Report: Middlesex Fells Feeling Development Threat
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Boston, MA – The Middlesex Fells may be in need of an environmental movement reminiscent of the 1800s. Concerned citizens banded together to protect the land from development back then, and a new report says the Fells is facing similar threats today. The Sierra Club has published a report highlighting public lands nationwide that are in need of protection. Myke Bybee, author of the "52 Places" report, says the Fells was picked for a number of reasons.
"Being so close to an urban center, pressures from development and from air pollution, among other things, are very, very real."
Simpson Housing owns a portion of land inside the park, and wants approval from the state to build about 400 housing units on the property. Bybee worries development could also require more roads be built to accommodate traffic flow from as many as 8,000 more cars a day.
The Middlesex Fells is part of the nation's oldest metropolitan park system, and Bybee says it's symbolic for the rest of the country.
"Citizens came together and decided that this was a place that they should protect. It then became the model for much of the urban parks systems across the country."
The entire "52 Places" report can be found on the group's website, http://www.sierraclub.org.
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