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Danvers land use director previews 400-page Open Space and Recreation Plan, says maps still draft
Summary
Aaron Henry presented a draft open space and recreation plan to the Town of Danvers Select Board, highlighting a town-owned property inventory, an "open space atlas" to feed capital planning, and that the plan is intended to secure state grant eligibility; maps remain placeholders and staff expect to return in 4–6 weeks.
Aaron Henry, director of land use and community services, told the Town of Danvers Select Board that the town’s draft Open Space and Recreation Plan runs “400 something pages” and is intended to be the definitive resource on the community’s natural areas, playing fields and town-owned parcels. He said the version the board received is still a draft and that the maps are the main element requiring finalization.
Henry said the plan rewrites the town’s previous updates from the ground up, with a particular emphasis on chapter 5, the town-owned property inventory. He described staff work in the registry of deeds to verify property records and an added facility-level inventory and ADA self-assessment intended to make long-term maintenance and replacement costs explicit. “We went even deeper with this plan,” Henry said, noting the effort to document conditions such as playground equipment age and replacement cost to feed the town’s capital planning process.
The plan also includes what Henry called an “open space atlas,” a scoring system applied to parks and facilities to help rank needs within the five-year capital outlook. That, he said, is meant to make investment choices more objective. Henry told the board that the state encouraged a full rewrite and that having an approved plan is a prerequisite for many state grants; he cited recent use of a MassTrails grant for a town project as an example of how the plan supports funding eligibility.
Henry said outreach produced nearly 500 written comments and almost 700 interactions, and that feedback generally tracked priorities identified in earlier town efforts: Endicott Park, the rail trails, Sandy Beach and connectivity. He acknowledged community fatigue with surveys but described the response as substantive.
Board members asked about improving communication of recreational opportunities and involving the accessibility and river committees in follow-up. Henry said staff plan to return to the Select Board in about four to six weeks after incorporating map updates and committee input, and to submit the finished plan to the state by the end of May if the process proceeds on schedule. He emphasized the town is not under immediate duress for grant deadlines and that the plan can be refined if boards need more time.
The board did not vote on the plan at the meeting; Henry said staff will bring a revised version back for more substantive comment and potential future action.
