Colton and Victoria Hand last week signed the papers that will protect from development three of eight acres in the Pimmit Run stream valley.
The property, which they inherited from their parents, borders Pimmit Run. It is described as having “unspoiled natural areas of woods and steep slopes.”
Under an agreement negotiated by members of the McLean Land Conservancy (MLC), environmentally sensitive portions of the property will never be developed.
The Hands, brother and sister, applied for a special exception to zoning to allow “cluster” development on their eight-acre parcel, concentrating lots for three houses in a smaller area while setting aside three acres for preservation. There is one existing lot on the property.
“They really deserve a lot of credit,” said Adrienne Whyte of the MLC. “They worked very hard to insure that they environmentally significant parts of the property will be preserved.”
The process of seeking a special exception, Whyte said, “is time consuming, expensive, and painful.
“They did it because they have such reverence for the land where they grew up,” she said.
Colton Hand Sr., father of Colton and Victoria Hand, was a member of the McLean Citizens Association who helped originate the McLean Trees Committee, which recycles newsprint, magazines, and office paper after collecting it in a bin at Cooper Middle School.
With the proceeds from sales, McLean Trees buys and plants trees and shrubs on public property.
More than three decades ago, the senior Colton Hand also fought against a proposal for a parkway that would have replaced Pimmit Run with a road.
<tl>-Beverly Crawford