Lanesborough to Create Open Space and Recreation Plan

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — A few passionate residents are needed to guide Lanesborough's upcoming Open Space and Recreation Plan. 

The town, in collaboration with Berkshire Regional Planning Commission, will establish a community-informed vision for the future of conservation lands, natural resources, recreational opportunities, farmlands, and animal habitats by springtime. 

On Monday, the Select Board formed a temporary Open Space Recreation Plan Advisory Committee and appointed four members. Earlier in the meeting, Andrew McKeever, a community planner with BRPC, put out a call to anyone who would be interested in joining a steering committee or providing stakeholder feedback. 

"I would love to have a seven-person committee. That's my ideal," he said. 

"So we need some people." 

The plan addresses natural or scenic resource conservation, water supply protection, public parks, forests, and wildlife preserves, potential new recreational assets, and privately-held land advancing the town's open space goals. 

It also provides actionable steps to take in the next decade to preserve, improve, and manage valuable outdoor resources, and brings the town closer to state resources, including the Land Acquisitions for Natural Diversity Program, Parkland Acquisitions and Renovations for Communities Program, and other grants administered by the Executive Office of Energy and Elder Affairs. 

"By creating this plan, you are now eligible to apply for various state programs of note, particularly the land program, which allows a community to get up to $450,000 to make land acquisitions for land that it feels should be conserved," McKeever explained. 

"And then the park program, which is one of the state's sort of more important programs for building new recreational spaces or renovating recreational spaces. Again, it's another $450,000, but you have to have this long-term plan in place before you can even be eligible for those." 

• lakes and rivers
• state parks
• preserves and land trusts
• town-owned parks, cemeteries, and beaches
• farms
• forests and wetlands
• wildlife management areas
• private land with conservation restrictions

Lanesborough's open space highlights include Mount Greylock State Reservation, Balance Rock, Bill Laston Memorial Field, Sunrise Beach, Cheshire Lake, and Bridge Street Park. It was noted that there are efforts to reuse Bridge Street Park in a "very productive way." The town has formed an Age Friendly Park Committee to come up with a plan for the park that serves all ages, including seniors. 

The Open Space Recreation Plan Advisory Committee, comprised of community members and local officials, will oversee the plan's development with help from BRPC. Before the committee and planning commission submit the OSRP to the state in May, there will be surveying and public meetings to solicit feedback. 

"We're going to have one when we kick off this plan, we're going to have one to discuss the survey final findings, and then we'll also have one to sort of review the final draft of the plan, make sure this whole community can really kind of solidify around some of these ideas," McKeever said. 

"And then we're going to put that out for public comment, give the public another opportunity to read the text of it and look through it and make sure that we've heard them correctly, and then finally, we'll be submitting that to the state, and the goal is to be have that submitted to the state in May." 

Aside from those interested in the effort, related town committee members, people with public health or department of public works experience, business and land owners, youth, local sports leagues, and ADA experts are encouraged to join the committee. 

The process is guided by the state Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs OSRP Workbook. 

Town Administrator Gina Dario reported that they plan to engage with a Williams College professor during the surveying process in the fall, as they did while working on a master plan. 

"It's a nice confluence of community resources and individuals, I would say already, as a starting place," she said. 

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