As the need for new schools, housing and other municipal buildings has risen across the state, legislators have increasingly consented to convert parks and other open space into new buildings in a move that has environmental groups worried.
The groups are worried that the open land will not be replaced.
More than 100 of these conversions have occurred in the last decade, according to a report by a subcommittee of the Joint Committee on Local Affairs. Towns acquire open land through tax dollars or donations and can include areas ranging from parks to areas that protect water supply.
“These lands are supposed to be protected and they’re being turned over for other uses,” said Nancy Goodman, Research Director of the Environmental League of Massachusetts, a group that focuses on open space conservation.
In a densely populated area, a community may need to build a new school. Since the community will not be reimbursed, it looks to land it already has, Goodman explained.
According to Article 97 of the Massachusetts Constitution, all citizens have the right to open space and clean air and water. The article protects conservation land unless two-thirds of the Legislature votes to use the land for another purpose.
Currently, when a town proposes an open space conversion to the state, the town does not have to include the exact location of the land nor what its new purpose will be. The lack of information leads to conversion bills passing without a problem, Goodman said.
Sen. Pamela Resor (D-Acton) has proposed a bill that would make it more difficult for cities to take the land. It requires that each bill requesting a land conversion provide a description of the land including location, current owner and use and intended owner and use. The conversion request would also state the compensation offered by current law.
The compensation would not always include money, but rather “alternative open space,” said Elizabeth Moroney, Resor’s Chief of Staff.
“The whole idea on the state level is always trying to buy open space and protect land. We lose open space because there is so much lost at the local level,” Moroney added.
Ideally, communities would rehabilitate old schools or brownfields, which are abandoned or underused commercial facilities, for their needs instead of taking open space, Goodman said.
The proposed bill would cause communities to think before taking the land, Moroney said.
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