Summary of
Boston's Open Space Plan
Barbara Desmarais,
01/03/2000
This plan is
interesting because of its stated values and cooperative approach. It has
a straightforward layout. A lot of City-owned open space in Boston is
administered by the Parks and Recreation Department, so this model might help
us integrate the Recreational and Open Space aspects of our work. The
plan did address ALL open space, not just the Rec. Dept.'s.
Opening
Letter
The opening letter
from the Parks and Rec. Dept. Commissioner lays out the City's open space
vision, stressing a three-way partnership between the public, private, and
volunteer sectors in both creating the plan and carrying it out. The
concise five-year plan reflects the vision of City departments and
authorities, state agencies, community groups, private advocacy groups, and
hundreds of individuals interested in open space. One
interesting component of the plan is "accountability" for
administering it.
Introduction
The City used
volunteer expert help and appropriate public agencies throughout the processes
of drafting, reviewing, commenting, and editing the report. The plan was
created with input from abutting towns and abutting private property
owners. Here they list Key Components of the Five-Year Plan (safe,
clean, well-maintained parks & fields, greenways, corporate & business
involvement in Open space creation, funding, and enhancement, acquisition,
etc.) The open space vision is broken down into parts:
environmental, recreational & restorative, social, economic, and
physical. The report calls for a regular investing cycle,
including private funds and grants. Here, too, they include a history of
Boston's green spaces.
Open Space
Policy
The policy is broken
down into seven "themes":
1. Consolidation of
Open Space
2. Creation of
Fiscal Stability
3. Enhancement of
Existing Resources
4. Acquisition
5. Sociodemographic
Trends in Recreation
6. Equitable Access
and Education
7.
Environmental Concerns
Each
"theme" is followed by several "goals" the City hopes to
achieve.
Neighborhoods
Introduction
Here the
neighborhoods' common "themes" are listed and explained.
1. Unmet Demand
2. Capital
Rehabilitation
3. Maintenance and
Management: Preserving Community Assets
4. Programming
(includes adopt-a-park, youth programming, intergenerational models)
This was followed by
the City's "policy approach" to each theme.
Neighborhoods
Here each
neighborhood had its own chapter, including:
1. Land use
history and development trends
2. Demographic and
housing trends
3. Neighborhood open
space, including acreage, distribution, capital investment, assessment of
current features and potentials
4. Planning
opportunities for the next 5 years
5. Community
priorities
6. Maps and
charts
The Boston plan
stresses that recreational opportunities should be available close to
home. Of course, Brunswick is much smaller than Boston, but
this might be a helpful organizing tool. When I have spoken to
people casually about the Task Force, more than one person has said, "Boy,
we were just saying we'd love to have a neighborhood meeting in
Pennellville" or wherever. Many residents probably identify
themselves as living in a specific neighborhood.
The Systems
This was another
good organizing tool, which the Parks and Rec. Dept. used to define
"common threads" between the neighborhoods. These systems could
be distinctive types of open space found throughout the City (cemeteries,
community gardens, urban wilds), a physically linked set of open space resources
(harbor system, Emerald Necklace parks), or a distinctive open space feature
that they felt was best handled systematically (trees and programming).
The systems Boston chose were:
1. Boston Harbor
Open Space System
2. Cemeteries
3. Community Gardens
4. Emerald Necklace
Parks
5. Programming
(sports, concerts, rangers, etc.)
6. Public Shade
Trees (includes training neighbors to care for trees)
7. Thoroughfares
(grand boulevards, bike use, streetscapes)
8. Urban Wilds
(includes tables of all City-owned urban wilds, most important unprotected
sites with city-wide or neighborhood importance)
Appendix
This included
abbreviations, photo credits and LASTLY, The Planning Process:
Community Involvement:
1.Open Space
Congress (our forum)
2.Neighborhood
meetings and Special Systems meetings
3.Initial review and
comment period (neighborhood meeting participants & Board of Directors of
the Boston GreenSpace Alliance
4. final review
& comment period for neighborhoods via public library branches, GreenSpace
Alliance, key city and state agency staff, notices in papers, to community
leaders and active citizens
5. final review
& comment for systems via Parks Dept. meetings with citizens and pertinent
constituency groups
Policy
1. Parks Dept.
created policy agenda items for citywide overview on open space policy
2. Draft sections
developed and review internally
3. Second draft
reviewed by GreenSpace Alliance Board, Goldberg Seminar Working Group
4. All of the
above met and final draft written
Interagency Involvement
Relevant City and
State agency officials were included throughout process (including Congress)
and were part of a special meeting for agency personnel. Officials also
reviewed preliminary draft sections prior to public release and their input was
incorporated into the final product.
