By Gretchen Webster
WESTPORT — Who decides?
That’s an often-expressed concern by Westport Community Gardens members and their allies about which town bodies have the right to make decisions about the future of the garden property and Long Lots Preserve at 13 Hyde Lane.
The gardeners worry their plots might disappear when a decision is made on whether to replace or rebuild Long Lots Elementary School on adjacent property. At several points during the months-long debate, they have sought clarity on whether the garden property is under the jurisdiction of the Board of Education or the Parks and Recreation Department.
Questions on who has authority over the garden property have arisen because the site is listed on the town website under the umbrella of the Parks and Recreation Department.
The Long Lots Building Committee has scheduled its next meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 31, in Town Hall Room 201. The agenda, similar to the group’s earlier meetings, includes a public comment segment, which gardeners previously have used to question the committee’s plans and objectives.
Among the options the building committee is considering for the school project include preserving, reducing, moving or plowing under the 20-year-old gardens, which are cultivated by 120 households.
David Floyd, the chairman of the Parks and Recreation Commission, said the garden property is town owned, like all school and park properties, and the gardens are in the same category as athletic fields, which the Parks and Recreation Department maintains whether on school or park land.
“It’s an interesting gray area; it’s a little unique,” he said of jurisdiction over the garden property. But, he added, “Our commission is not meeting about it or making a decision about it.”
Unlike other decisions parks and recreation officials may make about athletic fields, such as transforming a baseball field into a softball field, determining the gardens’ future “is not as simple,” Floyd said. “A lot of elected and appointed town bodies are looking into this. I hope everybody can get to a good solution — solutions are never easy.”
Parks Supt. Michael West, who supervises maintenance of the town’s 14 athletic facilities, 31 parks, four beaches and numerous other municipal properties, agreed the gardens’ property is similar to an athletic field in a park or at a school.
“We maintain all athletic fields on park property and school property,” he said. “Technically, it’s for the Parks and Recreation Department to maintain [the garden property]. But the gardeners maintain the property themselves.”
The town’s attorneys are also considering where the community gardens fit when it comes to which elected bodies, officials and departments have jurisdiction over use of the property.
“It is just premature for our office to address jurisdictional issues until a final plan is put forward,” Town Attorney Ira Bloom said Tuesday.
“You can be sure that any such final plan will be reviewed by multiple boards and commissions, including the Planning and Zoning Commission, Board of Finance and RTM, among others,” he said. “I will be focusing on this more when a final plan is proposed.”
Renewed scrutiny of the Long Lots Building Committee’s plans at this Thursday’s meeting was postponed from a meeting initially scheduled a week earlier. That meeting, which was to include an executive session, was publicly posted with less than 10 hours notice on the town’s website and circulated via the town’s email notification system.
When questions about the transparency of the meeting’s last-minute scheduling were raised by the Westport Journal, it was abruptly cancelled.
The agenda for this week’s rescheduled meeting, publicly posted at midday Monday, no longer calls for an executive session.
Freelance writer Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist and journalism teacher for many years, was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman newspaper for 10 years and teaches journalism at Southern Connecticut State University.
“It is just premature for our office to address jurisdictional issues until a final plan is put forward,” Town Attorney Ira Bloom said Tuesday.
Why would final plan(s) be made prior to addressing jurisdictional issues? Wouldn’t the decision impact the plan(s)? The cart before the horse?
“I will be focusing on this more when a final plan is proposed.”
Remember Ira Bloom’s words the next time there is action from the Town’s Attorney on matters that are still in the planning phase.
One word from
The 1st Selectwoman to Take It Off The Table would end the anxiety and unease the community gardeners are feeling. Why the silence?
Ultimately the voters of Westport can determine the outcome, and/or consequences of poor decision making.
There are respectful requests submitted to add an agenda item address The Parks and Rec Commission at their next meeting, as posted for Sept 20 at 7:30 pm at Town Hall Room 201.
Also voters can talk to their local reps including members of the RTM. There are four reps in each of the 9 RTM districts. If you are so inclined, now is the time to submit papers to run for a seat in your district!
From the Town Clerk:
“Residents interested in running for the Representative Town Meeting can pick up a petition at the Town Clerk’s office ….
“Petitioners must gather 25 signatures from residents in their district to be on the ballot November 7. The completed petitions must be returned to the Town Clerk by September 12.
“Members of the 36-member RTM are elected on a nonpartisan basis, with four delegates from each of the town’s nine voting districts. Members are elected for two-year terms.”
An RTM made up of 36 community gardeners would be the best RTM ever.
No one wants to take responsibility for destroying the environmental asset and town gem that is the Westport Community Garden, so they are punting it around and while also talk in code – “relocate”, “expand” and “enhance” to mask the true result. Everyone seems to afraid to stand up and appear to be that anti-schools/education. There is a simple resolution… let’s keep it the gardens & preserve and replace the baseball field once the old school is razed. This is not complicated… we just need a leader (Tooker?) to step up.
There is so much confusion, and passing of the buck about the fate of the WCG and Long Lots Preserve that nobody knows which department has jurisdiction, or even what all the options are. One thing is clear though…the WTC and Long Lots Preserve are valuable, irreplaceable, Westport assets which contribute to the health and well being of all adults and children. Their fate should not be decided by committees with just a small amount of members, but should be decided by town voters, or
TAKE IT OFF THE TABLE.
Wait. The LLBC, which quietly started meeting in September 2023, has plans to bulldoze the 20-year old WCG on Parks and Rec property, BUT, as per David Floyd, “our commission is not meeting about it or making a decision about it”?!? Is David upset that LLBC overstepped their boundaries onto Parks and Rec boundaries, or were the two entities plotting this move from the start? I am curious to know when Parks and Rec was privy to the plans. How and when was the idea to destroy the Gardens concocted in the first place? Why didn’t one town official reach out to the WCG? Between the secrecy, the deceit (Jen Tooker inferring that the Gardens are on Long Lots “Campus”and that there was “transparancy”) and the continued lie that the Garden can be relocated, it’s no wonder Westport residents feel insulted by their local government!
So Parks and Rec are you going to destroy the only Garden we have that took 20 years and 10,000 volunteer hours to make this majestic? Are you going to destroy a community of 120 families ranging in age from 5 to 95 years old who have only made Westport greener and healthier? I don’t hear many people clamoring to bulldoze the Gardens to plop a Babe Ruth Baseball field on it. Maybe because there are few and/or because it’s wrong and a bit shameful especially in the modern zeitgeist. If Westport truly cares about being green, Take It Off The Table.
TAKE IT OFF THE TABLE!
Ira Bloom isn’t going to do anything to jeopardize what the Town of Westport pays Ira Bloom. He’s embarrassing himself even more than the absentee First Selectwoman is embarrassing herself.
REMEMBER IN NOVEMBER