MIDDLEBORO — Special Town Meeting voters will decide whether to permanently protect the 189-acre Picone/Sunnyside Farm at 415 Plymouth St. at a total cost to the town of $2.5 million.

The farm property covers 189 acres of fields, forest, wetlands and about 6,000 feet of frontage along the Nemasket River. The site includes prime agricultural soils, a farmhouse, barns and other outbuildings.

If the articles are approved, the town would own 93 acres of the land outright. The town would co-hold an agricultural restriction on the remaining 96 acres, which would be farmed by Kevin Smith of Greensmith Farms. This restriction would require the land to be used only for agricultural purposes.

Voters will have the final say on the project at the Special Town Meeting to be held at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 3 at Middleboro High School, 71 East Grove St. 

The farmland was held under Chapter 61A regulations, which gives the town the right of first refusal to purchase the property if a non-agricultural use is proposed for the land.

In this case, a developer sought to construct 378 manufactured homes on the site, aimed at people 55 and older. The town decided to step in and purchase the land instead.

The resulting plan, which was officially presented at the Sept. 26 Select Board meeting, received unanimous support from board members. 

“It’s a home run in so many different ways,’’ said select board member Brian Giovanoni. He said that projects such as these, which preserve property in perpetuity, are why he supports the community preservation act.

The community preservation act allows towns to use a portion of local property taxes to create a fund that can only be used for specific uses, including open space preservation. Voters must approve the adoption of this act and the subsequent use of funds for individual projects. 

Three Special Town Meeting articles deal with funding aspects of the project. 

Article 24 would seek $586,032 out of free cash to be used toward the town’s cost of the 50 percent match of the agricultural restriction on the farm land. 

Article 25 would allow the town to use $181,984 out of free cash toward the purchase of the property.

Article 26 would approve the town to take $736,984 out of community preservation money toward the purchase of the property. Voters at a 2021 Special Town Meeting already approved $1 million of community preservation money for the project. 

The remainder of the overall project cost, about $3.7 million, will be covered by outside sources, including private funding through the Wildlands Trust and a state-funded agricultural grant from the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture. The town also received the state Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness grant of $1.3 million for the project because of its impact on the issues of climate change and food insecurity.

The Picone family has farmed the property since the 1950’s, and operated it as a dairy farm until the mid-1980’s, when the family participated in the federal dairy buyout program, said Patricia Cassady, conservation agent for the town’s Conservation Commission. Since then the farm has been used to grow hay.

The town intends to place trails on the site and provide community gardens to help tackle the issue of food insecurity, Cassady said.

This project has great value to the town, she said. “This is almost certainly the last opportunity to preserve this outstanding part of Middleboro’s agricultural heritage,’’ she said. 

The purchase is expected to close in March 2023.