
Development has begun at 135 Millerton Rd., Sharon. As seen from the Sharon Land Trust nature trail across the street, construction of a long, winding driveway on the farm has begun.
Photo by Riley Klein
Development has begun at 135 Millerton Rd., Sharon. As seen from the Sharon Land Trust nature trail across the street, construction of a long, winding driveway on the farm has begun.
SHARON — Paley Farm’s new owners have begun to develop a multi-million-dollar home on the property despite pending resolution of an injunction request to block construction.
In March 2022, a couple from New York purchased 187.33 acres of protected farmland at 135 Millerton Rd. Since then, the owners, David and Liza Bainbridge of Rye, have received approvals to construct a residence on the historic farm.
The land known as Paley Farm was owned by the Paley family going back to 1939. In 1982, the Paleys moved to the location of the current Paley Farm Market and sold the original farm on Millerton Road.
In the early 1980s, farmland in the state was being swallowed up by developers. Morris Paley set out to protect his family’s farm with the help of the Connecticut Department of Agriculture (DOA) and American Farmland Trusts.
The team succeeded in conveying the development rights of three parcels totaling 187.33 acres to the DOA, thus conserving the land for farming. In total, the state paid more than $300,000 for the conveyance. The New York Times reported on this effort under the headline, “Trust Acts to Save a Farm in Sharon.”
With development rights now in the hands of the state, Paley sold the property to Timothy and Patricia Parry. The land changed hands twice more in the 1990s and made it to 2022 when the Bainbridges bought the farm in its protected state. Land sale records show the purchase price in 2022 was $1,475,000.
The land is still used as a farm today, specifically for hay production. The hay is harvested by a nearby dairy operation that requested to remain unnamed.
After purchasing the plot, the Bainbridges applied to DOA for building approval in November 2022. The application proposed a two-story home with a two-car attached garage, pool, outdoor spa, septic system/leach field, well, electricity installation including buried utility lines and three utility vaults, back-up generator with transformer and wood-clad fence, driveway, driveway court, and garage court.
Sharon Land Trust (SLT) and a group of concerned citizens took steps to intervene in late 2022 and early 2023. When lobbying efforts to DOA, state legislators and the Council of Enviornmental Quality yielded no results, the group offered to buy the farm from the Bainbridges.
By summer of 2023 a verbal agreement to purchase the land had been reached at a cost of $1.5 million, set to close on or before Aug. 31 of that year. On Aug. 17, 2023, DOA approved the Bainbridges’ application to build, and the land sale agreement was abandoned.
In its decision, DOA stated, “the Department has determined that the proposed residence does not materially decrease the acreage and productivity of arable land for crops and that due consideration was given to the impact of any decrease in acreage or productivity of arable land upon the total farm operation.”
The Bainbridges have continued to seek building permits in 2024. Most recently, on July 15, a building application was approved by Sharon Land Use Administrator Jamie Casey, who reported that the applicants met all planning and zoning requirements. The application was not put before the Planning and Zoning Commission since dwelling construction is considered a by-right activity of landowners and does not require a special permit.
Permits were issued to the Bainbridges to construct a foundation, valued at $371,000, and a wood-framed home valued above $3 million. More than $30,000 in permit fees were issued to the Town of Sharon by the Bainbridges.
Before the permit approval, on July 5 legal proceedings were filed by SLT and Carol Flaton (concerned citizen) with Torrington Superior Court. SLT and Flaton are represented by Cohen & Wolf P.C. of Danbury and the Bainbridges are represented by Halloran & Sage LLP of Hartford.
The plaintiffs claim DOA “misconstrued the 1984 conveyance and applicable statutes” in its decision to approve construction.
The filing states the Connecticut regulatory definitions have changed over time and DOA must consider the language in place at the time of conservation (1984). A statute in the regulations allows for “other improvements” that are directly incidental to agricultural enterprise, but the language of this statute has been modified since the conveyance went into place.
