By Linda Conner Lambeck
WESTPORT — Supporters of the Westport Community Gardens took their plea to preserve the nearly four-acre site to the Board of Education on Thursday, but left with no assurance that plans for a new Long Lots Elementary School won’t plow them under.
A motion by board member Robert Harrington to urge the town’s Long Lots Building Committee to select a plan that would preserve the gardens in their current location on the Hyde Lane campus failed on a 1-6 vote.
It’s not that the full board was not sympathetic to the request to take the gardens off the table.
“I agree with you. I want to see the gardens preserved,” said board Secretary Neil Philips. Yet, he called it a little disingenuous to the process to circumvent the building committee.
A long-awaited building committee recommendation on the future school is expected in three weeks.
Most school board members said they don’t want to overstep their role.
The board has jurisdiction over the educational specifications for the new school, not where it goes on the property, board Chairwoman Lee Goldstein told an audience of at least 25 gardeners with a literal stake in the outcome.
She expressed frustration that the process has taken “a really long time,” adding she wants to see it finally move forward.
Plans to renovate or replace the aging elementary school have been discussed for more than a year.
When the school board handed over the project to a town-appointed building committee last fall, none of the options discussed impacted the adjacent 20-year-old gardens or preserve at 13 Hyde Lane.
Six options for a new Long Lots
There currently are six options being considered by the building committee to renovate, renovate and expand, or replace the existing school at four different locations on the property, committee Chairman Jay Keenan told the school board.
All options have their own floor plans, price tags and schedules.
All involve trade-offs.
All involve keeping the student population on the site during the process of constructing the new 116,000-square-foot elementary school along with Stepping Stones Preschool.
One of the replacement options would locate the new school on top of the gardens and existing ballfield.
Another scenario would keep the gardens as they are now, but at the cost of a potential baseball diamond.
All options involve fencing in the entire campus during the 24- to 30-month construction period.
Fencing alone could destroy the gardens if access to plots and the preserve is denied, said Toni Simonetti, one of the gardeners who spoke Thursday.
New construction, Keenan told the board, would be the fastest option.
While there has been input from Parks and Recreation, Planning and Zoning and other town agencies on where things should go, Keenan said the committee will ultimately use its judgment in making a recommendation. He called it a puzzle.
“Everyone is going to feel a little pain,” Keenan said. “There are a lot of stakeholders that have a part of the campus, but the number one stakeholder is the school,” he added.
Once approvals for the project are given, the goal is to get construction started next summer.
Stakeholders
Lou Weinberg, chairman of the Westport Community Gardens, told the board the group — representing more than 100 households — fully supports building a new and improved Long Lots Elementary School and Stepping Stones, while simultaneously maintaining the gardens and preserve in place.
“This can and should be done,” Weinberg said, noting that many gardeners have children in the school and also support sports.
He called the gardens a benefit to the new school, even though Long Lots staff and students have yet to use a plot the gardens make available to them.
Leslie Meredith, another speaker, said the gardens and preserve are a designated pollinator pathway that would be destroyed if the gardens were uprooted or moved.
“You can’t move the garden without killing the pollinators,” said Meredith. “They nest in the ground.”
She called it ironic that Long Lots students would learn about the science of metamorphosis in the classroom while construction equipment would be crushing those creatures outside school windows.
“I absolutely want a new school,” Meredith added. “It can be done without harming the garden.”
Chris Grimm, a former Representative Town Meeting member, asked what brought the gardens into the equation at all since it is municipal property and not part of the tract allotted to the Board of Education.
Board Vice Chairwoman Liz Heyer, an ex-officio member of the building committee, pointed out that the entire property, school included, belongs to the town.
Joellen Bradford, who lives near the school and is concerned about flooding the project might cause, said she appreciates what the building committee has been tasked to do.
Bradford described the site as complex, with four different levels and wetlands. She is not convinced the flooding issue will be addressed, regardless of the plan.
Jeff Mitchell, a Little League coach, addressed the desire to put a baseball diamond on the site, saying taking one field out of the town’s limited inventory would have a domino effect.
Lee Caney, the Board of Finance chairman, said it seems the committee is working hard to make everything fit on the property, although some things would have to move.
“We may have to give in for what is best for Westport,” Caney said.
Freelance writer Linda Conner Lambeck, a reporter for more than four decades at the Connecticut Post and other Hearst publications, is a member of the Education Writers Association.
The Westport Community Gardens and Long Lots Preserve have never been part of the Long Lots School “campus.” This is a term that is being used now to make it appear that the WCG property is one of many pieces on a game board that can be moved around.
It cannot be moved.
TAKE IT OFF THE TABLE
First, the Westport Community Gardens support the building of a new and improved Long Lots Elementary School and Stepping Stones while simultaneously keeping, in their current state, the Westport Community Gardens and Long Lots Preserve. This can and should be done.
