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HomeMy WebLinkAboutOpen Space Comm. 10/18/2021Open Space and Recreation Committee October 18, 2021 Minutes RECEIVED N OFFICE 2022 MAR I D P 2: 11 f- Present: Perry DiMascio, Chair; Rebecca Foster; Sharon Friedman; Sally Fehervari; Katolyn'rsppyrl Conservation and Environmental Planner. TS 1. Meeting was opened at 6:00 pm. First part of meeting is missing Ms. Gonyer said first the Committee has to decide how they will physically do the updates. She said the Open Space Plan is a guide document that has to be updated every seven years and the next update will be in 2023. She said there needs to be more information about how we manage the trails. She said the Committee can make changes minimally or extensively. One thing Ms. Gonyer would like to do is a DLTA grant, which is a technical grant from SRPEDD and is done in the fall and spring each year. She said we received technical support from SRPEDD when the first update of the Open Space Plan was done and they will do all the demographic work. Ms. Gonyer said Chris Slinko, GIS Department, will be doing all the trail maps. Ms. Gonyer said between Ms. Slinko, the Conservation intern and herself, they have already re -mapped all the conservation areas using GPS. She said this information will be for templates for the new trail maps. She asked the Committee to read through the plan and make changes or add to the plan. Ms. Gonyer said she believes there are some sections that need to be removed and there are things that need to be put into the plan, the Master Plan in general. Ms. Gonyer mentioned Ms. Friedman had asked if the Master Plan could be used as a community document so Ms. Gonyer reached out to Melissa Cryan (from the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs) and Ms. Cryan said yes, the Master Plan can be used as a community document. Ms. Gonyer said the Committee might want to host one workshop to show the community the updates before it becomes a final plan. Ms. Gonyer said incorporating Section 2 of the Master Plan into the Open Space goals is the hard part. She said the goals and objectives are the dynamic part of the plan and the Committee should look at these goals; • Acquire more open space • Acquire land to link to smaller portions of Conservation Land • Improve and further protect water quality • Establish the Open Space and Recreation Committee • Update and create a new recreational area and facility to include neighborhood playgrounds and fields, swimming areas, playgrounds and a dog park Ms. Gonyer asked if these goals are still accurate or do they need to be updated. She said the Committee can take these goals that are outlined in the Master Plan and compare them to the goals of the Open Space Plan and cull out what is overlapping. She said protecting the water quality is important, especially with the PFAS situation and climate change conditions. She said the next step is how to handle the updates, maybe focusing on one section at a time. Ms. Friedman said the goal was to establish the Open Space Committee, which would be responsible for implementing the Open Space and Recreation Plan. She said this Committee, although small, is one of an advisory committee, not of implementation. Ms. Gonyer said this committee does not have the ability or the resources to follow through with the goals because they are only giving advice. Ms. Friedman asked where does the authority of the plan fit. Ms. Gonyer said there is no specific authority assigned to the tasks outlined in the Open Space Plan. Ms. Friedman said maybe this is something that should be established. Ms. Gonyer said any advice would go to staff, the Conservation Commission, and the Select Board. She said the OSRC does not have any regulatory authority. Mr. DiMascio said he believed the point person is Ms. Gonyer and she would go to whoever is appropriate. She said she would be the liaison. Ms. Gonyer said once the goals are written into the Open Space Plan, we can allocate who those responsible parties are, much like the annual maintenance plan for the trails. She said the word "implementation" should be removed. Ms. Gonyer suggested more public education and outreach be called out in the Open Space Plan. Ms. Gonyer said the OSRC needs to focus a lot more on the goals and how we expect the town to execute them. Ms. Friedman said in the Open Space section of the Master Plan there is an over arcing section and all these sub units. She said it might make sense to take the sub units and reiterate those to the goals. She said in the Master Plan there was also inventory and certainly with the Open Space Plan the inventory can be more updated. Ms. Foster mentioned the committee had set guidelines for volunteers so people would reach out to volunteer. Ms. Gonyer said Ms. Slinko took the trail map form for walkers and turned it into a 123-survey form so anyone can do the survey and report trees down and any vandalism. This form will be on the web page. Ms. Gonyer said she would follow up on the volunteer process and she would like to expand the volunteer process. She mentioned scout projects are great but not enough. Ms. Friedman would like to have the strategies under the goals. She asked about revisiting the Community Preservation Act (CPA). She said it would provide fiscal resources to the town. She noted all the surrounding towns have it; there are now 187 towns and cities that have CPA. Ms. Gonyer said when CPA was last presented, it was not clear about the type of tax it would increase. She said it is worth looking into and she will reach out to other towns to see what they are doing and what their experiences have been. Ms. Fehervari mentioned the CPA topic may have been dismissed because the town proposed the highest tax rate increase under CPA. Maybe this time we propose a lower tax percentage. Ms. Gonyer reviewed the Community Preservation Coalition website and CPA details. Ms. Foster agreed to look into CPA. Ms. Friedman stated Planning may have issues with affordable housing because we are already over 10% of affordable housing. Ms. Gonyer said the trail assessment will be done on all six of the conservation areas in the spring and the fall. Ms. Fehervari suggested senior volunteers from COA to help out with the trails. Before the next meeting Ms. Gonyer will have information regarding the Master Plan and how it overlaps with the Open Space Plan and more information about the CPA. She will send a PDF of the Trail Assessment form to the Committee members for review and asked that anyone that feels there should be information added to let her know. Ms. Gonyer said she received an award from the SNEP Network. She said we just got a technical award for an Organization Capacity Assessment, a grant to a have a third -party assessment from an environmental company that specializes in looking at the Conservation Department and how it interacts with the Department of Public Works and the stormwater structures and also what we will look like in ten years for environmental issues and what kind of build-up we would need. She said she got a scholarship to do training for climate control officer and she virtually attended the MACC fall conference. Ms. Foster asked about making the term for the Open Space and Recreation Committee a two-year term instead of one year. Ms. Gonyer will send the draft form for the guidelines for volunteers. Ms. Friedman said pages 104-105 (under Program Accessibility) need to be updated. Adjournment: Motion to adjourn at 7:20 pm (Friedman/Foster) Motion passed 4-0-0. 3-19_ate Rebecca Foster/Chair / / Date