“Thus, whether the residence materially decreases land for crops is irrelevant — the only relevant consideration is whether a proposed residence is ‘directly incidental to farm operation’,” the filing states. “Neither Morris Paley nor the Department of Agriculture in 1984 intended to allow for large weekend homes in the middle of prime farmland.”
SLT requested a court-ordered injunction take effect to prevent construction on the property while court proceedings are ongoing. On Aug. 9, Torrington Superior Court requested accompanying documents for the injunction. The Bainbridges received a summons to appear in court Sept. 26 for an opportunity to dispute the injunction. The plaintiffs expect to learn if the group has standing to bring the case at the Sept. 26 hearing.
In the interim, Judge Walter A. Menjivar permitted the defendants to begin driveway construction. Development of Paley Farm began Aug. 12.
When contacted, David Bainbridge offered no comment. Ken Slater of Halloran & Sage LLP confirmed he was representing the Bainbridges but declined to comment on the ongoing case.
State Rep. Maria Horn (D-64) described the situation as “very disappointing.” She noted that the conveyance of development rights at Paley Farm was among the first such easements in the state. In conversations with DOA, she gathered that the department “felt like it didn’t have the authority to enforce it the way they wanted to.”
Sharon Land Trust Treasurer Allen Reiser worried about the precedent this sets. He said there are several other properties in Sharon protected by 1980s conveyances that could be developed if DOA allows.
“As a land trust obviously we’d love for as much land as possible to be preserved. But this is a property the State of Connecticut paid, in today’s dollars, a million dollars to be conserved and they’re not enforcing the easement properly,” said Reiser. “It rubs me the wrong way as a taxpayer and it rubs me the wrong way as a Sharon Land Trust member. That being said, we recognize and support the ability of property owners to build and modify residences to whatever extent is allowed by local zoning rules.”
SHARON — Angela Derrick Carabine, 74, died May 16, 2025, at Vassar Hospital in Poughkeepsie, New York. She was the wife of Michael Carabine and mother of Caitlin Carabine McLean.
A funeral Mass will be celebrated on June 6 at 11:00 a.m. at Saint Katri (St Bernards Church) Church. Burial will follow at St. Bernards Cemetery. A complete obituary can be found on the website of the Kenny Funeral home kennyfuneralhomes.com.
Sam Waterston
On June 7 at 3 p.m., the Triplex Cinema in Great Barrington will host a benefit screening of “The Killing Fields,” Roland Joffé’s 1984 drama about the Khmer Rouge and the two journalists, Cambodian Dith Pran and New York Times correspondent Sydney Schanberg, whose story carried the weight of a nation’s tragedy.
The film, which earned three Academy Awards and seven nominations — including one for Best Actor for Sam Waterston — will be followed by a rare conversation between Waterston and his longtime collaborator and acclaimed television and theater director Matthew Penn.
“This came out of the blue,” Waterston said of the Triplex invitation, “but I love the town, I love this area. We raised our kids here in the Northwest Corner and it’s been good for them and good for us.”
Waterston hasn’t seen the film in decades but its impact has always remained present.
“It was a major event in my life at the time,” Waterston said of filming “The Killing Fields,” “and it had a big influence on me and my life ever after.” He remembers the shoot vividly. “My adrenaline was running high and the part of Sydney Schanberg was so complicated, so interesting.”
Waterston lobbied for the role of the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for years, tracing his early interest to a serendipitous connection while filming in England. Even before Joffé’s production was greenlit, he had his sights set on playing the role. “I knew I wanted the part for years even before it was a movie that was being produced.”
What followed was not just critical acclaim, but also a political awakening. “The film gave all of us an intimate acquaintance with refugees, what it is to be a refugee, how the world forgets them and what a terrible crime that is.”
In Boston, at a press stop for the film, two women asked Waterston a pointed question: now that he knew what he knew, what was he going to do about it? “I said, ‘Well, you know, I’m an actor, so I thought I’d go on acting.’ And they said, ‘No, that’s not what you need to do. You need to join Refugees International.’” And join he did, serving on the organization’s board for 25 years.
