Recreation: For a Strong, Healthy Community

CPA funds may be used to acquire, create, and preserve land for active and passive recreational use. In Natick, we could expand and upgrade playing fields, construct trails, and improve parks and playgrounds. Many playing fields suffer from overuse, and both turf and playing surfaces degrade at an alarming rate, increasing maintenance costs. Adding fields lets us rotate use and preserve these assets.

The time has come for us to step forward as generations of Natick citizens have done before us; to invest in new resources to further enhance community development for our children and their children; to preserve the quality of life and community character that truly makes Natick the "Home of Champions".

• Cohasset($26,000): For a feasibility study of a pedestrian and bike trail along the Cohasset stretch of the Greenbush rail corridor

• Norwell($37,500): To preserve a deteriorating playground off of River Street

Consider the Possibilities for Natick!

• Memorial School ($125,000): replace 30-year old lighting system on the softball field

• Natick High School ($60,000): resurface, reseal, and restripe the high school track , and replace fields used to site a new High School

• Contribute needed funding to convert the Oak Street gravel pit to playing fields and recreation

Open Space: To Protect the Environment

Natick is blessed with scenic roadways, forests, lakes and waterfront areas. Encroaching development threatens the balance between development and natural spaces that is integral to Natickís character. A great deal of these areas are unprotected and are vulnerable to development for residential or commercial use. Additionally, protecting natural areas will preserve our water quality. While the Open Space fund is receiving a one-time infusion from the Natick Mall expansion, this fund could quickly be depleted by the purchase of a single major parcel of land.

How Other Towns Have Used CPA Funds to Protect Natural Areas:

• Scituate ($150,000): Purchased the 10-acre Appleton Field, abutting the South Swamp.

• Stockbridge ($30,000): Purchased a conservation restriction on 11 acres of wetlands

Consider the Possibilities for Natick!

• Cochituate Rail Trail: acquire right of way, design and build a linear greenway from Natick Center to the Natick Mall and the State Park

• Lease 3.5 acres of National Guard land adjacent to the J.J. Lane Park on Speen Street; expand and enhance facilities at this neighborhood park and playground

Community Housing: To Keep Families in Town

Natick is in danger of becoming yet another Massachusetts town where housing is affordable only to those with the highest incomes -- a town that increasingly excludes young families, the elderly, and municipal employees such as teachers, police officers, and firefighters.

Today, we have little or no control over housing developments in Natick, and we are paying a price! Pending proposals would add over 400 40B units off Rockland and South Main streets. The CPA is a valuable tool to counter projects that threaten to alter the character of the town and overburden municipal services. Other towns that have passed the CPA have found that it gives them leverage to negotiate the location and nature of proposed housing development.

How Other Towns Have Used CPA Funds to Create Community Housing:

• The Newton Homebuyer Assistance Program ($500,000): Down payment assistance grants to city workers, families with Newton school students, recent Newton HS grads, and new homebuyers with incomes at or under 80% of the area median income.

• Sudbury ($320,000): To build 7 homes with 16 affordable rental units through Sudbury Housing Authority.

Consider the Possibilities for Natick!

• Deed restrictions on existing homes to allow senior citizens to continue to live in their homes

• Loan and grant programs to help young families and town employees become first-time homeowners

• Encourage private developers to invest in the development of appropriate mixed-income community housing

Historic Restoration: To Preserve Our Heritage

From the Praying Indians of John Eliot's day, to the role of Natick citizens in the Revolution, to the conflicts of the 20th Century, there are lessons to be learned from Natick's rich historical past. But this shared heritage is at risk. Only 300 historically significant properties have been registered, with hundreds more remaining unexamined and unprotected, subject to virtually instant demolition at the hands of an owner unconscious of their significance or a developer concerned only with profit. There is also simply no money to repair our Colonial-era graveyards or the Civil War monument on the Natick Common. Not only is this a sorrowful dishonor to our veterans, but failing to protect these memorials weakens the bonds of our community.

How Other Towns Have Used CPA Funds to Preserve Their History:

• Chelmsford ($50,000): To the Garrison House Foundation to restore the Hill Jock House, built in 1756

• Scituate ($40,000): To survey 13 historic burial sites and prepare a preservation plan for each.

Consider the Possibilities for Natick!

• Johnson School ($80,000): Replacement of exterior windows

• Eliot Bridge ($400,000): Re-engineer the roadway and surrounding area and rebuild the bridge itself