To some, fake grass is greener

SUDBURY -- Debbie Dineen doesn't want to see all of the playing fields in Sudbury replaced with artificial turf.

But synthetic grass has benefits, said Dineen, the town's conservation agent, especially if the field is near an environmentally sensitive area. It won't require pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizer, and it can properly drain storm water.

And, it will never need mowing or watering.

``It's a trade-off," said Dineen, whose board recently reviewed several local artificial-turf projects.

``It doesn't work in all cases, but in this case we felt it did."

Sudbury is one of at least three communities across Boston's western suburbs that have sought to use money raised under the Community Preservation Act to replace natural-grass playing fields with artificial turf.

The town recently used the money to open an artificial-turf field near the Maynard line and is looking to convert a field at Lincoln-Sudbury High School, said Mark Kablack, a member of Sudbury's Community Preservation Committee.

The Community Preservation Act allows communities to raise money for affordable housing, open space protection, historic preservation, and recreation projects by levying a property tax surcharge. More than 100 Massachusetts communities have adopted the act.

Under the law, preservation money can't be used for routine maintenance of recreation fields. But fields can be preserved using the money. They can also be restored if they were acquired with preservation funds in the first place.

The debate in some area towns over artificial turf has often come down to the technical question of whether installing the turf constitutes preservation of the field.

In Newton, the Community Preservation Committee recently agreed to a $5 million project, about half of which would be covered by preservation money, to install artificial turf on fields at Newton South High School. Jeremy Solomon, the city's director of policy and communications, said the new turf would allow greater access to the fields, which can't be regularly used because of drainage problems. But a group of Newton residents has filed a lawsuit arguing that the project is an inappropriate use of the funds, since the fields were not acquired with Community Preservation Act money.

In Wayland, debate has swirled around a proposal to use preservation money to replace the high school's football field with artificial turf.

Wayland's town counsel has advised officials that the project is an appropriate use of the funds, but the state Department of Revenue's opinion is that it does not qualify.

Town Meeting has yet to take up the proposal.

Because there is no state agency that approves projects under the Community Preservation Act, it is largely up to each community to work out such issues, according to Stuart Saginor, executive director of the Community Preservation Coalition, a statewide organization of environmental and housing advocacy groups formed to promote the CPA program.

``Each community makes its own decisions," he said.