Lou Weinberg — chair of the Westport Community Gardens, and director of the Long Lots Preserve — addresses this open letter to the Planning & Zoning Commission:
You’re being asked to approve an 8-24 that removes the Community Gardens from the Hyde Lane property, after approving an 8-24 that kept them on site.
You’re being asked to approve an 8-24 that destroys and removes the very successful Long Lots Preserve.
You’re being asked to approve an 8–24 that supports, nearly corner to corner, the clear-cutting of all the older tree growth that has existed on this property for generations, removing a valuable buffer for homeowners adjacent to the property.
Dozens of trees including black cherry, black walnut, pine, spruce, maple and others make up this green open space.
Some of the dozens of trees in the Long Lots Preserve.
Please do not approve an 8-24 without a provision to provide equitable space for a new community garden, either on the Hyde Lane site (post construction) or at Burr Farms Fields.
The Hyde Lane site can be done simply, easily and expeditiously with a new site plan that rebuilds the garden in its current location after construction. It could be surrounded by an 8-foot fence and a curb cut with a separate entrance to the Gardens that completely separates that space from the school.
Alternatively, that acre of space can be used for new fields and an equitable garden relocated to Burr Farm Fields.
In addition, please do not approve an 8-24 without provisions for protecting the Long Lots Preserve. If you deem it truly necessary to approve a site plan that replaces the Garden with fields, at least limit the size of the fields to the space that the current garden occupies. Do not allow the building committee to mow down the rest of what limited green open space would be left there.
An alternate site plan includes a community garden, maintains the Long Lots Preserve, and keeps ball fields. The garden has its own curb cut and driveway, separated from the school parking lot by an 8- foot fence.
The Long Lots Preserve is a model of suburban open space environmental rehabilitation that was unanimously approved by the Board of Selectwomen.
100% of the Preserve was community funded. It was developed by local businesses, organizations and residents.
Second Selectwoman Andrea Moore said during the Preserve approval process, “I think this is the type of volunteerism which should be encouraged …. Here to help. Your work is really what this town should be all about.”
Representative Town Meeting moderator Jeff Wieser called the Long Lots Preserve plan “an environmental win for the town.”
Westport’s green space is rapidly dwindling, due to rampant development. This side of town in particular has seen a significant decrease in tree cover. There is extremely little green open space left.
Community Gardens and adjacent Long Lots Preserve (marked by Xs), slated for removal under the current 8-24.
The non-school related part of this 8-24 flies in the face of the sustainability portion of the town’s Plan for Conservation Development, Net Zero 2050 and Westport’s 2021 Tree City USA designation.
The Plan of Conservation Development states, “Open space helps protect natural resources; provide flood storage, wildlife habitat, and tree canopy; enhance overall community appearance; and enhance the quality of life of residents and visitors. Westport residents value the preserved open space areas that add to the overall beauty of the community and want to: maintain the open space areas we have, add more open space areas as opportunities arise… Preserving open space will help make Westport a more sustainable community by retaining natural spaces and sustaining environmental health.”
By destroying the Westport Community Gardens, the Long Lots Preserve and the additional forested acreage, we are doing exactly the opposite of what we teach our children in school.
Chicakdee, in the Long Lots Preserve. (Photo/Lou Weinberg)
Current science standards focus on how the environment works, the systems that sustain healthy environments, and the human impacts on our rapidly degrading ecosystems.
The parcel of land that will be destroyed if you approve this 8-24 supports incredible biodiversity from very healthy populations of organisms native bees, honey bees, butterflies, moths, fireflies, dragonflies to tree frogs, short-tailed weasel, red squirrel, rabbit, harmless garter snakes etc.
This kind of biodiverse green island is nearly gone in Westport. A clean, healthy environment with a hands-on environmental educational benefits is a legacy we can, and should, leave for our children.
This administration and the Long Lots School Building Committee have moved the goal posts consistently for over 2 years. From keeping the gardening community out of the discussion altogether (see former Parks and Recreation cirector Jennifer Fava’s “Oops, I guess they found out”) to “It’s just lines on a map” to “We’re going to keep you on the property” to “You won’t be able to use the gardens for a year” (then “2 years”) to “We’re going to move you to (the unviable) Baron’s South” to “We’re going to put you on the property, but you won’t have access to the Gardens for 3 years” to “We’re going to restrict your hours” to 2 years of our first selectwoman’s State of the Town addresses claiming she would keep the Gardens on the property, to an 8-24 that puts them in some capacity on the property, to another 8-24 removing the gardens from the property altogetherm to the latest proposal to kick this can down the road and figure it out during yet another study (the Parks Master plan).
Long Lots Elementary School site plan. Community Gardens and Long Lots Preserve are circled at left.
I know that the P&Z and the more well-informed residents of our community know that the 120 families that represent the Westport Community Gardens have not delayed progress towards replacing the school by one second.
I hope that those who have paid attention to this effort to build an improved school recognize that the people who support the Garden and Preserve (most of whose children went through our school system and who have paid taxes here for decades) have always promoted building a school, while valuing and protecting what has been created on the 4 acres of open space adjacent to the school.
Destroying the Gardens and using it for staging and then ballfields was not part of the Board of Education specifications in the first place.
The current site plan’s proposed ballfields will cover this lot nearly from corner to corner, and have nothing to do with a new Long Lots Elementary School. This was an add-on by the 1st Selectwoman and building committee.
In addition to the Community Gardens (foreground), trees in the Long Lots Preserve could be removed as part of the school project.
Before Westport Community Gardeners were vilified and demonized as a political tactic to remove the Gardens from the property, schools superintendent Thomas Scarice stated his desire to keep the Gardens/Preserve green open space as a buffer between the school and the adjacent residents.
The destruction of the Westport Community Gardens and Long Lots Preserve, and the refusal to replace them, is not and should not be under the Long Lots School Building Committee’s purview.
Please do not allow the Long Lots School Building Committee to be a de facto land use planning entity. Their charge is to manage getting a school built. Their overreach should be checked by this commission.
Please stand up to the bulldozers and approve an 8-24 where everyone wins; the Long Lots kids, teachers, neighbors, our senior residents, community gardeners, and the environment.
Thank you for your consideration, and for the significant amount of time and effort you put into making decisions that you believe will benefit our town.
(“06880″‘s Opinion pages are open to all. Email submissions to 06880blog@gmail.com.)