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Letter to the Editor: Loughlin Park Community Speaks out on Proposed Park Changes

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On February 5, 2021, the Town of Greenwich released its Athletic Field Study/Capital Improvement Plan, funded at $75,000, which proposes a comprehensive overhaul to the charming neighborhood park on Loughlin Avenue. The open green space is to be paved over for parking, a concession stand, a stormwater management area, and a baseball sports complex. These recommendations, simply put, would be catastrophic.

Loughlin Park currently welcomes, and is enjoyed by, all Greenwich residents year-round as it stands. This is a walking community and the park has a beautiful open green space where residents, dogs, and
children can be found happily socializing 365 days a year. Loughlin Park currently has two tennis courts, two paddle courts, a baseball field, and a playground coupled with green space, a good balance of
organized athletics and spontaneous play. It strikes the perfect balance between open space and organized use, and on any given day welcomes families, dogs, soccer, basketball, baseball, football, tennis, yoga, sledding, and even cross country skiing. Every day, children who do not qualify for bussing, safely walk through the park to the nearby schools of Cos Cob, Central, and Greenwich High. To pave
over even a portion of this park, let alone complete the suggested plan, would destroy the park and the neighborhood.

While this plan might seem far off and outlandish, Joseph Siciliano, director of the Greenwich Department of Parks and Recreation, has made it clear, it is something he hopes to implement in the future. Siciliano stated in the Greenwich Time on February 10, 2021, “…it provides the basis for how the town moves forward in terms of providing field space and artificial surfaces moving into the future.” He further states, “the goal would be to take all that information and spend a little more time with consultant to prioritize those concepts and put them in 15-year capital plan for town. So that in any given year during budget prep, we can then review that plan scheduled for that year and see if we want to move forward.”

The vision and concept are wrong. If allowed to remain in the plan, and be implemented, the park would be transformed from a vibrant year-round space that positively impacts the surrounding community, to a blighted one that is paved over, with an exclusionary fence, and utilized by a small fraction of current users for only a couple months of the year.

The plan states “…outdoor recreation needs relate not just to the sports/athletic programs that make use of them, but also to less formal recreational pursuits by individuals not aligned with a specific
organization, like the neighborhood kids who seek a pickup game of football, baseball, or soccer within a particular venue or the parents who would like to stroll in the park with their children.” Given this is true, there is absolutely no reason to make any changes to the current park, especially changes of this magnitude, and to a property with an overwhelmingly positive approval rating. This master plan’s vision did not consult enough users of this public property. It failed to ask the input of nearby residents or anyone outside of organized field users and for-profit athletic organizations.

We, as members of the neighborhood, would like it on record that we are opposed to and call for Plans A & B (pgs.61-63) to be stricken. And, should any suggestions be made to our neighborhood or park, in the future, we emphatically state that we, the residents and neighbors, be informed and involved in anything that impacts Loughlin Park.

The Loughlin Park Community

Signed By:
Francesca Ambrosoni
Regan Avery
Eric Barrow

Lawrence Blucher
Nancy Blucher
Peter Boldt
Victoire Boldt
Suzanne Branch Martin
Dave Carrescia
Lawton Carrescia
Alex Catterick
Mary Celeste Anthes
Virginia Cheney
Matthew Chiavaroli
Veronica Chiavaroli
Christin Cody-O’Brien
Jim Cummings
Andrea Dabeny
Keith Damsky,
Sarah Damsky
Chris Day
Lorenzo De Ferrari
Blake Delany
Teresa Delany
Gregory Frisoli
Pamela Frisoli
Sandra Grandinetti
Steve Grandinetti
Karen Halac
Janice Harmeier
David Hays
Maureen Hays
Mercedes Horner
Michele Horner
Thomas Kartanowicz
Linda Kennedy
Patricia Kerr
Tricia Khan
Akshit Kumar
Emily Kunschner
John Kunschner
Jodie LaRocque
Katherine LoBalbo
Terry Lohmeyer
Kris Lowe
Jennifer Lozina
Gillian Marcott
Donald McCormack
Margaret McCormack
Jim McGovern
Julie McGovern
Carl Mecky
Debra Mecky
George Merrill
Janice Merrill
Ariel Meyer
Sean Meyer
Marisa Mingione
Peter Mingione,

Dennis O’Brien
David Ornstein
Kim Purcell
Sherri Purcell
Katherine Pushkar
Bret Rattray
Susan Whalen
Ann Reiten
Barrie Richmond
John Sanna III
Polly Sanna
Aaron Shamshoian
Lindsey Shamshoian
Ann Shifman-Deibler
Pragati Soni
Kay Sterling
Rob Sterling
Christine Surette
Darius Toraby
Faith Toraby
Jules Toraby
Julie Tretiak,
Alison Walsh,
James Walsh,
John Whalen,
Susan Rattray,
Chris Wilson
Lauren Wilson
Ian Woolven
Gail Zaffino
Joe Zaffino

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