Cambridge Planning Board reviews draft Open Space and Recreation Plan; votes to send board comments to state

Cambridge Planning Board members reviewed a draft update of the city's Open Space and Recreation Plan on Feb. 25 and voted to transmit the board's comments to the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation for inclusion with the city's pending state submission.

The plan, presented by Daniel Mesplay, Director of Community Planning and Design at the Community Development Department, lays out a seven-year vision (2023—20230), maps of open-space access and need, and a set of strategies to guide park investments, resilience measures and equity-focused programming. The staff said completing the state-required plan update would make the city eligible for state grant funding for parks projects.

Mesplay and his team described a multi-pronged analysis that combined acreage, walk-shed access, climate resilience indicators, public-health data and demographic factors into index maps identifying areas of compounded open-space need across Cambridge. "The core benefits to doing this is that it makes the city eligible for state grant funding for our parks projects," Mesplay told the board. Staff described the resulting composite map as a tool to prioritize interventions where combined needs are greatest, while noting it…