14 September—Today’s scoop is that the 39.3-acre tract of raw land between Milton Road and North Lake Street contentiously acquired from Virginia Mortara in 2022 for $1.25 million and owned for a very short time by Litchfield’s popular man about town Michael Peloquin is now being offered for sale by the current owners, Eptahori LLC and Malaka LLC, for $5.9 million. The listing broker, as it happens, is the sole member of Eptahori LLC. LLCs have members, not shareholders.

You may recall that philanthropist Dr. Judge Peloquin had originally told Mrs. Mortara that he intended to build an extended-care facility on the land but more recently had promised to bypass local zoning regs (as permitted—even encouraged—by a stupid state law, mind you) and build a multiple-unit skyscraper ultra-affordable housing development for displaced Waterburians on the 39.3 acres if Litchfield Planning & Zoning didn’t give him a zone change to enable him to develop a luxury hundred-unit condo.

But in May, of course, a diligent judge, having first determined that Peloquin was in fact an aggrieved party, told him where to go. So the landowners, have taken the expedient option.

For the record, the 39.3 acres’ current statutory 70-percent net assessment (as of 2023) is $320,160, the land having previously been assessed at less than $100,000 under Section 490 (open space).

Also for the record, the $5.9 million is negotiable. And presumably poor Michael Peloquin won’t get any of it . . .