The municipal council unanimously approved this transaction which will allow it to receive 1 million in return from the private non-profit organization.
“It corresponds to the idea of protecting the mountain,” said Mayor Robert Benoît in an interview. This allows the Nature Conservancy to expand land they already own. These are lands that we do not want to develop.”
The land donated is circled here in purple. (Nature Conservancy Canada)
This would not have been impossible, but the municipal administration considered it inappropriate to develop land at altitude and on a 30% slope “for ecological and economic reasons”.
Maintaining such mountain roads – for the benefit of only a few residents – is expensive, says the mayor.
“It is not a good idea to open new roads,” he said, and the Brome-Missisquoi MRC has also decreed a moratorium on the opening of new roads.
Calvary Church will be renovated
The proceeds from this transaction, which must be approved in June by the Nature Conservancy of Canada, will go into a fund dedicated to local community and cultural infrastructure.
And part of the million received, or $425,000, will allow the Town to acquire “the most beautiful church in Sutton,” says the mayor, namely the Calvary United Church, built in 1877 and located at the intersection of the streets Maple and Pleasant.
Calvary United Church, Sutton (Alain Dion, The Voice of the East/Alain Dion, The Voice of the East)
Already an art gallery, the location will eventually host a daycare and a community center following renovations estimated at $250,000.
Other municipal infrastructures, such as the Sutton Communications and History Museum, will also benefit from the mountain land donation approved in April.
With this transaction, Robert Benoît underlines that 17% of Sutton’s land is now preserved, an appreciable result, but still below the 30% recommended by Quebec and Ottawa.
The Nature Conservancy of Canada did not return a call to La Voix de l’Est on Wednesday.
