A ‘NO TRESSPASSING’ sign attached to the fence that surrounds Morley Field in Pawtucket’s Woodlawn Neighborhood. The park has been closed since 2022. City officials want to convert portions of it into a parking lot for a proposed distribution center. (Christopher Shea/Rhode Island Current)
Lawmakers and community advocates plan to gather Sunday afternoon on the steps of Pawtucket City Hall to demand that city leaders restore and reopen a 5-acre park in the city’s Woodlawn neighborhood.
William H. Morley Memorial Field, a fenced off baseball diamond and open field on the Moshassuck River, is the only recreational space for residents who live in that part of the city near the Providence line along Interstate 95.
City officials want to sell 60% of Morley Field to New York-based JK Equities to create a parking lot for a proposed distribution center on the site of the old Microfibres Inc. factory adjacent to the now fenced-off park.
Morley Field was designated as recreational space in 1976 after the city was gifted the land by Narragansett Wire Co. for use as an athletic field. The park was closed in spring 2022 in order to “protect the public from hazardous materials,” Planning Director Bianca Policastro wrote to the City Council that August.
“The park should be reopened, refurbished, and should be done maintaining the entire footprint,” Rep. Jennifer Stewart, a Pawtucket Democrat whose district includes the Woodlawn neighborhood, said in an interview.
Stewart plans to join fellow Democratic Pawtucket Rep. Cherie Cruz and City Councilor Clovis Gregor and others at a 3 p.m. rally on Sunday.
Mayor Don Grebien did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
City spokesperson Grace Voll told Rhode Island Current that development plans still call for revitalizing the remaining portion of Morley Field, which would include a large open lawn area, pollinator garden, and community event space.
“Additionally, we have also acquired nearly 14 acres of riverfront public greenspace, just one mile away, on Pleasant Street,” Vold said in an email. “We will also be building a small dog park down the street on Esten Avenue.”
Stewart, though, was uncertain that adding more industrial space to an already dense part of Pawtucket will draw residents to the city’s vision for the updated Morley Field.
“Presumably, you’d have to go through a very busy main street and very busy distribution hub just to get to the other side of the park,” Stewart said. “I’m not really sure how that plan makes any sense.”
But before any development can happen on the lot, it still needs to be evaluated by the National Park Service because Morley Field was created using federal money from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund.
City officials submitted an application to convert the land from recreational to industrial use in an application to the National Park Service last February. In June, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) declined to make a recommendation on the application to the park service,
DEM officials at the time said the decision was due to “the many environmental justice concerns expressed during the public comment period.”
“Every Rhode Islander deserves access to safe and convenient public places for recreation,” DEM Director Terry Gray said in a statement June 6. “When sites are proposed for conversion from recreational use to other uses, careful evaluation is necessary to ensure that recreational opportunities are not lost, especially in historically underserved communities.”
A National Parks Service spokesperson did not respond to multiple requests for comment on whether the department will approve Pawtucket’s application.
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