Warwick Open Space Plan Committee Organization Meeting - March 4, 2009 7:00 P.M. Warwick Town Hall DRAFT Minutes The meeting was called to order at 7:03 PM by Karro Frost, Acting Chair, and she confirmed that everyone had signed in. Introductions - We went around the table and introduced ourselves, what part of town we're from, and mentioned an area of interest. These included planning, land protection, directing development and conservation together, hiking trails, forest management, history of the town, abandoned roads. A brief summary of areas of interest: Ted Cady - Open Space Plan will serve as guidance to the Planning Board, Matt Hickler - Interested in land protection and unique habitats, Mary Williamson - Looking more carefully at Goals and the Gale Brook Corridor, George Roaf - Preventing in Warwick what happened in Danvers which was loss of open space, farms and rural culture, Keith Ross - As member of Town Forest Committee and an Assessor, direct development to where it is best suited, Bev Shepardson - More hiking trails and places to take grand kids, Phil Lepore - Just interested in the process, Chuck Lisowski - Conservation and growth working together, Pat Lemon - Chair, Selectboard, Organizer of Friends of Mt. Grace, Economic development in the context of maintaining rural character, identifying the old roads that run through the woods, Karro Frost - Hiking trails and identifying old roads running through the woods, development and conservation working together. Note: Those people who introduced themselves, but did not express an area of interest are not listed here. Also, this part of the meeting went quite fast and my notes may not be complete. At this point Karro moved the agenda item of selecting Chair and Secretary up. Ted Cady was "elected" chair and Karro Frost was "elected" Secretary. At this point Karro took over taking notes and Ted took over running the meeting. Ted handed out copies of the 2002 Open Space Plan (6 printed copies, 10 CDs, also available via email if you'd like - let me know - kaf) Elected Ted Cady to be the chairman of the committee and Karro Frost to be the secretary. Mary Williamson gave a bit of history regarding the 2002 Open Space Plan, which expired in 2007. She felt that at the end of rewriting that plan that the committee had been rushed and didn't really have the time to put into the Goals section that she would have liked. The Open Space Committee has been quite busy over the past few years, and she didn't feel that they had the energy to tackle rewriting the Open Space Plan which is only good for 5 years. In December, the Planning Board was approached by FRCOG Planning who offered assistance to rewrite the Open Space Plan. FRCOG offered a planner for 10 months - Kimberly Naoke MacPhee (she is included in the distribution list for emails). Our 2002 Open Space Plan is a good base document. It was the first Open Space Plan that was accepted by the State - without any changes on its first submittal. An updated plan gives the town an ability to get grants that we wouldn't qualify for without one. Ted led discussion of updating the Open Space Plan, what we need to do. We reviewed Kimberly's Timeline and Scope of Work. Ted felt that there was no way that we would meet only once a month and be finished on time, and also felt that subcommittees will be needed for completion of the process. Overall rather daunting and a lot of work. Is the schedule too fast? Keith pointed out that most of the work the committee is doing is reviewing what FRCOG has written at the meetings. Clare added that we ought to add some to Section 4 - the Heritage Landscape and information on green energy. Ted felt that community outreach must happen this spring as most of the writing will happen over the summer and people tend to be gone. Also we need to start on goals and a 5 year action plan now, rather than wait for the end of the process to start this important aspect of the plan. Ted grumbled if we're going forward then "no grumbling at me." * Keith has the 2002 Survey and will bring it to the next meeting. * Keith and Ted will go through the Assessor's info regarding Chapter 61 and other protected land. * Ted will review the results from the Zoning Task Force Survey done 2 years ago as this might also contain relevant information. He will bring those results to the next meeting. The committee will also need to review and edit maps. The group brainstormed about other people who might be interested in participating: Names mentioned included Nick Arguimbau, David Brown (naturalist living at the Inn), Mark Maynard, Scott Maslansky (who is moving out of Inn so may not be interested), George Day (who can't come to meetings on the first two Wednesdays of the month), Ken Alden, Jack Cadwell, and Chris Duerring. Recreation Commission members should also be included (Pat Lemon will email Karro their emails so they can receive minutes). Total commitment isn't required, but the committee would their input and assistance in drafting the plan. What about inviting teenagers and how can we involve them and/or get their input? Jared Woods and Liam McRae were mentioned. The sentiment was that if we don't include teenagers, what we do is a waste. Teenagers are a viable asset to any group. One idea is to have a survey specifically targeting teens. Ted suggested that the teens could GPS trails and historic roads to put these on maps. Karro noted that we should find out what the recruited teenagers are interested in before deciding what they will do. * A teen subcommittee was selected which tentatively will include: Chris Duerring, Taylor Lubrie, Todd and David Weed, Karro Frost, members of the Bennett family, Jim and Dylan Limoges, and Clare Green (willing to be a co-chair). Any other suggestions of members are welcome. Teens need to be personally solicited in an informal way. Committee decided that meetings will be the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month. First meeting with Kimberly Noake MacPhee from FRCOG will be Wednesday, March 25 at 7:00 p.m. Ted requested a subcommittee to review the goals from 1988 plan and 2002 plan. Committee members felt that they needed time to digest what had been handed out before signing up for subcommittees. * Review 1988 and 2002 Goals for next meeting. Pat suggested that we annotate the old goals as to which were accomplished. * Review Section 3 for next meeting. KNM will have a draft of Section 3 done for us to review next meeting. (This is available in MS Word if people want a copy, please email me - kaf) Other Business Heritage Landscape Inventory should be incorporated into Section 3. A report is available from last summer. There will be a link on the Town webpage for this committee (Open Space Plan Committee aka Open Space Cadets under the Open Space Committee) Quabbin to Cardigan Conservation Collaborative (Q2C) ("a multi-state initiative to conserve the forested highlands from the Quabbin Reservoir to Mount Cardigan, in New Hampshire.") and other regional issues should be included in our plan. Metacomet-Monadnock Trail, which passes through town may become a national trail soon and should be on our maps. Question about whether we have any control over what happens on state land since Warwick is approximately 50% state owned land. Pat mentioned that State Park has been cooperating with us lately, cleaning up dump sites etc. Walt Morgan will be retiring towards the end of this year. Pat will invite him to participate on this committee. * On March 19, 7:00 p.m. at Warwick Library, there will be an organizational meeting of the Friends of Warwick State Forests. Can our plans include snowmobile trails, hiking trails, Cross-country ski trails? Dave Shepardson has an old map that shows trails on Mt. Grace, can these be included and should they be updated? Next meeting March 25 at 7:00 p.m. Warwick Town Hall Kitchen.