New Castle to preserve 60 acres on riverfront
Property acquired from church will be protected for public
1:07 AM, Oct. 1, 2011
Written by
MELISSA NANN BURKE
The News Journal
The city of New Castle plans to preserve 60 acres of newly acquired riverfront land as a forest and wetlands habitat.
A city church last week transferred the property to New Castle, which used $1.2 million in state and federal grants to purchase the tract.
The property is within walking distance of downtown New Castle and includes the Broad Dike – one of the oldest in the nation – and the marsh to its north.
The parcel, which lies east of Wilmington Road (Del. 9) between Glebe Road, the Narrow Dike Canal and the Twin Spans Industrial Park, is one of the few properties along the Delaware to remain undeveloped.
“It’s kind of a big deal to get a riverfront property permanently protected for the public,” said David Carter, program manager with Delaware’s Coastal Programs. “It’s a great amenity to the city.”
Keeping the land undeveloped was a condition of the sale, according to leaders at Immanuel Episcopal Church on the Green, which owned the property for 292 years.
One of the founders of Immanuel Church, which dates to 1689, deeded more than 67 acres to the congregation when he died in 1719, said Robert R. Davis, head of the parish vestry.
“And it looks much like it did in 1719,” Davis said.
Robert Halliwell, a large landowner in colonial New Castle, had served as sheriff of New Castle County and as a representative to the first independent assembly convened in 1701 (before Delaware was a state), according to New Castle Court House Museum records.
After Halliwell’s death, the land was farmed to support the operations of Immanuel, then the parish of the Church of England in Delaware.
Two years ago, congregants contacted the nonprofit Trust for Public Land, a conservation organization, for advice on how to sell the property while ensuring its conservation, Davis said.
Wetlands are considered critical ecosystems for coastal fish, wildlife and plants. Scientists estimate Delaware has lost more than half its original wetlands since colonial settlement.
The Trust for Public Land worked with New Castle and the church, ultimately securing $800,000 from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Grant program and $400,000 from the Delaware Land and Water Conservation Trust Fund, said Kent Whitehead, a project manager for the trust in Washington, D.C.
The land was appraised at $1.3 million, but Immanuel Church agreed to part with it for $1.2 million “since we had that ready to go,” Whitehead said.
New Castle paid less than $6,000 in closing costs to acquire the area, said city administrator Cathryn Thomas.
The Trust for Public Land is donating a sign to be placed at property, to be called the Broad Dike Wetlands Natural Area, she said.
The city’s plans include widening and tidying a rough trail through the property and installing a small, gravel lot on the east end of Glebe Road for hikers, bird-watchers and other visitors to park, Thomas said said.
“It is planned for very passive recreation,” Thomas said. “I don’t think a lot of people know about it.”
Immanuel Church will retain several acres of land off Glebe Road where it has a cemetery, Davis said.
Members plan a celebration service on Oct. 16, followed by a procession to the property for a reception.
“We’re proud of the fact we’ve been able to keep this in perpetuity as green space,” he said.