LeddyPark.Org

Is Disc Golf Right for Leddy Park?

Leddy Park is an acknowledged jewel of a city park.  Leddy Park has an amazing lakefront with amazing views of the Adirondack high peaks.  Leddy Park includes a sandy beach and picnic area with plenty of shade, BBQ grills and picnic tables and undeveloped woodlands with quiet walking trails.  It seems that this wonderful park is perfect, but it is facing a serious threat.  The most imminent danger to the park is negative impacts from the Btowndisc golf club proposal to develop a disc golf course in the park’s remaining woodlands.  Residents of Burlington need to be aware that only about half of the park’s 75 acres remains as quiet woodland.  It is this small amount of remaining woodlands that the Leddypark.org group was formed to protect.

A disc golf course within the woodlands of the park will bring serious negative environmental impact to these few remaining acres of forest land along the shores of Lake Champlain.  The potential negative impacts include soil compaction, removal of forest under story for fairways and defoliation from trampling and disc damage to remaining under story vegetation, and further complications to existing erosion problems within the park.

The disc golfers state that, “disc golf doesn’t require large clearings for fairways or planted grass, because players can play through heavily wooded areas.”  However, it is precisely this traffic that will be the problem, turning the existing wooded areas in to minimally wooded areas.  In addition, potential negative impacts to wildlife in the park are yet to be assessed, as are the potential impacts from increased traffic within the park and surrounding areas.  Given these concerns it is difficult to see how disc golf could possibly lead to an improvement in the overall health of Leddy Park, as claimed by the proponents of disc golf.

Disc golfers claim “…installing 18 baskets [really fairways that should be allotted around an acre each] in over 40 acres of under-used park area is easily possible with no cross-over or impact on the miles of already existing walking and hiking trails in the public park.”  But there’s a real potential danger to people and property from stray discs.  Disc golf is played much like traditional golf, but instead of a golf ball and clubs, players use a disc (smaller, denser and harder than Frisbees).  And, much like golf balls in traditional golf, disc flight is not always predictable, nor limited to fairways.  Everyone knows, traditional golf is not located in mixed use areas because of the danger from flying golf balls and disc golf should not be located in the woodlands of Leddy Park due to the danger from erratic disc flight and lack of appropriate setback from neighboring properties and walking trails.

Btowndisc proponents claim that “Specific concerns have been easily addressed at other parks across the country and similar techniques will be applied to Leddy Park to ensure short and long-term solutions.”  However, a quick search of the internet reveals that many courses around the country, existing and proposed, are fraught with controversy.  Existing courses are being shut down or moved due to overuse, erosion, soil compaction, littering and personal and property damage.

The disc golf proponents also like to claim that a “local course in Burlington would decrease the carbon impact of golfers who currently drive 45 minutes to Waterbury….”  This claim fails to point out that a disc golf course in Leddy Park would attract far more players from locations further away from Burlington than Waterbury, greatly negating any carbon offset benefit.

Disc golf may be a popular and fun sport and I hope a disc golf course is approved somewhere in Chittenden County, just not within Leddy Park.  Residents of Burlington should be highly concerned and vocal about the fact that Leddy Park is not the right location for this activity.

Larry Solt

DATE: MARCH 18, 2009
TO: WHOM IT MAY CONCERN
MEMO FROM: CYNTHIA KNAUF, LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT
RE: THOUGHTS ON THE PROPOSAL FOR DISC GOLF IN LEDDY PARK

On February 18, 2009, I accompanied my friend, Carolyn Bates, on a walk through Leddy Park off of North Avenue in Burlington. A frequent visitor to Leddy, she informed me of the proposal for installing a Disc Golf course in the park and asked me for my thoughts on the suitability of such a use in Leddy. I am quite familiar with this area of Burlington.

