Prized lakefront property back on the market

SALISBURY — One of the town’s most cherished properties is back on the market not even two years after it was purchased. Dean Meadow, one of the last undeveloped major parcels on Lake Wononscopomuc, was quietly offered for sale in August, with a full-scale marketing effort put into effect earlier this month by two Salisbury brokers, Elyse Harney and Best & Cavallaro.

The possible sale comes on the heels of failed efforts by new owner Lewis Bakes and the Salisbury Association Land Trust to reach an agreement on protecting the property from development. The 7.6-acre parcel, which was purchased from John K. Rudd for $2.1 million in November 2005, is being marketed as two building lots of 3.8 acres. The asking price for each lot is an impressive $2.5 million.

"We’ve lost our desire to build," said Bakes, a wealthy entrepreneur from New Canaan who bought the property with his wife, Sandra. "We’re looking to test the waters."

Still, Bakes vowed to place conservation restrictions on the properties before they are sold. "I will not allow a subdivision," he insisted.

Dealbreaker: one lot or two?

By most accounts, the main sticking point between the nonprofit Salisbury Association and the Bakeses was the fact that the couple had purchased Dean Meadow as two lots (one under the name Lewis Bakes and the other under Sandra Bakes), even as it was widely assumed that Dean Meadow was one parcel. Consequently, the Bakeses wanted to enter into two separate conservation restrictions with the association.

In an interview, Salisbury Association Land Trust spokesman George Massey said the association was unaware until after the sale that Rudd had sold Dean Meadow as two lots. The dual-lot issue then became a bone of contention between the two parties.

"The restriction said it would be a single property under a single owner," Massey said. "We’re still willing to abide by that agreement."

"Fundamentally, the issue is that the Salisbury Association was under the impression that Dean Meadow was one lot," agreed Bakes. "It was a misconnect."

Citing attorney-client privilege, Rudd’s attorney, Stuyvesant K. Bearns, declined to comment. In an interview, Rudd said that before the sale in November 2005, he believes maps were located indicating Dean Meadow was actually two lots.

"Somebody putting in a bid noticed it," recalled the 91-year-old Rudd, who still owns and lives in the historic Holleywood house adjacent to Dean Meadow.

Purchase was a boon to town

Late in 2004, the town signed an option to purchase the entire 16-acre Rudd property and two dwellings on the north shore of Lake Wononscopomuc from Rudd for $3.4 million. The selectmen, Rudd and many town residents felt it was important to protect the land from development and perhaps use part of it to expand the neighboring Town Grove. The agreement would have allowed Rudd to live out his life in Holleywood even after it was sold.

But it quickly became apparent that there was no widespread support in the town for an outright purchase, as officials became increasingly wary of the expense. So a town investigatory committee and Bearns hammered out a private proposal that would have accomplished the same goals but at considerably less expense to the taxpayers.

To the relief of the town’s many conservationists, Bakes was to buy the Rudd property with a conservation restriction in place that would have prevented extensive development. That restriction, which Bearns described as "private zoning," would have limited development on Dean Meadow to a single-family home and prohibit further subdivision in perpetuity. All of the properties around Lake Wononscopomuc lie in a 1-acre zone.

Former Salisbury Association President Bill Morrill, who also chaired the nine-member committee that investigated ways to preserve the Rudd property, said the association was reluctant to agree to a conservation easement on Dean Meadow as two lots.

"To the extent that you make multiple lots, the scenic value is diminished," Morrill said. "It’s very disappointing the way it’s working out."

Concerns among lakefront owners

The Lakeville Journal contacted several property owners around the lake. Most either declined to comment on-the-record or said they were unaware that Dean Meadow was for sale. Lake Wononscopomuc Association President Bill Littauer shared Morrill’s disappointment.

"I was very sorry to hear that the Bakes felt they were treated badly by The Salisbury Association and decided to put the property back on the market," Littauer said in an e-mail.

Littauer said his association remains concerned about development on the lake and the increase in nutrient run-off created by new construction, as well as additional gardens and lawns that are fertilized.

The association is holding its annual meeting this Saturday, Oct. 27, at 9:30 a.m. at Town Hall. On the agenda will be a proposal to recommend to the Planning and Zoning Commission a change in lake-area zoning from 1 acre to 2; plans to control aquatic weeds (including the possible use of herbicides); and the election of the association’s officers.

Timothy Abbott is director of the Litchfield Hills Greenprint, which is jointly sponsored by the Housatonic Valley Association and the Trust for Public Land. TPL does not permanently hold conservation interests in land, but negotiates title or easement interests on behalf of other conservation groups and localities.

"Sometimes land protection projects stall and then, afterward, a new approach enables them to move forward once more," Abbott said in an e-mail. "I do not know the particulars in the Dean Meadow conservation easement negotiations, but the Salisbury Association Land Trust has an excellent track record and I hope that there can still be a positive conservation outcome."

Possible purchaser discouraged

Theodore O’Neil, whose grandfather is a first cousin of Rudd’s, provided The Lakeville Journal with a copy of a letter he sent to Bearns, Rudd’s attorney, on April 12, 2005. In it, he offered to purchase both Holleywood and Dean Meadow for $3.5 million, or $100,000 more than the town’s option to purchase.

"As it stands, I am probably the only member of the Rudd family in a position (some would say crazy enough) to do something other than watch as all the efforts of John and John’s mother, to keep Holleywood in the family, unravel on a public stage," wrote O’Neil, a former Wall Street analyst.

The offer was rejected, Rudd said, because he would have been forced to move out of a house that has been in one family for more than 150 years. Built and designed in 1852 by then-Gov. Alexander Hamilton Holley, Rudd’s great-grandfather, Holleywood has essentially been in the hands of one clan for four generations.

"I inherited this house," said Rudd. "I’m not about to let it go."

Nonsense, says O’Neil, who insisted there were no such strings attached.

"There was no condition placed on my offer... [the letter said] I am interested in living in Holleywood, but I only meant to convey that I would take it on and preserve it," O’Neil said in an e-mail. "But in any case, he never had a dialogue with me; he simply met me at the post office about 60 days later and barked, ‘No!’"

As for the dramatic increase in the Bakeses’ asking price over only two years of their ownership of Dean Meadow (a rise of almost 120 percent), one local real estate broker was noncommittal about whether the price was realistic.

"There’s nothing to compare it to," said Lakeville broker Robinson Leech.

John Harney, principal broker of John Harney Associates in Salisbury, said the price was much higher than he expected.

"The market is undergoing a correction, so the pricing is disconnected with the reality of what is happening," said Harney. "It struck me as out-of-the-ballpark, unless there’s gold buried on the property."