AMHERST — A revised Open Space and Recreation Plan that focuses on investing resources into actively managing town-owned land, including trails and conservation areas, and enhancing recreational sites, is being supported by the Select Board.
The board on June 11 voted unanimously in favor of the amended plan, last updated in 2009. Among elements of the plan are making sure active and passive recreational opportunities are enhanced, improved stewardship of protected land takes place and a more strategic approach to protecting properties is developed.
Town Manager Paul Bockelman said the new plan moves away from the concept of purchasing land, unless the land is a truly unique parcel, to improving what is already under town control.
All the properties that the town owns will get a written plan that will guide their use and preservation, Bockelman said.
The 125-page plan is divided into 11 sections that includes an inventory of conservation and recreation lands, analysis of needs, goals and objectives and a seven-year action plan. The plan features numerous maps and information tables outlining everything from the rare plant species found in Amherst to the industries that employ residents.
Its six goals include increasing recreational sites near village centers; improving management of properties, focusing on preservation of lands with priority wildlife habitat, prime agricultural soils, watershed lands and large contiguous blocks of undeveloped land; creating a greenway network through town; protecting farmland; and directing new growth to village centers and downtown.
Significant input from the community was used to develop the plan, according to a memo from Senior Planner Nathaniel Malloy.
Bockelman said having the plan in place is critical, as failure to update it puts Amherst at risk of losing access to grants.
That happened in 2008, when an application to the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs for a grant to help pay for the creation of an historic landscape park on Main Street in front of the Hills House mansion was rejected due to an expired plan.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
