The City has offered Worcester State University our Chandler Magnet ball fields, so that Worcester State can turn them into a parking lot. Because this parcel of twenty-two acres also contains the woodlands and hiking trails above the field, this plan allows Worcester State to extend its footprint deep into public lands.
The City is planning to give public land, land that belongs to the residents of this city, to Worcester State. This is YOUR land.
Youth sports teams, adult athletic leagues, and ordinary residents using those fields and public hiking trails will lose them, permanently. Open green space is important to our health, the environment, and the value of our homes. Are we willing to see it turned into a parking lot?
To The Worcester School Committee and the City Council:
We the undersigned register our opposition to the proposal for the Chandler Magnet ball fields to be paved over into a Worcester State parking lot, and for the adjacent woodlands to become part of Worcester State's property. This property, an oasis of green and the only recreational space within walking distance of our neighborhood, is used by residents old and young, including the Worcester public school children who use it heavily after school and on weekends for athletic activities. To turn it into a parking lot does irreparable damage to our already over-asphalted city.
We urge the School Committee to vote against releasing the property for this purpose, and to maintain it for the current and future use of Worcester's children and families. We request that the City and Worcester State University consider the many alternative methods available to solve Worcester State's on-going parking problem, including Worcester State's addressing its needs on its own land.
