Resident Weighs in on Proposed High School Track and Field Project

In advance of the March 6, 2013 Zoning hearing, Kathleen Woolam has submitted this letter, originally sent to the Zoning Commission. 

This proposed track and field will come within 10 feet of my back yard and will be a disaster for my property not only in value but in appearance.  The present field was built in 2000. Because of my objection then of being too close to my property, a buffer of trees was planted. Now, in order to make room for this huge track and field on a very tight site, it will require excavating the hillside including that buffer of trees and all other trees and vegetation. From my vantage point it will be wide open and the track and field will literally become a part of my back yard as my property is at the same elevation, and the track and field will be raised up one foot,  presumably to take care of the high water table on parts of this land.

A single line of trees is proposed as a buffer around the track and field.  In my experience in the past 12 years a single line of trees does very little to eliminate noise, and particularly with this new field which is to be an all-purpose field for use by anyone in town or rented out to other towns or organizations as a means of defraying expenses. It will have four 85-foot lights, loud-speakers, crowds, and noise. Since the whole hillside will be excavated which now serves as a natural barrier to my property, could there not be a birm put up around the south end of the track where it comes close to my property with, ideally, an 8-foot fence on top or planted with 8-foot trees and shrubs. 

This request would be somewhat of a solution to what is for me a very disturbing situation to have such a disruption in the landscape.  This land prior to being sold to the town has been in my family for five generations, and except for a few years, I have lived here all my life.  To tolerate this disruption will mean that I will have to spend thousands of dollars to plant trees or whatever I can do to create a barrier of separation between my property and a field with all this activity. Added to this on the east side close to my property line a sidewalk/access road to Simonds Avenue is in the plan plus the enlarged parking lot in close proximity, all of which adds to an invasion of privacy..

I request that the above statement be made a part of the record of the above hearing.