A decision by the Scarborough Land Trust to change the name of the Benjamin Farm has left the heirs of Jerrerd Benjamin feeling betrayed and crying foul.

Ed Benjamin, Jerrerd’s son, told the Current he plans to do whatever it takes to ensure the name of the 135-acre property is not changed.

“I don’t know where they got the gall to re-name the farm, but I’m not happy and I plan to make a stink,” Benjamin said.

The new name for the property – Pleasant Hill Preserve – was set to be revealed at a dedication and community celebration event planned for Sept. 26, according to Kathy Mills, executive director of the land trust.

The land trust purchased the Benjamin Farm for $2.5 million in late December 2014 using $2 million from the town’s land bond fund and raising the remaining $500,000 from the community.

During the fundraising effort, the property was continually referred to as the Benjamin Farm and the land trust also said repeatedly that preserving the farmland had been its No. 1 goal for several decades.

Mills told the Current both she and the land trust board are “very sorry to hear” that several members of the Benjamin family are upset about the name change, but also said, there was “no agreement regarding the naming of the property.”

She also said the land trust often chooses new names for the property it purchases. She said it happened with both the Broadturn Farm, whose historic name was the Meserve Farm, and the Libby River Farm, which used to be known as the Larrabee Farm.

In addition, Mills said, the land trust has agreed to honor Jerrerd Benjamin’s legacy with a permanent memorial that will be placed on the property.

While Mills said the land trust is “very sorry the family is so unhappy with our choice of a name,” she also said the board feels it made a “good choice” and the trust plans to stick with the new name.

“The board is concerned and sorry about the family’s response,” she added, but also said the trust is “very excited to announce the new name at the dedication ceremony.”

Mills agreed with Ed Benjamin that without the family’s cooperation, the land trust could not have preserved the Benjamin property, but also said there were two other “key players” – the town and the community.

She said the new name is a way “to highlight that this is the last large open space left in Pleasant Hill.”

Mills also said renaming the farm as the Pleasant Hill Preserve recognizes that historic neighborhood and will also help to “build and sustain ties to the land by the local community.”

Mills said that with the Benjamin Farm, the land trust is employing a “new model of land stewardship, which involves the neighborhood in the ongoing care and maintenance” of the property.

Overall, she said, the land trust feels strongly that the new name will best “celebrate this amazing conservation and community success.”

While the Benjamin Farm is now open to the public, the land trust is still making decisions about where to put future walking trails and the best way to put at least part of the land back into agriculture, Mills said in a prior interview.

Jerrerd Benjamin, who died in 2006, used the farm to raise beef cattle, but prior to that many sections of the property were used to raise vegetables, as well as for dairy farming, the land trust has said.

The property was farmed continuously for more than 150 years and other families who worked the land included the Robinsons, the Johnsons and the Coulthards, who often sold their produce to Hannaford and to markets in Portland and Boston.

Mills said that another reason the land trust wants to change the name of the Benjamin Farm is to better honor the neighborhood’s history as Scarborough’s “farming hub” and to recognize the other families who also farmed the land.

But for Ed Benjamin and other members of his family, the decision by the land trust to change the name of the property without consulting them is “dirty pool” and “puts a black mark on the reputation of the Scarborough Land Trust.”

Benjamin said it was his father’s wish that the property retain his family name.

“Just because the land trust is dedicating a stone in his memory,” it’s not enough, he said.

Benjamin said he tried to talk to a member of the land trust board, but got nowhere.

That’s why he will be at the upcoming dedication ceremony to “picket and do everything under the sun” to make sure the land trust sticks with the historic name for the farm.

“This (land) would not be preserved without the Benjamin family,” he said. “It would be house lots.”

Benjamin also said he’s talked with others in town who “all understand where I am coming from. This was not done in good faith and it’s not what was intended.”

He added, “I will do everything in my power to ensure the name is not changed. This is a kick in the pants to all the old families of Scarborough and it may make others think twice about donating land in the future.”

Benjamin lives in South Portland but is building a house in Scarborough. He said it’s his intention to continue to “push this issue and bring it to the public’s attention.”

An old tin barn stands on a knoll at the Benjamin Farm in Scarborough. The high point offers views of the rest of the property. The family that sold the land to the Scarborough Land Trust is challenging the property’s renaming to Pleasant Hill Preserve.File photo