Land Use Planning & Zoning

Open Space and Recreation Planning

Project Overview

An Open Space and Recreation Plan and the process a town goes through to complete it, are both about generating agreement regarding the most important ecological, historical, scenic, and recreational resources and the special places in town that contain them.  The plan also identifies the most appropriate actions for a town to take to protect or enhance them.  The contents of an Open Space and Recreation Plan (OSRP) are based on state requirements.  Once approved by the state’s Division of Conservation Services, the plan enables a town to apply for competitive state grants for open space protection and recreational facility development as well as many other state programs.   The plans must be updated every five years in order to maintain eligibility for state grant programs.  The process usually takes 12 to 16 months for a town open space and recreation planning committee to complete. The planning process typically begins with a community survey that is used to find out what people care about in relation to open space, rural character, land use, and recreation. The survey results help an open space and recreation planning committee develop goals and objectives for the plan. The Open Space and Recreation planning committee learns about the town’s resources and land use patterns as well as its needs and desires. This deep understanding is reflected in the chapters of the plan, the Geographic Information System maps, and in the action plan itself. Many communities take their completed plans to Town Meeting for approval and establish standing Open Space Committees to implement their plan.

Current Activities

Since 2000, FRCOG staff have worked closely with many Franklin County towns to assist them in the development of their Open Space and Recreation Plans with funding from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs (EOEA) and other sources.  FRCOG staff have worked with the following towns to complete plans that have been approved by the Massachusetts Division of Conservation Services: Orange, Wendell, Erving, Warwick, Montague, Leyden, Colrain, Charlemont, Shelburne, Buckland, Whatley, Gill, Deerfield, and Northfield. Equipped with their state-approved plan, several towns have been awarded grants through the Self Help and the Urban Self Help programs, which provide funds for open space acquisition and recreation facility maintenance and development including Orange, Wendell, Warwick, and Montague.  For example, as a result of this effort, the Town of Northfield received a Self-Help grant to protect a parcel of wooded land within their “greenway corridor” and the Town of Orange received an Urban Self Help grant to create a Riverfront Park.  In addition, the following towns established their own local Open Space Committee to implement their town’s plan: Wendell, Warwick, Leyden, Colrain, and Shelburne.   

Future Plans

For 2008, FRCOG staff plan to seek grant funding for towns that need to update or prepare an Open Space and Recreation Plan through EOEA’s Smart Growth Technical Assistant Grant Program, if available.

This page was last updated on 03/03/2008 .

Top