Editor’s note: The below article has been edited from its original version to clarify that the solar developer – not the town – has financed the $2 million land purchase.
NORTH SMITHFIELD – After years of debate, discussion, negotiation and legal wrangling, the town of North Smithfield now officially owns 127 acres of scenic land that features hiking trails and plenty of local history.
In a deed filed this week, the town purchased vacant land along Mattity Road and Douglas Pike for $2 million from Bel Air Realty, LLC, a business owned by the Gold family. Town Administrator Scott Gibbs confirmed with NRI NOW that the financing for the purchase has come through a solar developer – the third party in the deal.
As part of the agreement, 37.4 acres will be leased to solar developer Anthony DelVicario for construction of a 9 to 9.5-megawatt ground mounted solar photovoltaic system. Under the agreement, the town will lease that portion of the land to DelVicario for $1 a year for 25 years, with one 5 year renewal option.
The scenic land features multiple hiking trails and unique historic features, including a former piggery and two Native American archeological sites.
“This conveyance represents a major portion of Bel Air Realty, LLC’s assets,” the deed notes.
Filing of the document brings to fruition an opportunity for open space that’s been considered in various forms by various town boards for the better part of a decade.
It was the late David Gold who built and maintained a system of marked trails looping through waterways and various unique features on his land, which he first proposed selling to the town of North Smithfield in its entirety for $400,000 in 2018. The original deal fell through after it failed to gain favor with enough members of the then Town Council.
In 2019, Gold returned in with a new proposal for the land containing a solar element.
He opened it to the public as a way for locals to escape from pandemic-related stress in 2020, but then died in August of that year. His wife, Marcia Gold, would take up the effort of selling family land to the town, proposing a lease agreement that would ultimately see the town take back the full 127 acres once complete.
The plan has since seen multiple iterations, with zoning denials, court appeals, removal of a 10 acre conservation easement and multiple stops before the Planning Board before reaching its final version, which was approved administratively by Town Planner Mark Carruolo on Tuesday, July 1.
The finalized version will see the 37 acre solar portion cleared and surrounded by fencing, with the remaining acres along Mattity Road held in conservation and made available to residents for hiking and recreation. Some of the original trails will be removed to make way for the solar array, but as part of the deal approved by the Planning Board, DelVicario will build new connecting trails, a paved bike path running from Mattity Road to the western end of the property, and four public parking spaces by the entrance to the lot.
“It’s just a great piece of property,” said Town Councilor John Beauregard, a longtime proponent of the effort to purchase the land for open space.
The land extends into neighboring Burrillville with views of Tarkiln Pond, where an archeological study conducted on behalf of the property owner in the mid-1990s revealed two Native American sites.
North Smithfield Heritage Association President Richard Keene, also a longtime supporter of the purchase, noted that the land is valuable in terms of recreation, history and conservation. The lot contain Rankin Brook and runs along Lake Bel Air, which once held a beach for swimming. It also hold the remains of a railroad station that served the Augustus Fields swinery – the largest piggery of its kind in the state in the late 1800s. It holds a historic cemetery, and the archeological sites were a battlefield in the King Philip’s War.
“It’s a national battlefield most people don’t know about,” Keene said.
Beauregard said the details of when and how the town-owned land will become open to the public are now in planning.
“That is in the works,” he said. “We’ll figure out who is going to be responsible for the trails.”
For his part, Keene said the trail will not require much for maintenance and said he’s ecstatic about the purchase.
“This is awesome,” Keene said. “As far as a diversity of positive attributes, I think this is the best acquisition the town has made to date. This is a huge win for the town.”
