November/December 2013 Preserving Belmont’S Small-Town Atmosphere Vol
Belmont Citizens Forum Many Bikeway Abutters Forgo Trail Barriers By Leah Brams and Vincent Stanton Jr. To investigate abutters’ choices of natural and physical barriers we studied the Minuteman City planners, economists, and sociologists Bikeway in Arlington. We found that just have published many studies of the impact of over half of homes and businesses along the recreational trails on home values, crime and Bikeway are within 50 feet of the trail, yet few other quantifiable events. But the true experts homeowners have put in fences, walls, or dense on recreational trails, it could be argued, are evergreen plantings. Apparently, abutters do not the people who live next to them. They have feel they need to make special efforts to protect experienced the positive and negative aspects their property from path users. firsthand, in some cases for decades. To learn what trail abutters think, one could The Minuteman Bikeway conduct interviews—and that has been done—or The Minuteman Bikeway runs for about one could study how they have behaved, on the nine miles through Arlington and Lexington theory that actions speak louder than words. and about one mile through Bedford. The trail Abutters are free to plant trees and shrubs opened in 1992, so abutters have had 21 years or erect fences and walls to separate their to adjust to the flow of bicyclists, walkers, and house from the trail. Homeowners’ choices of in-line skaters. landscaping elements can reveal their attitudes For this article we catalogued trees, bushes, towards an adjacent path. fences, walls, and other landscaping features For example, it seems fair to assume that a along the Minuteman Bikeway in Arlington, history of trail-associated crime or vagrancy measuring their height, distance from the trail, would eventually lead to more fences and walls, and other properties to determine the degree of and that they would be built higher and stronger screening they provide to abutting properties.
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