Open Space Committee maps comprehensive update to Simsbury open-space inventory

The Simsbury Open Space Committee on May 6 laid out a timed work plan to convert the town’s open-space inventory into a single, more comprehensive document that will combine parcel-level coding with stewardship policies and implementation notes.

“This is what I wanted to do today, to follow up from the work group meeting, is lay out exactly what we’re going to do, and then the homework will be to start doing it,” Chair Susan Massino said as she presented a draft table of contents for the expanded inventory, which she said will include a summary, mission, charter and code references, rules of procedure, acquisition and disposition guidance, and stewardship policies.

Why it matters: a consolidated inventory will make it easier for the town to see where regulations, maintenance practices and ecological priorities overlap — and to identify parcels that need follow-up, remediation or special protections.

Committee members recommended that the document catalog policies that directly affect town open space (for example, the town’s dog-related ordinance as it applies to athletic fields, dark-sky lighting regulations, mowing guidance, invasive-species strategy, and anti-dumping/encroachment rules). Several members argued for a ‘catch-all’ cross-reference to relevant town code chapters while also listing the policies most likely to affect open-space management.

Discussion also covered parcel coding and clarifications needed in the current inventory. The committee identified confusing codes for wetlands and watercourses (examples in the existing system include W1, W2 and W3 for gradations of wetland significance) and asked staff to clarify definitions and, where appropriate, streamline categories.

Members proposed new inventory fields to flag historical features, trap-rock ridges, prime agricultural soils, old-growth stands and the presence of invasive plants. The group agreed invasive-plant presence should be captured (as an I flag or similar) and that a volunteer steward program could help provide the ‘eyes on the ground’ needed to keep the inventory current.

The committee also discussed tax-foreclosure properties and disposition processes: when the town acquires land through tax foreclosure, members said open-space potential should be evaluated as part of disposition decisions so that critical habitat or key connectors are not lost to development.

Next steps: Massino said she would circulate the meeting handout and requested members do the assigned homework; June will be treated as a work-group meeting for detailed inventory edits and coding corrections. The committee noted several misclassified parcels in the GIS that will be placed on a punch list for correction.

The committee approved the March 4 minutes (with a minor spelling correction to Morton Arboretum) and adjourned without objection. The committee’s expanded inventory and the staff clarifications on parcel codes were assigned as follow-up tasks.