- Target:
- Residents of Gloucester and all supporters of Dogtown
- Region:
- United States of America
The City of Gloucester is creating an Open Space Plan that signals a loss of local control. Dogtown is defined by the City as an open space area.
The Metropolitan Area Planning Council, a regional planning agency, is working with the city's Open Space and Recreation Committee to develop the Plan. Once the Plan is finalized, it will be sent to the state's funding source, the Division of Conservation Services (DCS), for approval. This essentially makes the Open Space Plan a grant application.
Grant funds come with requirements, and these requirements mean a loss of local control for the city if they are applied to its open space areas. For example, one of the grants the city will be eligible for is the federal Land Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). If this grant were to be put toward Dogtown, the city would be required to obtain National Park Service authorization surrounding the uses of the property. Incidentally, Dogtown's has many brooks and streams that feed into the city's drinking water supplies (watershed land).
We, the undersigned, respectfully call upon the City of Gloucester to exempt Dogtown from its Open Space Plan. This Plan is currently being developed by Boston's Metro Area Planning Council (MAPC) and Gloucester's Open Space and Recreation Committee.
In consideration of this matter, we also request in-person hearings to be held at City Hall before City Council. Such hearings would serve to foster an inclusionary and dynamic participation process in the development of the plan.
You can further help this campaign by sponsoring it
The Dogtown Exemption from the City of Gloucester's Open Space Plan petition to Residents of Gloucester and all supporters of Dogtown was written by Jeff Brown and is in the category Environment at GoPetition.