Many of our gardeners have children at Long Lots. They want a new school. We want a new school. It’s important.
Westport Community Gardens supports sports. We have gardeners with kids in town who plays sports. We have many gardeners who raised kids in town, put them through the school system and involved them in the myriad sports activities offered.
Second, The Westport Community Gardens and Long Lots Preserve are not an impediment to having a new Long Lots Elementary School and Stepping Stones, We are a benefit.
I sent everyone a compilation of studies that support the use of gardens and open space to increase student engagement, improve test scores, compliment curriculums, improve mental health, and assist high needs students. Gardens and open spaces provide resources that enhance many other areas the educational process as well.
The document also included concrete local examples of where gardens and open space are being used to benefit their student populations including Fairfield, Ridgefield, Wilton, Hamden, New Haven, Bridgeport, and right here in Westport at the Greens Farms Academy. Utilizing gardens and green open spaces is trending. For good reason.
As it was sent via email, I made hard copies of that report, and I’m hand delivering them this evening to each Board Of Ed Member and the Superintendent.
Since it’s inception 20 years ago, the Westport Community Gardens have offered a plot to the public schools. A couple of years ago I met with the new Long Lots School Principal and district Science Coordinator, and gave them a tour of the gardens and discussed the idea of the preserve. It was a great meeting, and we agreed to follow up. Unfortunately, there was no follow up and no one is to blame for that.
I am a teacher. I know as well as anyone that there is so much on everyone’s plate who works in the public schools that sometimes eating and breathing during the day is nothing short of a miracle. Teachers and administrators alike!
I am happy that Science Coordinators from the district have reached out recently, acknowledging a new elementary science curriculum, and their desire to partner with a Gardens and Preserve; not only to take a plot at the Westport Community Gardens, but also begin exploring field trips to the property as well.
This is a phenomenal opportunity for the Westport public schools to supplement their science curriculum, particularly their environmental education program. And not just for elementary. And not just for science. There is history on that property. The gardens and preserve offer endless opportunities to enrich lessons in language arts, math, and art.
Let’s do this. Let’s get the town a new elementary school, preschool and fields, while keeping the Westport Community Gardens and the Long Lots Preserve in place, exactly where they belong. This can should be done.
I thank the Board of Education for giving the public an opportunity to be genuinely heard.
I thank Robert Harrington for the spirit of his proposal and his genuine desire to protect the Gardens and Preserve. As I said when I spoke, I don’t tend to support Sense of the Meeting resolutions because they tend to be toothless, done in lieu of action, but the spirit of the gesture was noble.
Liz Heyer’s comment (an odd “retort” given during a point in the meeting when public questions were not to be answered, showed a clear indifference to what is happening here, and a desire to argue against the Gardeners. To say “it is all Town property” is akin to saying “there is weather outside.” I’m sure she would object to Parks & Rec managed properties encroaching onto properties under the auspices of BOE. Obviously it is all Town property, but nothing in the ed specs of the project require a land grab.
I most appreciated the Chairwoman’s comment, addressing the elephant in the room. Why is there a large ballfield incorporated in designs that destroy the Community Gardens, when they weren’t part of the ed specs?
The LLBC Chairman has consistently said “we are following the instructions of the BOE.” Now, when facing the BOE rather than the general public, he stated that he had contacted Parks & Rec about their needs.
The LLBC has put out spare agendas, no meeting minutes, and has yet to release to the public their proposals being considered. One member of the Board of Ed referred to their actions as “sneaky.” Another seemed to express dismay that the proposals haven’t been released for public review. The LLBC Chair seemed to think it was adequate that a few cell phone pictures of the plans have circulated.
Two decades ago Town Boards and RTM purchased the full Jaeger property for school parking and for undetermined municipal needs. Later, our Town Boards established the Community Gardens which expanded into the Gardens and Preserve on this previously derelict Town property.
So under what authority does Jay Keenan have secret discussions with *anyone* in Parks & Rec (is it the Board? is it the Director?) and attempt to usurp decisions by many Town Boards and RTM that were made years ago? Was he directed to do this by the First Selectwoman who nominated him to the LLBC? Under what direction did he start down this path?
There has been a lot of concern lately about the lack of transparency in Town matters. And this is simply another case of the same.
I understand the BOE is concerned about how long the process is taking, but the lack of transparency in the process is only going to drag it out longer.
Thank you Westport Journal for covering this, your reporting helps shine a light on the decision-making processes behind major town projects which otherwise have very little transparency.
Was there ever a right time in this process for residents, parents, gardeners, and stakeholders to be looped in to share their feedback and ideas? These plans were drafted quietly, and when the gardeners finally learned about the project by sheer luck THEY had to reach out to the committee and selectwoman to try to get more information before it was too late.
