WILLIAMSBURG — Residents are more curious than concerned about their nine-hole, 288-acre, 65-year-old golf course being “rewilded.”

More than 30 local residents met Thursday evening at Bread Euphoria, across Route 9 from Beaver Brook Golf Course, where they raised questions and a few concerns about the course’s transition into a public-access natural habitat after it is purchased by The Trustees of Reservations in partnership with Hilltown Land Trust come July.

“What we have now, is truly just a vision – it’s like an idea, but we want that idea shaped by the community,” said Wendy Ferris, regional vice president of The Trustees of Reservations, which is a statewide land trust.

Sally Loomis, executive director of Hilltown Land Trust, which is dedicated to conservation while making nature accessible for recreational use, led the evening alongside Ferris. Loomis is also a Williamsburg resident with a seat on the town’s Open Space Committee.

They said that the project is pegged at $5.5 million and would reasonably take two years to implement.

Public input

As the hour-long preview rolled out, Loomis kept an inventory of ideas and concerns on separate notepads. By the end of the night the sheet of ideas was full, with concerns only making up a handful of community responses.

Helen Symons, whose family had owned the property when it was a dairy farm in the early 1800s, was concerned about chemicals on the property, as well as a topic she has seen popping up in Facebook threads — property taxes.

Ferris said there will be an environmental analysis done on the property to bring to light any toxic materials on the land. As for property taxes, Ferris explained that the Beaver Brook Golf Course currently pays a quarter of its assessed value in taxes. Because the purchasers are nonprofits, this 25% would no longer be going to the town, she said.

The land is being purchased for a dual purpose, to mitigate flooding in the town and conserve the space, and create a public space for recreation and a community venue.

Loomis explained that, “We’ve been reaching out to landowners in the broader region who have large parcels of land that apply ecological value to see if there might be interest in specifically selling that land for conservation. And through that outreach effort, we found that Beaver Brook was for sale and there was interest in selling it for conservation.”

She added that during, “Every major rain event, or every major wet spell, I’ve driven by Beaver Brook Golf Course, I see it floods. So land is already doing a lot to mitigate flooding in the region.” She hopes to see Beaver Brook do more to mitigate a climate crisis in the town after the land is rewilded.

On the subject of recreation, residents pitched a range of thoughts on how to maximize the fun that could be had there.

The golf course is only a third of the entire property, which also has forested areas, and streams.

Mimi Kaplan asked about housing potential.

Ferris said that, “We do really want to find an opportunity for some housing, and we’ve been working with Hilltown Community Development Corporation, because we don’t do housing … It’s part of one of the grants we applied for to do a housing feasibility study.”

However, she added that development isn’t the project’s ambition, and that housing would at most cover two or three acres. “We’re committed to buying the land to protect it, not to develop the majority of it.”

Dinah Mack pitched a community garden. Matt Verson wouldn’t mind seeing the golf course’s wooded trails, including snowmobile trails, become an opportunity for biking. He also advocated for a pump track, a skate park for bikes, on the parcel. Both ideas were taken into account.

The course’s 1975 clubhouse, Ferris said, will be transitioned to office space.

Community members discussed the future of the clubhouses’s pavilion and two commercial kitchens.

Ferris said about the pavilion that, “We are excited to about the potential of offering it out to other organizations, family gatherings — using that space to welcome people, which is really a beautiful, inviting spot to come hang out.”

One kitchen, however, which has been used for the course’s restaurant, is being done away with to make way for office space. However, the kitchen in the basement “would stay,” Ferris said.

Breaking down the numbers on the project, Ferris said that of the $5.5 million price tag, $1.5 million will cover the purchase of the property as well as associated legal fees. That leaves room for some $1.3 million toward restoration work and $2.7 million for an endowment.

The project is being paid for with cash on hand, grants, some of which have been applied for but have yet to be confirmed, and private fundraising efforts.

“Between several state grants and other private funders we have $4 million in the pipeline right now,” Ferris said. And in the past month, $252,000 have been raised thus far through local fundraising, and Bread Euphoria contributed 10% of its profits on Thursday to the Hilltown Land Trust to add to that sum.

A follow-up public input session will take place on May 10 at 10 a.m. in the Haydenville Congregational Church.

Samuel Gelinas can be reached at sgelinas@ gazettenet.com.