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01/08/2019 01:45 PMA mainstay of Plains Road for the past 22 years, Scott’s Farm Stand and greenhouses is a heavily visited site known for locally grown produce, plants, and flowers. However, in the late days of 2018, the leased 10-plus acre lot went on the market with a price tag of $800,000 and although Scott’s has a lease for this year, the farm stand’s future beyond Jan. 1, 2020 is currently uncertain.
The property, formerly zoned for industrial use, is as of 2019 part of the business district. This new zoning designation, along with the late December death of its former owner, Laura Parker, may spell a big change for the property. The business district designation allows cluster type housing, as long as a satisfactory septic system can be installed.
The same features that might make the parcel appeal to a developer—a level lot with deep soil—also make it appealing for the current occupants.
“Its really ideal farm land,” said Janie Scott Lavezolli, whose parents own Scott’s Farm. “It’s not very rocky and it’s easy to farm.”
The Scott family main farm property is located in Deep River along with the family orchard and farm stand. The family added the Essex location in the late 1990s, operating from spring into late fall each year.
The pastoral property is actually made up of two different, adjacent parcels, one 10.5 acres and the other 0.3 acres. It has frontage on both Plains Road and Westbrook Road and currently has two homes on the property, both of which are uninhabitable, according to the real estate listing.
If the property is sold and the Scotts’ lease is not renewed, the four large greenhouses currently on the property would have to be removed, as well as the mobile farm stand.
“Right now we are looking into what we can do,” said Lavezolli. “We are hopeful we won’t have to move.”
The Scott family isn’t alone in that respect.
“I hope whoever acquires the property affords the Scott family the opportunity to continue to lease the property and run the farm stand,” said First Selectman Norm Needleman.