A Need for Woodland Preservation
Throughout the Fall of 2008, the merits of a controversial proposal to fundamentally change the character and use of the remaining wooded areas within Leddy Park have been discussed and debated at several public meetings.
Proposed Disc Golf Course
Disc Golf in Leddy Park
A private group has proposed a large development project in Leddy Park that would dramatically transform most of this forest and degrade it’s current and valued use as a New North End natural area.
The Btown Disc Golf Club hopes to build an 18 hole disc golf course throughout most of the wooded area of the park. Large clearings for fairways will expose most of the quiet natural area to the environmental impacts of heavy use that would come from the expected traffic of one thousand or more people per week.
Heavy course use would also threaten other areas of the park like the fragile sandy lake front bluff and steep ravine area, adjacent to the proposed course holes, with increased erosion.
Public Support for Disc Golf?
As the discussions unfolded in September the Btown club was very effective at marketing their message and vision for the course. Using their club mailing list, Btown marshaled their membership to write letters to public officials and to attend public meetings, giving the impression to those public officials that their disc golf project had wide public support. The reality is that much of the public was not even aware of the project.
Those city residents who were aware of the disc golf plan and who voiced concern or opposition were dismissed by park officials and Btown members as either being fearful about this new activity that they did not understand and offered a demonstration of the game, or accused of being neighbors with nothing more than a NIMBY axe to grind.
Leddy Park is public land and the all the questions, concerns, and even opposition to the current proposal should be aired and discussed.
Preservation and Responsible Development
LeddyPark.Org was created to represent the interests of many Burlington residents committed to the preservation of Leddy Park’s remaining natural areas and to promote discussion about responsible development within our public park. It is part chronicle of the events and news related to the park, part catalog of resources and artifacts pertaining to park preservation, and part commentary by city residents who share a different vision for the park than the one proposed by Btown.
Leddy Park is a multi-use park and the city should continue to develop the park in a responsible way to serve the recreational needs of city residents. Leddy can claim a mix of recreational uses that exist in a balance not found in other city parks. Hockey, softball, soccer and tennis are all played in a park that also features one of Burlington’s favorite sandy beaches and large stands of public forest land.
Walking trail between Wildwood Drive and softball field
Leddy Park’s vibrant wooded areas host a network of well established walking trails in a peaceful natural setting that are enjoyed by many city residents daily. The increasingly scarce forest land within our city, and exemplified at Leddy Park, should be preserved and protected.
The disc golf club’s goal of locating a course in the Burlington area is admirable but the proposal to build 18 holes at Leddy Park is inappropriate in both scale and the impact it would have on this North End woodland sanctuary and other sensitive areas of the park. Any development in Leddy’s remaining natural areas should be low impact and small footprint. The disc golf project is neither.
Leddy Park.org is committed to the preservation of the remaining urban woodlands within the park and is working to to give voice to the many Burlington residents that share this goal. Learn More
