North Canaan reclaims 27-acre Camp Brook Greenway after 35-year effort

NORTH CANAAN – The Town of North Canaan has acquired the now overgrown Camp Brook Greenway parcel, a 27.45-acre property located behind Caddy Shack and State Line Pizza, with plans to revive it as a destination for recreation and walking trails.

The parcel includes wooded trails and looping paths that many longtime residents remember using decades ago. First Selectman Jesse Bunce said the property once served as a place for short hikes and outdoor recreation.

“So a lot of young people in town don’t have a lot of things to do,” Bunce said. “And this is a very nice stretch of land.”

North Canaan voters approved the purchase at a May 18 town hall meeting, authorizing the town to pay $1,000 to acquire the property from the Connecticut Department of Transportation.

In documents submitted to the Connecticut General Assembly in 2025, the town noted the state previously attempted to auction the parcel in 2022-23 for $200,000, after appraising it at $190,000, but received no bids. Town officials argued the wetland-heavy property has limited development potential and is best suited for passive recreation and open space.

The transfer required approval from the Connecticut General Assembly through conveyance legislation sponsored by state Sen. Stephen Harding (R-30) and state Rep. Maria Horn (D-64)

The land had long been tied to the controversial “Super 7” Route 7 expansion project, a 1960s proposal to convert the winding, scenic road to a four-lane highway, which was ultimately abandoned decades ago. Much of the land for the failed project has been owned by the CTDOT for decades without being maintained.

Bunce said he signed the deed Tuesday, May 19, formally transferring ownership to the town after what he described as a process more than 35 years in the making.

According to Bunce, the town had leased the land from the state for years, but once the lease expired the area gradually fell out of use. It is unclear when the lease ended.

The trails, however, are now overgrown, and the parcel unkempt.

“People have talked about, ‘Hey, I really enjoyed playing disc golf down there,’ or ‘I loved going on walks,’” Bunce said. “It’s a nice walk through the woods.”

The town now plans to revive those recreational uses. Bunce said officials will meet this week to discuss reopening and maintaining the trails.

“There is a Greenway Committee in town, so we’re going to try to get the committee active again a little bit and see what their bandwidth is on doing that,” he said.

Bunce credited longtime local advocate Geoffrey Drury with helping push the acquisition forward over several decades, along with former First Selectmen Doug Humes, Charlie Perotti and Brian Ohler.

“A lot of the legwork had been done on this,” Bunce said. “I was just lucky enough to be sitting in the seat when the deed finally came through.”