After more than two decades of debate, abandoned plans and false starts, Simsbury is on the verge of deciding whether 288 acres of former tobacco fields will be set aside as open space and athletic fields.
More than 1,000 residents signed petitions to force a May 4 referendum in a brief, hastily organized campaign that includes accusations that the finance board was refusing to let taxpayers vote the deal up or down.
If voters approve on May 4, Simsbury will put about $2.2 million toward a $6 million purchase of the land, part of a farm where Martin Luther King Jr.