Jennifer Hartley sent the following to the Paradise City Forum listserv regarding the potential purchase by the City of Northampton of about forty acres of the Bean Farm in Florence. As of now only three options have been put forth for the land if purchased by the city with Community Preservation Act funds: keep it in agricultural use, convert it to recreational playing fields or a combination of the two. Are there other options?
The Agricultural, Conservation and Recreation Commissions respectively support purchasing the land. On the Community Preservation Committee sits Lilly Lombard, of Grow Food in Northampton. Lombard is a member of the CPC as an elected official via popular vote by the city at large. Both Downey Meyer, who serves on the Conservation Commission, and Tom Parent, who serves on the Recreation Commission, sit on the CPC as representatives of appointed city boards. Meyer was recently elected to serve as the Ward 7 School Committee representative in an uncontested race.
The City is moving forward on a plan to redraw its flood plain boundaries as well, which would remove the Bean Farm property from that designation. City officials propose to match the city's flood plain boundaries with those as demarcated by the Federal government in the 1970s.
The City Council will consider the move Thursday, November 19. A public forum is planned for Monday, December 7, 2009 at 6:30 pm at JFK Middle School on Bridge Road in Florence.
Hi folks,
Grow Food in Northampton is sponsoring a petition, urging the City to keep the primary use of the Bean Farm in agriculture. To see the full text of the petition or to add your signature, visit:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Bean_Farm
If you prefer to sign a paper petition, please contact me off-list and I will send you one to print out. If you are so moved, I encourage you to spread the word (email, online forums, Facebook, Twitter, etc) and/or actively collect signatures on paper.
I am serving as the point person for collecting both online and paper signatures. Paper petitions can either be mailed to me or we can arrange pick-up/drop-off. My mailing address is: Jennifer Hartley, 119 Black Birch Trail, Florence, MA 01062.
Many thanks to all who are concerned about land use in Northampton, for all purposes.
Jen Hartley
