To the editor:
Wellesley residents, like you, care deeply about preserving nature, particularly as we face climate change. Wellesley residents cherish community, especially in their neighborhoods. Wellesley residents, like you, ardently support health and fitness for children. So do we.
Here’s the challenge. If you believe it is important to protect nature and its wonders for our children—and their children—you need to know that putting 5 million lumens of stadium lights on 80-foot poles at Fuller Brook Park will come at a cost.
The habitat and wildlife, including animals, birds, pollinators, and trees, will be negatively affected. The wetlands, which are a part of the Charles River Watershed, will be impacted.
Many properties along the Fuller Brook path depend on these wetlands to absorb stormwater. The Charles River Watershed reports that with 10-year and 50-year storms, the track & field, and some nearby homes, will periodically be under water. In fact, the entire area is designated as a flood plain by the federal government. This is not the right location for further spending to light the field.
Wetlands play a critical role in containing the greenhouse gases that lead to climate change. The town of Wellesley spent $5,000,000 to protect Fuller Brook, Skating Pond and these wetlands through a restoration project because we knew this was important.
The closest homes to the track & field are just 34 yards away. Research shows that light at night—especially combined with noise—negatively impacts human health. It is especially harmful to children, and children live directly across the street from the track & field. If this was your neighborhood, if these were your children, what would you do? What should you do, as a neighbor?
Hundreds of Wellesley residents voiced their opposition through signed petitions, emails, and letters, and in more than 135 public citizen speaks at Natural Resources Commission (NRC) and School Committee meetings. Nevertheless, the lights were approved in a 3-2 decision of the NRC which allowed private fundraising for stadium lighting to proceed—but the costs to our taxpayers will be far greater. This proposed project must still go through the Wetlands Committee and the Zoning Board of Appeals, so you can still share your concerns.
What do you want Wellesley to look like in the future? How will you demonstrate you care for nature, and for your neighbors? Stadium lights and night events will urbanize our community with harsh bright light, amplified evening noise, trash, traffic, and parking issues.
Fortunately, there are excellent alternatives.
For example, Terrier Sports hosted a series of night events at MacDowell Field at Babson College in the fall of 2022. This lighted field is far from homes, offers ample parking, multiple routes for traffic, and is not in a wetland habitat. The Wellesley High School Athletics department has a good working relationship with Babson.
Staging night games at nearby already-lit athletic fields with sufficient parking and traffic will be less costly to the taxpayers of Wellesley. Wellesley deserves better. Ask the School Committee to pursue these alternatives.
Allowing this development at the track & field, so close to homes and habitat, and along the Fuller Brook Path which is on the National Register of Historic Places, will open the door to future intrusions on NRC parkland elsewhere in Wellesley.
Cliff Canaday, on behalf of Friends of Hunnewell Fields
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