By Gretchen Webster
WESTPORT — Community gardeners, whose exile from the Long Lots Elementary School property was announced earlier this month, hope to plant the seeds of rebirth on a patch of the town-owned Burr Farms Field property.
Several years of controversy have engulfed plans to build the new school on Hyde Lane, which initially called for pushing the Westport Community Gardens from the site they had occupied more than two decades, but guaranteed the gardens another spot on the campus as part of a “compromise” 8-24 land-use approval granted in January 2024 by the Planning and Zoning Commission.
Tooker: No room for gardens at Long Lots after all
But in a May 14 letter to the P&Z, First Selectwoman Jennifer Tooker said planners could not find a site for the gardens on the Long Lots property, requiring a new 8-24 approval for the school project to reflect that change.
In response, the Steering Committee of Westport Community Gardens last week sent letters to Tooker, the P&Z and the 120 community gardens members proposing a plan to plant new gardens on part of the Burr Farms property.
“We have consistently asked the town for a collaborative effort to identify an alternative location, should we not be allowed to co-exist with the new Long Lots School,” the Steering Committee wrote. “Despite multiple outreach attempts and ideas, we have not received any meaningful response or engagement.”
Throughout the planning process for the new school, a location for the gardens has been in flux, and even the approved 8-24 land-use report did not specify where on the Hyde Lane campus an alternate site for the gardens would be designated.
Another option was promoted by Tooker, who earlier this year led a tour of the Baron’s South property, telling gardeners that a spot on the open space would be appropriate for new gardens.
But the site is not suitable, gardeners said, arguing that it’s on a slope, shaded, lacking enough parking and believed by some to be toxic because of waste previously dumped there.
Gardeners: Burr Farms a “workable solution”
Now, they are hopeful about a new location at Burr Farms, said gardener Laureen Haynes, spokeswoman for the Steering Committee.
“We are proposing a real, workable solution: a portion of the Burr Farms Field property,” she wrote in the letter to Tooker and the P&Z. “This parcel is sunny, flat, centrally located, and has ample parking — ideal for a thriving, inclusive community garden.”
Baseball fields are currently located on the Burr Farms property, in addition to unused land that is chained off. “The space is underused … We are asking to share this property, repurposing the half furthest from the road. One seasonal baseball diamond would remain,” the letter said.
Lou Weinberg, the Steering Committee chair, along with Haynes and many other gardeners blame Tooker and some other town officials for the loss of their Hyde Lane gardens.
Incorporating gardens into Parks Master Plan?
Haynes and the committee have never gotten a response from Tooker to any of their letters, Haynes said. But the first selectwoman did respond to a short note sent by another gardener several weeks ago, saying that she had turned the Burr Farms proposal over to the Parks and Recreation Department for consideration in the town’s new Parks Master Plan, according to Weinberg.
The timetable for the master plan was reviewed by the Parks and Recreation Commission last week, when Parks and Recreation Director Erik Barbieri said he hopes to hear a broad spectrum of public input on uses for the town’s parks. Barbieri said the Parks Master Plan should be complete by fall, but did not specifically address the Burr Farms gardens proposal.
Weinberg said last week that he plans to set up a meeting between the garden’s Steering Committee and Barbieri to discuss the Burr Farms proposal.
Although he is hopeful that new gardens can be planted at Burr Farms, the past few years have been painful because of what Weinberg called “the town’s disregard” for the community gardens and the gardeners.
“It’s been an awful experience,” he said. “The disappointment is never going away. This administration has played dirty politics throughout the whole process. They have alienated the whole town.”
Weinberg is particularly sad about the loss of the Long Lots Preserve, which was part of the four acres allotted to the gardeners on Hyde Lane. More than $40,000 was donated by environmental organizations and some businesses to pay for restoration of the preserve, which he said will be destroyed during the school construction project.
“The preserve is flowering, fruiting, flourishing — providing this town with an example of open space and environmental regeneration,” he said. “What a lost opportunity to preserve green space at no cost to the town, to restore green open space and to promote the environmentalism that’s being taught to our kids.”
Freelance writer Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist for many years, was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman and has taught journalism at New York and Southern Connecticut State universities.
