Lipinski told The Eagle that Sweet Brook Farm plans to apply for the lease.

“We’re excited to hopefully pay the lease on that land,” she said, “to invest back into it and rebuild the soil there, grow better grass, and increase our herd with access to that land.”

Though their cows grazed on the land while it wasn’t being used, Lipinski said family members hadn’t been maintaining it because they thought they’d lose it.

“We thought it would be sold,” she said, “and people would buy houses there.”

A yearslong effort for private donations amassed enough money to buy the property.

Along with Rural Lands, the town’s Select Board, Berkshire Natural Resources Council and others helped to raise the money or remove barriers to the sale.

Because of its special tax status for agricultural acreage, the town had the first right of refusal, meaning it could buy with an offer of $745,000. In 2022, Rural Lands successfully lobbied to acquire the town’s right of first refusal.

The Trustees of Reservations, a Massachusetts conservation organization, has agreed to buy the development rights for the property from Rural Lands, and will then place a farming conservation restriction on the land.

COVETED GROUND

Sears said she loves the land.

“It has a stunning view of Mount Greylock, it looks out across the farms, it’s a beautiful open space, with a stream and maple trees, and it’s on a dirt road with a lot of road frontage,” Sears said. Sears said Rural Lands had a previous appraisal of the real estate value of the land at about $100,000 less than the eventual price. Sarah Lipinski said the agricultural value of the land is still much less than that.

“My dad and Rural Lands paid for an appraisal on that parcel,” She said said. “The agricultural value of that 10 acres is $15,000. That’s what a farmer should pay for that land to raise crops on it. So how can a farm ever compete with a developer willing to spend $745,000? Every farm in the country would be shut down.”

Although the group has now bought only six properties, it owns a total of 19 through private donations. Conserving farmland is not its only priority, though it is one of them.

“Part of our mission is to preserve farmland so that farmers can keep farming,” Sears said. “If there’s imminent risk to the property, if there’s a threat of development, we’re also happy to preserve it.”

Sarah Gardner, a professor of environmental studies at Williams College and the chair of

Williamstown’s Agricultural Commission, said the trend of developing farmland for real estate is a local threat.

“If we want to have farms in Williamstown five or 10 years from now, it’s critical to protect the farmland in town,” Gardner said in a news release announcing the purchase. “Farms can’t compete with homebuyers in the real estate market. There are about 12 farms left in Williamstown, but half are not expected to be in business 10 years out. Most farmers here are in their 60s or 70s, and many lack a successor.”

More than 80 percent of Berkshire County’s farmland is not permanently protected, according to agricultural organization American Farmland Trust.

That organization also found Massachusetts has the second-highest real estate values for farms in the country, and could lose 74,000 acres of farmland by 2040.

Rural Lands said that the 10acre plot protects an important section of Sweet Brook and connecting water systems, while also preserving the pasture, a sugarbush, and a habitat for birds.

“This land has been farmed by my family for eight generations now, I have kids who I hope will be the ninth generation,” Lipinski said. “I wanted Rural Lands to know how committed my husband and I are to continuing this legacy of agriculture in south Williamstown.”