SCITUATE — The Lawton Farm, a pristine, 50-plus-acre conservation area at the Cranston city line and adjacent to the Providence Water Supply Board’s property, has suddenly emerged as a political hot potato.
A group of residents, several of whom live nearby, has raised an alarm about the town’s plans for a 15-acre slice of the farm. The Town Council during the summer voted to let the Tri-town Pop Warner football league use the small parcel. The residents have formed a group called Save the Lawton Farm, and have established a Web site at www.lawtonfarm.org. They say they fear parking problems, added traffic on Seven Mile Road, on which the farm and some of them are located, and potential damage to the conservation area.
They have urged a public turnout when the council convenes this evening.
Robert R. Budway, council president, said yesterday that their fears are unfounded, and that a lot of misinformation is being bandied about. He said he expects such a large turnout that he has moved the 7 p.m. council session to the cafeteria of Scituate High School.
Budway said also that he had amended the agenda to include a public discussion of the controversy.
Annette Angeli, one of the opponents of the football plan, called the Lawton Farm “a gem.”
She and her husband are building a house on Seven Mile Road. “The reason we purchased property there was because it was a gem,” she said. “That whole Lawton Farm is just beautiful for walking, for walking dogs, for riding horses. Now, with this whole thing, it will become a whole complex. This is the beginning of something that’s going to spoil this gem. This was all swept under the rug, done quietly.”
Angeli said she and her colleagues have collected 500 signatures of residents who oppose the plan, and the group intends to present the petition at tonight’s meeting.
“I was told there would be floodlights, cooking, parking for 300 cars — the road is narrow as it is.”
Suzanne Soprano, another protester, said the town floated a bond issue in 1990 to purchase 39 acres there as a conservation area. She said the Lawton family donated 15 additional acres.
“The town has maintained the 15 acres alongside the 39 owned by the Land Trust as if it was all open space,” she said.
“So people who bought houses here in the last 17 years have been misled into thinking this was a nature conservancy, without an understanding that someday it might get turned into ball fields. There isn’t anybody I have talked to who approves of this.”
Budway said the council is aware that a number of people are opposed to using the land for sports.
“We are also aware that there seems to be quite a bit of misinformation as to what’s going on, what is proposed,” he said. “What the council has decided is that there is a portion of the property that is a recreational area, and that that is the condition under which it was acquired. And a portion is conservation. There has been an assumption by many folks that the entire property is strictly for conservation. That is not the case.”
Budway challenged the idea that the field would be used by 300 cars.
“There is no basis for that,” he said.
He said the Pop Warner League currently uses the athletic field at Chopmist Hill, which he said draws about 80 cars.
“The council will not approve any utilities,” he said. “There will be no bleachers, temporary or otherwise. This will be a practice field, and that’s all it is. The intention is that the current location at Chopmist will be the home for the football folks. We have parking there. That does need to be expanded. We have utilities there — water, electricity, ample storage space in the existing building. The field has somewhat of a pitch, and that needs to be improved. But that is something we are not in a position to do right now.”
Budway said all of the actions taken by the council were done in public. “I think some folks are under the impression that this was done quietly, without proper thought. It is quite the opposite. What we have been doing is assessing the recreational needs throughout the community. There has been tremendous growth in the number of youngsters that want to participate in athletics. The town has an obligation to do its best to provide for those youngsters. The problem comes — where are we going to put this? We do have limited resources. We did look around. It wasn’t as if it was, ‘Just go to Lawton Farm and stick it there.’ When this property was acquired, it was acquired for the specific purpose of recreation.”
The council president said the teams that want to use the land will be required to sign a memorandum of understanding in which they acknowledge formally that there is a conservation area next door that will be respected.
“For the football, we are talking a very limited usage — maybe two and a half months in the fall,” he said. “This is not going to happen in ’07. We are looking at ’08.”
He said there will be temporary lighting as the fall days shorten. The league will also be allowed to grill hamburgers and hot dogs because the youngsters will be practicing at suppertime. He said there will be temporary sanitary facilities.
Budway said that the field may be opened to expanded use by soccer players because Tasca Field, in North Scituate, needs to be reseeded and otherwise “rejuvenated,” a project that might consume a year.
“We are going to put in a walking trail. The parking configuration is going to be different. We are going to put in an in-ground sprinkler system. We are going to make it a topnotch facility. When that happens, these kids are going to have to go somewhere. That place might be Lawton Farm.”
Cranston