Walking Western Woods -- A Call to Action by the Waterbury Neighborhood Council open space campaign

Waterbury open space campaign video

(resolution best for "large player" option, not full screen)

Tom Harman, president of Western Hills Neighborhood Association and member of Waterbury Neighborhood Council in southern Connecticut, gives a guided tour of the largest parcel of undeveloped forested land in the city — known as Western Woods.

The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection has awarded the city with a $650,000 open space grant to apply toward the purchase of the 133-acre parcel. With a selling price of $1.75M, the piece has been appraised with a value of between $2M and $4M.

The board of aldermen is taking up the issue on Monday (Aug 27) to consider opening it up to public hearing.

The Waterbury Neighborhood Council has organized a campaign to mobilize citizen action in support of the acquisition of this environmentally-sensitive land to be designated as passive open space.

It is hoped that this video will help spur supporters of the proposed acquisition who have not yet visited the property to action in contacting their aldermen.

For reference, a list of phone numbers for contacting the aldermen is provided at the end of the video.

Those wishing to speak during the public comments period at Aug 27 board of aldermen meeting should arrive at City Hall by 6:30 pm.

Also, use this link if you want to also email the aldermen:
http://www.waterburyct.org/content/458/467/7256.aspx

[Aside: From my perspective, this should be a no-brainer, having spent over a decade in Colorado Springs, where the city routinely snaps up parcels many hundreds and even thousands of acres in size. To fund these things, they impose a measly 1/10 of 1 percent municipal sales tax and raise $6M a year for acquisition and maintenance of open space.]

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Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

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• open space
• open spaces
• connecticut
• waterbury
• news
• environmental protection
• action alert
• political
• political action
• jarura
• western woods
• environment
• environmental
• conservation
• public health