The town of Middletown has announced that it has purchased the 58.2-acre Hoogendoorn Nurseries land located at 408 Turner Road.
The land was purchased for $5.4 million, with the state paying 55% of that cost, because the site could be used for important educational activities and school-related efforts, such as an agricultural Career & Technical Education program or similar offerings.
The town plans to discuss a future plan for the land use in the coming months. The Hoogendoorn family has said they will continue to run their wholesale nursery operations on the property for the time being.
“Any way you look at it, this is good news for the Town of Middletown and our entire community,” Town Council Vice President Thomas P. Welch III said. “We’ve been working on this for a long time and it’s important we were able to complete this agreement.”
Middletown officials have said they are concerned about how new homes and other developments in the area could affect flooding issues in the nearby area. The town’s comprehensive community plan recommends that the residential area remain dedicated to active agricultural uses. According to the Aquidneck Land Trust, all unprotected open space on Aquidneck Island will disappear by 2050.
“Whenever we have an opportunity like this, it’s important to jump on it if we can,” Town Administrator Shawn J. Brown said. “It’s never easy to secure and preserve a large parcel like this in Middletown and it fits exactly into what the council has laid out as the priorities for Middletown today and into the future. We’d all be remiss if we didn’t say the town is extremely grateful to the Hoogendoorn family for being an important part of the community and trusting us to do what’s right with this land in perpetuity.”
The Town of Middletown wrote about the purchase here.
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) assisted a What’sUpNewp journalist with the reporting included in this story.
Nice Job Middletown!
And it has a great plan below!
The land was purchased for $5.4 million, with the state paying 55% of that cost, because the site could be used for important educational activities and school-related efforts, such as an agricultural Career & Technical Education program or similar offerings.
The rest of the state’s residents will NEVER recieve a return on their money! Typical bs.