04/13/2012

Ordinance governing Town open space set for public hearing May 14

The Town Council will hold a public hearing at 7 p.m. Monday, May 14, 2012, on a new chapter of the Conservation Ordinance that will government the use and management of open space.

The ordinance amendments are the result of work by the Open Space and Greenbelt Management committee, which drafted a plan for the management of open space in town.

The council's ordinance subcommittee incorporated the report's recommendations into the new Conservation Ordinance chapter, soliciting input from interested parties in town. "We're very pleased with the result," said Councilor Jim Walsh, chairman of the ordinance committee. "And I think we've learned from other work that we've done in Fort Williams and other places in the community, we've been able to adopt a lot of consistency across the methodology that we've used in the ordinance," he said.

An example is a section about group use of Town open space, modeled on a similar policy for group use of Fort Williams Park. "We've placed the town manager in the process, it's very clear who one needs to get approval from to have an event, or whatever, on any one of the trail networks that we have in town," Walsh said.

The draft amendments also addresses hours of operation, trail closures, trapping, and encroachment on Town lands.