BY MATT SCHOOLEY
Without someone to pass it along to and struggling with tax issues in town, a large portion of Gould Hill Orchards is officially on the market.
After several years of working with Hopkinton to find a way to keep the property as a working farm, Erick Leadbeater has now listed 58 acres of land with LandVest for $2.2 million.
The portion is what Leadbeater refers to as the “heartbeat” of the 80-acre farm, which has been in the Leadbeater family since his father bought it from the Goulds in 1939.
The section for sale includes the buildings, storage, barn and orchards.
“We’ve been talking with the town and a number of groups of people and the town had expressed an interest,” said Leadbeater. “Sue and I are beyond retirement age and neither of my daughters is in the position to step in and run the farm. I can’t take it with me so I decided I needed to figure out the future before someone had to for me.”
George Langwasser, Board of Selectmen chairman, said the town’s Open Space Committee has been responsible for the negotiations, but the group has been unable to reach any agreement with Leadbeater.
“I think most of the town would like to see it remain a working orchard. I can tell you that the town has no interest in purchasing it and operating it as a working farm,” said Langwasser. “It would be something in conjunction where if everything fell into place and (the town) purchased it, they’d look for someone to hire and run it as an apple orchard. There are a lot of things that are up in the air at the present time.”
Should the Open Space Committee come to an agreement with Leadbeater, it would still have to be approved by the town at Town Meeting in March.
One reason for the decision to sell the farm now is that the town shifted to a new system of tax assessment about a year ago which changed how the farm would be taxed.
Normally, farms are given a tax break since they are used for agriculture under the Current Use Assessment Program, making it possible for farmers to afford using open space as farm land. However, the town shifted the value to the footprint of the buildings on the land and Leadbeater can no longer use the program.
When the town switched to Avitar to assess the land, the method changed. The new process devalued the per-acre market value from $75,000 to about $2,800 per acre, according to Leadbeater.
Another aspect Leadbeater questions involves the view assessment, something he questions the validity of.
“What really has me concerned is that there is no definition in state law that says what defines a view. There is nothing in manuals how to assess a view,” he said. “A view is not a realty item. They went down in June and looked from the cottage and didn’t have a view because the leaves had come out on the trees. That seems amazingly arbitrary and my real concern is this. In six weeks when the leaves are gone, will it all come back?”
The farm received an abatement of $20,000, which Leadbeater called significant but it wasn’t enough.
“Agriculture will not support the level of taxation that the view adjustment and Avatar’s (town assessor) methodology that results. If there is no one to step forward and watch a hurting of their bank account, it can’t function as a farm anymore,” he said. “The town may still have some interest, and that’s fine. I would encourage anyone who wants to continue this as a running farm to go ahead and make the purchase.”
Although there was some level of difference between the town and Leadbeater, Langwasser said he hopes those feelings have passed.
“We received a nice thank you from the owner for what we did to try to keep it a working farm. That has probably disappeared. I’d be the first to admit that no one likes to pay taxes. Two dollars of taxes is too high. We’re dealing in a realistic world, though,” he said.
In a perfect world, Leadbeater said he would like to avoid selling to a developer, but knows he has to keep an open mind.
“That is a function of how long nothing has been happening. It’s not my ideal (selling to a developer), obviously, but I guess I can’t rule that out. Some of that I would have to go on the recommendation of LandVest. It isn’t at all the ideal scenario but I can’t rule it out,” he said. “If this were easy, we wouldn’t be talking. We’ve had some offers from developers, but we’re looking to find someone who doesn’t want it developed, who wants to see it continue.”