I fully support the Westport Community Garden proposal for a move to Burr Field. It is perfect: flat, sunny, accessible, presumably clean. And no clearcutting required! Get the Burr Field 8-24 on the PZC agenda same day as the new 8-24 for 13 Hyde Lane. We could be gardening there next month!
The displaced Little League ball field could be moved to the seemingly abandoned town-owned Saugatuck Field baseball diamond on Bridge Street.
Win win. No need for analysis or politicking.
Just do it.
The Saugatuck Field is not “abandoned.” It was the playground of the Saugatuck Elementary school. While too small, according to former Parks and Rec assistant director Mike West for regulation games, and suffering from a tree crushed baseball backstop that wants repair, it also has limited parking.
To the point, in 1988 court ordered stipulated settlement (certified and part of the Land Records), limited the property to the 36 dwellings in The Saugatuck, a few public parking spaces at the head of the connecting ramp, and ordered that the “playing fields shall remaIn open to the pubIic, with access provIded and assured.”
Westport Parks and Rec regularly tend to the field guaranteeing open access in perpetuity, and it is a rare week that does not see neighborhood frisbee, touch football or jogging there.
For many years games and practices were regularly held on the field. When I asked Mike why practices were no longer scheduled there, he explained that the traffic problems on Bridge St. (Soon to get much worse, with CTDOT’s taking the First Selectwoman’s permission to replace the Cribari Bridge with a truck-bearing one.) made drop-offs and pick-ups too inconvenient.
Interestingly, this morning the town website has a “broken link” for the page that lists athletic fields. Here it is:
https://www.westportct.gov/government/departments-a-z/parks-and-recreation/athletic-fields
Clarification: the dump site in Baron’s South which the First Selectwoman offered to the Community Gardeners is not “believed by some” to contain toxic elements. The evidence of toxic chemicals at that location was provided via a professional soil test requested and paid for by the Town of Westport. Among the findings was a concern level of arsenic and worse, the DDT breakdown compound, DDE. The effects of DDE on human health are not exactly a secret. The soil test, known as the Thunderbird Report, was posted on the town website for all to see. For reasons unknown, around the time that the dump site was being shopped to the Community Gardeners, the document was pulled down.
The Burr Farms field would be a perfect solution and would end this long drawn out struggle. The Westport Community Gardens members deserve to be treated well by the Town of Westport and our displacement has gone on too long. My son played with his Little League team there only a handful of times and my impression was that it is a very underused field.
I tried to open to link Toni Simonetti posed about athletic fields in her comment above. It has been disables by the town. Why? Who is so against the WCG having a fair try at survival that they would hide the available facts?
https://www.westportct.gov/government/departments-a-z/parks-and-recreation/athletic-fields
It was tragic to lose long lots preserve and Westport community gardens from the current site after decades of work went into those gardens. The barren south alternative was unworkable space, but the Burr school road fields is a good location. Hopefully, the town will be helpful in getting our gardens relocated there.
While I fully support the Burr Field option, I am concerned that the administration, which has consistently ignored the gardeners, will continue to do so.
One way to pressure the administration to endorse the Burr Field proposal would be for the P&Z to render a negative report on the revised 8-24 request for the stated reason that it does not address the need for a new home for the gardens.
The gardeners have proposed a solution that should be adopted without delay. There should be no outcry for the loss of one little league field. It could be replaced by creating one on the lower field at Long Lots School after that seemingly endless construction project is completed. If that does not work, when the old school is removed there should be added field space available. The town administration can restore credibility by supporting this reasonable, common-sense proposal.
I absolutely disagree with the gardens being placed at Burr Farms field. That so called cordoned-off land is not un-used! It is in fact a parking lot. That area has been unchained during sporting events for over 30 years to be used as a parking lot. The gentleman that runs the soccer programs can confirm that until mysteriously this Spring, he had been given the code to open the chain for every sports event he ran. The parks and recreation department has been contacted via emails and voice mails numerous times this Spring to unlock the gate as there is not enough parking even when that lot is open. More traffic with even less parking is dangerous for a residential road.