I
looked at Falmouth's plan, which seemed well done and seems to cover
similar
issues as our plan. It was completed 10
years ago, so it might be
interesting
to see if has actually worked for them - Maybe I could follow
up
with their town planner or the conservation commission to find out if
they
have been able work through the goals of their plan.
Their
report was put together by Terry DeWan's group and Market Decisions.
As I
mentioned, the goals of their plan are similar to ours:
*Preservation
of community character
*Protection
of natural resources
*Provision
of recreation areas and facilities
*Preservation
and creation of public access to both water resources and
interior
open spaces
*Promotion
and creation of linkages
*Preservation
and creation of buffers
*Development
of a Clear management approach to accomplish goals and
recommendations
To
give you an overview, their study process included three phases:
First
Phase: *Inventory of current land use
*review
of 11 studies the town had done in the previous ten years (Parcel
Study,
Rt. 1 Study, Corridor Study, Farm and Forest Zone Report, Bedrock
Aquifer
Study, SCORP Report, etc)
*Contact
with groups such as their Garden Club, Rod and Gun Club,
Snowmobile
Club, and Conservation Trust.
*a
mail-survey to all residents (with approx. 12% return)
*On
the ground field inventory by consultants which resulted in 4
open-space
maps: Natural, Cultural, Visual and Soil Resources.
Second
Phase: *Establish Goals and develop Concept Plan to reflect Goals
*Held
public forum to collect comments on progress and direction of study
(I
wonder how that went?)
*Something
I thought was interesting in this phase was they picked a few
areas
to act as prototypes of the types of open space they were looking at
and
to use them as models for testing the methods they would use in
pursuing
their goals
*
Finally under this phase they looked at potential implementation measures
and
possible amendments to there zoning map and ordinance that would help
achieve
their goals.
Phase
Three: Here is where they get to the nitty gritty of detailed concept
design
and implementation; Recommendations for zoning amendments;
Researching
potential funding; Final public forum and presentation to the
Town
Council.
Before
revealing their 'concept plan' they laid out the inventory of
Natural,
Cultural and Visual resources - this way they covered issues such
as
soils, aquifer protection, protection of wetlands and wildlife habitat
under
Natural Resources, - parks and
recreation, farmland preservation and
historic
sites under Cultural Resources - and the kind of "rural character"
or
"town character" issues under Visual Resources. Each one had its own
11x17
fold out map, which were nice visuals.
The
'Concept Plan' they came up with was the town map with circles of
population
centers and circles of open space which were all connected with
lines
that represented open space connectors as either trails along public
right-of-way
or off-road trails.
Again,
I thought it was a well-done plan - sorry I hogged it this whole
time
- I'll drop it off today on my way home so if anyone wants to look at
it
Wednesday or Thursday it will be in the office.
-Keisha
