Boston Globe, NorthWest and West sections
February 27, 2003

Group: Hanscom threatens historic area

By Davis Bushnell, Globe Correspondent

BEDFORD -- Hanscom Field's host communities of Bedford, Concord, Lexington, and Lincoln are on this year's top-10 list of "Last Chance Landscapes" selected by Washington-based Scenic America, which said the historic area is threatened by commercial and corporate jet aviation activities at the airfield.

Scenic America, a nonprofit group formed in 1978, announced the designation this week. Save Our Heritage, a Concord-based historic preservation group that opposes any increase in the number of commercial or corporate jet operations at Hanscom, nominated the towns for the collective designation.

The Hanscom-area communities were singled out, said Scenic America president Meg Maguire, "because the airport seems to be oblivious to the area being a cradle of liberty. You just can't replace those [four] towns."

Jose Juves, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Port Authority, owner-operator of Hanscom, countered, "We are promoting smart growth to prevent sprawl. It's essential to use the existing infrastructure at Hanscom Field, which has been operating for about 50 years."

In a prepared statement Monday, Anna Winter, executive director of Save Our Heritage, said the four-town designation is a precursor of "all concerned parties working together in the coming year to find positive, creative solutions" to limit Hanscom's growth.

Possible solutions, she said, include "federal legislation, like the law that regulates sightseeing flights over all national parks; state legislation imposing limits on what Massport can do at Hanscom; and an enforceable agreement among the towns, Massport, and the FAA to limit airport growth."

Noting that "selection by Scenic America occurs only if solutions to preserving an area are proposed," Bedford Selectman Sheldon Moll, chairman of the Hanscom Area Towns Committee, said, "we look forward to offering our ideas in the near term for just that purpose."

Area officials also recognize that, as Hanscom grows as a regional airport, Moll said, "we face increasingly severe negative impacts in the form of air and drinking water pollution, traffic, and disruptive day- and nighttime [aircraft] noise."

In 1999, the first year that Scenic America began issuing designations, Walden Woods in Concord was selected as a threatened area because of a proposal to build condominiums there. But that development proposal was defeated by residents and members of groups including the Walden Woods Project, founded by recording artist Don Henley. To date, Maguire said, 42 areas nationwide have received the "Last Chance" designation.

Besides the four Hanscom area towns, other places on Scenic America's most endangered list this year are: Louisiana's Creole Nature Trail National Scenic Byway, Glen Mary Plantation Historical Site in Georgia, Schuylkill Marsh in Philadelphia, Lower Marks Creek Rural Landscape in North Carolina, Jordan River Conservation Corridor in Utah, Middle Potomac Scenic Corridor in Washington and Maryland, State Highway 99 Corridor in the San Joaquin Valley in California, Blue Ridge Parkway Viewshed in Virginia's Roanoke County, and the Gaviota Coast in California.

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