This summer, the selectwoman and committee reiterated over and over “this is in early stages, nothing is final” suggesting there would be later opportunities for the community to advocate for creative, better solutions for the property. But each meeting has made it clearer and clearer that the opinions and hopes of residents are falling on deaf ears, and anything outside of the original plans won’t be considered. From this meeting it sounds like the BOE was also misled during this process, and unaware of the scope the redesign options would expand to include adjacent properties.
Throwing into the mix that even on the slim chance that the 1 scenario out of the 6 options that retains the gardens and preserve is selected, and that the selectwoman doesn’t bulldoze the community garden and long lots preserve, we’re told won’t be accessible for 2-3 years. That’s insane. I can’t imagine a clearer demonstration of a group making the easiest possible decision, showing no inclination to collaborate with anyone for a compromise (fence in the area but leave a footpath between the garden fence and the construction fence? Choose set hours daily for gardeners to tend to the garden and preserve? Create a new, temporary entrance?)
It feels like that comment was thrown into the conversation to dash any hopes the community had left of keeping the garden and preserve. The message was – even if you succeed and keep the garden, we won’t let you touch it. You’ll have to return to the invasive plants you worked so hard to remove taking over, the armies of spotted lantern flies you’ve been painstakingly vacuuming off your eagle scout projects multiplying, and water sources that the bees and birds have relied upon for 20 years gone dry.
To Selectwoman Tooker and the Building Committee, PLEASE listen and work with the town, parents, and the gardeners for some sort of a solution. We can all grow together if we think a little more creatively and collaborate.
Margaret Freeman | September 8, 2023 at 10:12 am | Reply
Starting the planning process a year ago without notifying the garden members and surrounding neighbors is not transparency. A sincere thank you to Robert Harrington for having the courage to voice his opinion. Eliminating the Westport Community Gardens and surround preserve is a travesty.
Everyone talks about how this process has been going on for a year+ and no one wants to circumvent the “process” but the gardens were just informed that they were going to be destroyed? So lets digest that for a minute? Do all of your bidding behind the scenes and then once it’s in place and in motion bring it to the forefront.
And to say that the cost is a factor is such bull and everyone knows it this project is going to cost MILLIONS and be an environmental disaster so to keep the garden at some small expense to the town is the right thing to do.
If the gardens had the power to plow over a park or baseball field somewhere in town parks and rec would surely not take that in stride, they’d be fighting tooth and nail just as we are for our space.
Thank you Westport Journal for keeping residents informed on the mission creep currently underway by the LLSBC – all done undercover and giving true meaning to the word ‘opaque’. In fact, last night, after learning about a Babe Ruth Baseball Field being proposed to replace the twenty year old Westport Community Gardens (WCG) – way off the original BOE specs. – the BOE Chair Lee Goldstein had to ask ‘the golden question’ (to use Toni Simonetti’s words): Who is directing the scope and activities of the Long Lots School Building Committee?
Parks and Rec. has been quiet as a church mouse besides having their fingerprints all over these plans. When were those meetings and who was involved? The last I heard from our First Selectwoman on this topic was on an early August podcast where she laughably said the process has been transparent! There has never been any outreach to the WCG nor the Long Lots Neighborhood when this process started quietly in September 2022. We found out by accident in June 2023 that the Garden was in peril.
Since then, we Gardeners have been ‘activated’ to use our First Selectwoman’s word. The lack of information, transparency and leadership is beyond frustrating as the LLSBC, like a bull in a china shop, keeps plowing forward with little regard to the damage left in their wake. They want what they want. And as Jay Keenan said “Something has to give.” and “Everyone is going to feel a little pain”. Except, the reality is the Gardeners are going to absorb all the pain and give everything up if their plans are not thwarted.
And the BOE is concerned about the delay in producing a plan and wants to get the project rolling. Imagine how that feels to Gardeners who have spent 20 years of sweat equity cultivating this ecological gem! Twenty years – but let’s get a plan in motion even if it means destroying a 20-year investment in our environment and a community of 120 families?
Better to get the right plan in place than one that is not supported by the majority of Westport residents. Better to integrate the Garden educationally with elementary students if we really care about the children. Better to have residents given full access to information and be involved in a fleshed out debate to produce a plan that makes sense.
And if you talk the talk of being green Westport, you better walk the walk. Our children and other towns are watching. Sure, we can partner with Sustainable Westport and commit to being Net Zero by 2050 and tout a new sustainable school. But the minute you bulldoze a twenty year ecological gem (WCG/Preserve) which includes a pollinator pathway- those words ring hollow.
Last night, Robert Harrington (BOE), stated “I believe in fairness”. Let’s hope more members on boards and committees join in that belief and as he posted today, make it possible to build a new school, bring in Stepping Stones and keep the WCG/Preserves in place. We can grow together and Westport will be the better for it!