Astroturf as a way to preserve a community
By adamg - 4/5/06 - 7:49 am
That seems to be what they're thinking in Newton, where city officials want to use $5 million in tax money from the Community Preservation Act - intended as a way to preserve open space - to replace grass at Newton South High School's athletic fields with Astroturf. Borderline interviews a Newton resident who's suing the city to stop the expenditure.
Comments
Why is this so complicated?
The Community Preservation Act funds can be spend on four areas:
1) Preserving Open Space
2) Affordable Housing
3) Historic Preservation
4) Public Recreation
Why does turfing the field in Newton not count as #4? If the field is in poor condition at present, than it seems to me you can spend preservation money to convert it to turf.
The main problem with the CPA is people tend to emphasize one or two of these areas, and that leads to huge misunderstandings about what can actually be funded.
More specifically
The law talks about land that is "acquired or created," not land the community already owns.
That's True
There are fewer restrictions to what you can do with CPA-aquired property than with town-owned property.
That said, I am not a lawyer. But other communities, Bedford, North Andover, Chatham, etc, have done similar things. There's a fine distinction in the law between "Preservation" and "Rehabilitation". As I understand it, preservation of town-owned recreational property is OK, so long as it's not in the maintenance budget.