Both Schanberg and Dith Pran, whose life the film also chronicles, were “cooperative and helpful … in a million ways,” Waterston said. Upon first meeting Pran, Waterston recalled, “He came up to me, made a fist, and pounded on my chest really hard and said, ‘You must understand that Sydney is very strong here.’ He was trying to plant something in me.”
There were more tender gestures, too. Schanberg used the New York Times wire to relay that Waterston’s wife had just given birth while he was filming in Thailand, adding to the personal and emotional connection to the production.
Though “The Killing Fields” is a historical document, its truths still resonate deeply today. “Corruption is a real thing,” Waterston warned. “Journalism is an absolutely essential part of our democracy that is as under siege today as it was then. It’s different now but it’s the same thing of ‘Don’t tell the stories we don’t want heard.’ Without journalists, we are dust in the wind.” Waterston added, “Democracy is built on the consent of the governed but the other thing it’s built on is participation of the governed and without full participation, democracy really doesn’t stand much of a chance. It’s kind of a dead man walking.”
When asked what he hopes the audience will take away from the screening, Waterston didn’t hesitate. “This is the story that puts the victims of war at the center of the story and breaks your heart. I think that does people a world of good to have their hearts broken about something that’s true. So, I hope that’s what the impact will be now.”
Tickets for the benefit screening are available at www.thetriplex.org. Proceeds support Triplex Cinema, a nonprofit home for film and community programming in the Berkshires.
Scott Reinhard, graphic designer, cartographer, former Graphics Editor at the New York Times, took time out from setting up his show “Here, Here, Here, Here- Maps as Art” to explain his process of working.Here he explains one of the “Heres”, the Hunt Library’s location on earth (the orange dot below his hand).
Map lovers know that as well as providing the vital functions of location and guidance, maps can also be works of art.With an exhibition titled “Here, Here, Here, Here — Maps as Art,” Scott Reinhard, graphic designer and cartographer, shows this to be true. The exhibition opens on June 7 at the David M. Hunt Library at 63 Main St., Falls Village, and will be the first solo exhibition for Reinhard.
Reinhard explained how he came to be a mapmaker. “Mapping as a part of my career was somewhat unexpected.I took an introduction to geographic information systems (GIS), the technological side of mapmaking, when I was in graduate school for graphic design at North Carolina State.GIS opened up a whole new world, new tools, and data as a medium to play with.”
He added, “When I moved to New York City, I continued that exploration of cartography, and my work eventually caught the attention of the New York Times, where I went to work as a Graphics Editor, making maps and data visualizations for a number of years.”At the New York Times, his work contributed to a number of Pulitzer Prize winning efforts.
In his work, Reinhard takes complex data and turns it into intriguing visualizations the viewer can begin to comprehend immediately and will want to continue to look into and explore more deeply.
One method Reinhard uses combines historic United States Geological survey maps with “current elevation data (height above sea level for a point on earth) to create 3-D looking maps, combining old and new,” he explained.
For the show at Hunt Library Reinhard said, “I knew that I wanted to incorporate the place into the show itself. A place can be many things.The exhibition portrays the exact spot visitors are from four vantage points: the solar system, the earth, the Northwest Corner, and the library itself.” Hence the name, “Here, Here, Here, Here.”
He continued, “The largest installation, the Northwest Corner, is a mosaic of high-resolution color prints and hand-printed cyanotypes — one of the earliest forms of photography. They use elevation data to portray the landscape in a variety of ways, from highly abstract to the highly detailed.”
This sixteen-foot-wide installation covers the area of Millerton to Barkhamsted Reservoir and from North Canaan down to Cornwall for a total of about 445 square miles.
For subjects, he chooses places he’s visited and feels deeply connected to, like the Northwest Corner.“This show is a thank you to the community for the richness that it has brought to my life. I love it here,” he said.
The opening reception for the show is on June 7 from 5 to 7 p.m. On Thursday, June 12, Reinhard will give a talk about his work from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the library.“Here, Here, Here, Here” will be on display until July 3.
Scott Reinhard’s 16-foot-wide piece of the Northwest Corner is laid out on the floor prior to being hung for the show. L. Tomaino