A. EXISTING CHARACTER OF LEDDY PARK

Leddy Park, located along North Avenue, is owned by the City of Burlington City and managed by the Burlington City Recreation Department.  It is bordered on the east by busy North Avenue road, 2 residential developments on the north and south sides, and Lake Champlain on the west side. It is an isolated park of primarily woodland surrounded by dense development. A few other wooded areas exist in the same general area along North Avenue, including the Ethan Allen Park on the opposite side of North Avenue and the Rock Point peninsula, owned by the Episcopalian Diocese of Vermont just south of Leddy Park.

The shape of Leddy Park is long and narrow as it begins close to North Avenue and extends to the lakefront. It is primarily wooded with walking biking trails. The central core dedicated to a road, parking, sports fields and ice hockey rink.  The woodlands run mostly in two long corridors along the north and south perimeters.
Our walk on February 18 took us along the paths in the two wooded corridors. There were other folks walking, some with their dogs. We were speaking softly and we couldn’t hear other voices. It was quiet. My impression of Leddy Park is that for some of the users it is a place of retreat from the dense development and busy traffic of the City, especially in the wooded corridors of the park and along the lakefront. It also seems that the wooded corridors provide serene edges to the neighborhoods on the north and south sides. On the west side of the Park, these woodlands probably help to discourage extensive foot traffic and prevent extensive erosion along the lakefront, an issue which plagues other properties up and down the lakefront.

The woodlands are a healthy mix of primarily deciduous or hardwood trees and some evergreens or softwoods, with a good diversity in age among the species. I suspect the wooded environments support a diversity of wildlife as well.

B. CURRENT PLANS FOR LEDDY PARK

Currently, there seems to be no mission statement, master plan or land use plan for Leddy Park.

C. FUTURE OF LEDDY PARK

1. Current Proposal Before the City: Disc Golf is being proposed for much of the south woodland corridor and a portion of the north woodland corridor along the lakefront.  Incorporating Disc Golf into Leddy Park in the recommended configuration could potentially change the aesthetic character and use of the park, and the health of the woods and lakefront. The setting for a DG course must be open with mature trees spaced very far apart, as in a manicured park.

POTENTIAL CONSEQUENCES. Without proper study of how this use is incorporated into Leddy Park, the following consequences could occur:

A. Aesthetics: Leddy Park could significantly change from a wooded character to a more open one, and no longer be a quiet retreat summer through fall. Disc Golf promotes elevated activity and voices, and requires a significant removal of trees, which currently provide some noise attenuation.
B. Safety and Uses: Leddy Park is a narrow park with passive and activie uses. The Disc Golf proposal currently being recommended will likely reduce or eliminate most of the passive walking in areas in or near the course or a serious injury will likely occur. An impact to the head, face or neck with the disc of substantial weight could be very serious.

C. Woods and Lakefront Health: The health of these areas could experience the following negative impact:

1. Woodlands need diversity in species and age to remain sustainable and survive a blight or pest that could potentially destroy an entire woods.
2. The diversity of wildlife could be significantly reduced.
3. White oaks, which are increasingly rare along Lake Champlain, will be removed.
4. Trails help to consolidate foot traffic. Increased foot traffic along the lakefront could lead to erosion problems, which has happened on other lakefront properties, including Rock Point and Lakeview Estates.

D. Maintenance: Opening woodlands to more sunlight increases the growth of first succession plants, which could include invasive species. These first succession plants establish quickly, which typically results in increased maintenance.

2. Potential Next Steps

No review of the Disc Golf proposal or any other proposal for a new use should occur without first developing a mission statement for the character, use and maintenance of the Leddy Park, and then a master plan for the allowed uses and how they integrate with the natural environment. All proposals must be reviewed with respect to the mission statement and master plan.

I have lived either on Dale Rd. or on Brierwood Lane for 37 of the 49 years of my life. I can’t imagine not having the woods in Leddy Park to walk through nearly undisturbed. It is a natural resource that can never be replaced once it has been taken away. The woods and beach provide a quiet refuge in which to walk and experience the lovely sounds of nature. It is the principal reason for which I returned to the neighborhood that I grew up in. The woods and beach are a huge selling point for our neighborhood. I am not willing to give up this very special place that is a gigantic part of my life so that people can play golf. Thank you,

Amy Carretto