A Walk in the Park

A calming walk in a park often rescues the sanity of many beleaguered worker, parent, child or spouse. We know the critical nature of open space and the court affirmed its importance explicitly recognizing the “healthful and civilizing influence of parks in and near congested areas of population.”

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court judges have had to take calming walks in Boston Commons it seems from reading their opinion in a recent case, Smith v. Westfield. Their opinion cites a litany of facts which indicate that the federal government, the state, the regional and city officials and the public all considered a particular property a park for over 60 years. They stopped the city and school district from turning it into an elementary school building.

The court invoked the “public dedication doctrine” (aka “prior public use doctrine”), effectively imposing (without a recorded legal document) an easement for the benefit of all people (not only city residents). The court  appears to give great weight to the city’s acceptance of Federal Land and Water Conservation Fund monies, which imposed a condition (accepted by the city) of future uses consistent with the open space uses intended by the grant. The court then expanded beyond the narrow holding it could have made concerning a constitutional issue to include commentary about a case involving development of the Boston Common to say that something expressly dedicated and used by the public for a public purpose cannot be destroyed even for some other later public purpose.