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Pittsfield Queries Community on Open Space, Recreation Needs

James McGrath, left, parks manager, and Seth Jenkins of BRPC. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The city is progressing with its 10-year update of the Open Space and Recreation Plan with another public hearing held last Thursday.

Stationed around Council Chambers were bulletin boards listing the OSRP's four major goals, 13 objectives, and around 65 actions. Attendees placed green stickers on their preferences, made other notes, and the evening concluded with a presentation from the Conway School on local environmental education.

"At its core, the open space plan really is the roadmap that we follow collectively to get to the goals that we have collectively enunciated on how we want to see our park system grow and develop," Parks, Open Space, and Natural Resources Manager James McGrath explained. 

Open space and recreation plans are a tool communities use to plan for conservation and recreation needs and are reviewed by the Division of Conservation Services. Open spaces go beyond city parks, as preserves, land trusts, water bodies, farms, forests, and more fall under that category.

Five former goals were reduced to four: 

• Protect, preserve, and maintain natural resources to maximize the amount, variety, and distribution of open space and water resources to maintain biodiversity and provide benefit to the public.
• Provide opportunities, resources, accessibility, and quality facilities for both recreation and conservation uses throughout the City.
• Ensure necessary funding for open space, natural resources, and park planning for the upgrade and maintenance of existing parks and to further the goals, objectives, and strategies of the Open Space & Recreation Plan.
• Promote zoning that expands opportunities for the protection and further utilization of Open Space in both rural and downtown Pittsfield. Encourage infill development by allowing a greater variety of uses in areas zoned Form Based.

Pittsfield has been working with the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission over the last couple of years to update its plan, since the last one ran until 2024. Seth Jenkins, senior planner at BRPC, explained that it opens Pittsfield up to many state grant programs. 

"We applied for a grant from the state to do the lion's share of this Open Space and Recreation Plan development," he said. 

"We received that grant last fall, so now we're really engaging in developing the plan." 

A hearing was held about a year ago. 

The plan used to span five years, but will now go for ten.  Its development is in conjunction with Pittsfield’s master plan process. 

State Economic Development Secretary Visits Pittsfield

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
12:28PM / Tuesday, March 17, 2026

Eric Paley was appointed secretary last year. This was his first time visiting in the Berkshires in that role. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The state secretary of economic development visited Pittsfield on Monday to hear about the condition of its economy and downtown. 

Executive Office of Economic Development Secretary Eric Paley joined local small-business owners, state Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier, state Sen Paul Mark, and Mayor Peter Marchetti for a roundtable discussion at the Berkshire Black Economic Council at the beginning of the day. 

"I think supporting downtowns and keeping them vibrant and energetic is a challenge in many parts of the state, and certainly many gateway cities, but I think people want to live where there's lively, strong downtowns," Paley said. 

"And they want to spend their money where they feel there's an energetic, long downtown, and that's a critical factor for Pittsfield that we do see in other gateway cities." 

He said Berkshire County has "extraordinary" strengths as a tourism and cultural leader, but like many other places, its small businesses are struggling with operating costs and affordability, as "Housing is a challenge, childcare, healthcare, these are challenges we see all across the state, but they kind of hit differently in different locations." 

The secretary feels Berkshire County competes "very" well with the nearby Catskills, Hudson Valley, and Adirondacks in New York State because of how strong the cultural community is, but sustaining those communities is a challenge. 

"Making the community fun year-round when so many people come in the summer, but also making sure that resources keep building and growing here is key, and there's been some flattening of some of the key economic indicators, and extending that strength is really important," Paley said. 

"…There were a lot of just a lot of heartfelt, thoughtful comments and things that we need to be talking about every day as we think of different regions of the state and how we support them."