Planners survey residents for town open space plan
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER
With open space on Nantucket now approaching 50 percent, the requirement for a town management plan might seem like overkill.

"This is the town's plan. This is not a private, nonprofit plan. But, this needs to look at what the interaction is to those organizations. This is meant as a town plan: public recreational land, Conservation Commission Land, Land Bank land and playing fields." - Andrew Vorce, Planning Director

But then the town's open space plan has not been updated since the early 1990s, while the island's nonprofit conservation organizations have up-to-date management strategies for their properties.

To inventory all of the town's undeveloped public lands and its recreational properties, and develop its own management plan complete with prioritized uses, the Planning Board and its staff are putting together an open space plan for the town as part of the ongoing Chapter 41-81D Master Plan effort.

"This is the town's plan. This is not a private, nonprofit plan. But, this needs to look at what the interaction is to those organizations," said Planning Director Andrew Vorce. "This is meant as a town plan: public recreational land, Conservation Commission Land, Land Bank land and playing fields."

Before Vorce hired Tom Broadrick for the land use planner position, he and the Planning Board hired Jeff Thibodeau of Helios Land Design of Brewster, Mass. to take the load of creating the plan. The planning staff is also circulating an open space plan survey asking islanders to share which recreational and open space uses are important to them, and what issues the open space plan should tackle.

The survey, that was due July 13 but can still be picked up and dropped off at the Planning Office, covers open space and conservation, recreation and demographic questions, and asks islanders to rate their favorite uses on a scale of 1 to 10. Participants are also asked to give their opinions on user fees, rate the quality of active and passive recreational facilities, rank priorities for future open space acquisitions and what islanders would do to preserve open space.

"The survey is a requirement of the open space plan submission and it's basically to get public input on what types of opens space and recreational initiatives we should be working on," said Vorce.

Vorce added that he, his staff and Thibodeau are racing to get a draft of the plan completed by the end of July so they can meet the deadline for grant money submissions that would help pay for new playing fields off Nobadeer Farm Road. He also would like to have this chapter of the 41-81D Master Plan done by the end of September.

The 41-81D Master Plan is what the town wanted the Comprehensive Community Plan of January 2001 to be: one with legal teeth to manage the growth and development of the island. It is broken down into nine elements, including Goals & Policies, Circulation, Economy, Housing, Natural & Cultural Resources, 0pen Space, Land Use,

Infrastructure and Implementation. I