Union Meadow Appeal Approved By TOPS Working Committee

Thanks to the huge amount of neighborhood support and everyone showing up at our TOPS appeal, we were able to reverse the administrative decline from the Parks and Recreation staff.  The committee gave us a glowing endorsement and fully supported our project 100%.  They also gave city staff support and direction in their ongoing efforts to help us protect the property.  We will be working with them in the next several weeks on a number of issues including the letter of support and the steps we need to take in setting up a conservation easement on the city owned property.  The committee often gets hung up on finances.  Since the church offer expired on January 31st, we specifically stayed away from asking for money at this time.  Getting the administrative decline overturned was our primary objective and it was a HUGE win for our side.  The actual ruling was a bit confusing.  The committee first declined our proposal for a fee simple acquisition of the parcel and then approved an identical proposal with the words preserved in place of acquire.  The committee opened the door for us to come back to them with specific proposals that they could fund in the future.  This makes it possible for us to tackle the project in smaller pieces that can easily fill gaps in the budget process.

The appeal presentation was fairly short as directed by the TOPS committee.  Steve Castle focused on the reasons that we disagree with staffs evaluation of our project and also formally stated our appeal.  I gave a quick update on our progress with each of the four phases of the project and we ended in a question and answer session.  With the huge numbers of people that we have been getting out to the meetings, the committee was really happy to be able to create a positive environment and vote in our direction.

On a separate issue, the TOPS re-election committee is going to hold off putting the issue on the ballet until April of 2003.  Their primary concern is that TOPS has not fully allocated all of the money that they have.  Their finances are kind of confusing but while they have over spent money budgeted in the open space category, they have not spent nearly enough in the trails and parks categories.  The split is 60, 20, 20 for each category.  We will be watching closely to try and determine the most effective time to prepare an actual funding application.

Scot