MIDDLEBORO — The public will soon have another location to soak in the sights and sounds of nature as the town looks to close soon on the Picone Farm property.

Middleboro hopes to close on the land by the middle of May, Town Conservation Agent Patricia Cassady said. The property at 415 Plymouth St. will definitely close by the end of June because of deadlines related to funding, she said.

Soon after, with the placement of signs and posting of rules, the land will be available for the public to visit.

Voters enthusiastically approved purchasing the property for $2.5 million at the Fall Town Meeting. The public recently was invited to tour the site to obtain a firsthand look at the town’s newest land.

The purchase ensured that the land would be permanently protected from development. A developer had sought to build a 55-and-over community with 378 homes on the site. Since the land was held under Chapter 61A regulations, the town had the right of first refusal to purchase the property because a non-agricultural use was proposed for the land.

The public will have access to about 95 acres of the site, Cassady said, where the town hopes to have trails and an area for community gardens. The town will have a conservation restriction on that portion of the land that will be held by the Wildlands Trust. This will keep the land permanently protected from development.

As part of the agreement, the farm’s owner, Rich Picone Jr., will still maintain and grow hay on the property for another two years while the town works on the trails and community gardens. His parents will have a life estate/occupancy agreement to stay in the house at the front of the site. 

The other half of the property, also about 95 acres, will be privately operated and farmed by Kevin Smith of Greensmith Farms. He has said he plans to work with the community to ensure the town benefits from his farm.  The Town will co-hold the Agricultural Preservation Restriction on the Greensmith Farm in conjunction with the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources, which will ensure the land remains agricultural in its use.