By Owen Boss
Staff Writer
NORTHAMPTON - Despite the absence of a final purchase agreement for either parcel, residents came together Monday night to brainstorm ways the Bean and Allard farms could be used for agricultural purposes.
The meeting, sponsored by the Bean/Allard Task Force, came less than a week after the City Council approved the appropriation of $990,000 in Community Preservation Act money to acquire the neighboring farms, located off Spring Street in Florence.
The combined farms amount to 185 acres. The city had originally eyed converting the 45-acre Bean Farm into a combination of recreational fields and farmland, a notion that drew strong opposition from many residents who would rather preserve it strictly for agricultural use.
Last week, councilors approved using $80,000 from the city's CPA reserve account and borrowing an additional $910,000 over 15 years to pay for the two farms, anticipating that the 140-acre Allard farm would provide ample space for both uses.
The Trust for Public Land, which is partnering with the city, is taking the lead in the acquisition and still must negotiate a final agreement with all of the property owners. It is estimated that $2.475 million is needed to buy both farms. The remainder of the money would have to come from a combination of grants and other fundraising efforts.
Prior to public comment, Wayne Feiden, the city's director of planning and development, reminded the 25 residents in attendance that he expects that both deals will be completed successfully but that nothing is written in stone yet.
"There are still a lot of balls up in the air and either one of these deals could fall apart," Feiden said.
The problem with moving forward with planning the parcels' future use without a final purchase agreement, Feiden said, is that those planning the purchase will have to prepare for several outcomes.
After a half-hour formal presentation providing a short timeline of the process until now, the crowd split into several smaller groups and participated in breakout sessions overseen by students of the Conway School of Landscape Design, who have volunteered to help with planning.
Feiden, who said forums with guided breakout sessions often provide the best opportunity for everyone present to have their ideas heard, said he hoped the forum would generate a variety of new ideas to be considered at future meetings.
During the brainstorming sessions, residents discussed potential crops, possible fencing, future greenhouse placement, how to make the land affordable for local farmers, preserving the view of the natural landscape and how to use the land for public agricultural education.
The meeting also featured a presentation by Lilly Lombard, a member of Grow Food Northampton, a group dedicated to preserving local food security, who spoke in favor of preserving a portion of the property for use as community farmland.
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us," Lombard said, "and it is so valuable that we really need to stop and consider what we can do."
A deal under consideration for the property calls for the Recreation Commission to own about 24 acres, which could allow for four multipurpose fields and two or three baseball fields. The farms won't be acquired until the task force makes a recommendation, nor will the athletic fields be developed until state or federal money can be obtained. Once the fields are developed, the Recreation Department will likely partner with sports leagues to fund maintenance of the fields.
Under the same agreement, another 10 acres would be permanently protected farmland and designated as community gardens. The balance of the land would likely be a combination of private farmer or community farm ownership.
A similar public forum with a focus on the farms' recreational potential, task force chairman Gene Tacy said, has not yet been scheduled but will be soon.
Additional information on the purchase, slides mapping both farms, and aerial photography of the land is available on the city's Web site at http://www.northamptonma.gov/opd.
Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com
No comments:
Post a Comment