PVPC project manager outlines Hampden Open Space and Recreation Plan update; committee sets public outreach and draft timeline

The PVPC project manager told the Town of Hampden open-space committee that she will lead an update of the town's Open Space and Recreation Plan (OSRP), laying out a roughly one-year schedule of drafts, committee reviews, a fall public visioning session and a survey to gather resident priorities.

The manager said chapters 3 through 6 of the OSRP will receive the bulk of attention: chapter 3 (community profile and demographics), chapter 4 (environmental inventory and climate-change analysis), chapter 5 (inventory of existing open space) and chapter 6 (needs, actions and public outreach). She told the committee she aims to have a draft plan by "early spring" and will submit it to the state reviewer in Boston for conditional approval, a step the manager said is required to make the town eligible for certain OSRP grant programs.

That timeline drove much of the meeting's planning discussion. Committee members emphasized several priorities they want reflected in the update: more and improved trails and mapped access points to the river, expanded senior- and family-friendly recreation (including pickleball and walking paths), repair or dredging work for Mill Pond, potential reuse or acquisition of town parcels for courts and a dog park, and safer, connected sidewalks through the downtown.

Mark O'Malley, who introduced himself as a 10-year resident, told the committee he has attended open-space meetings in neighboring communities and "would like to bring my experience to help you guys develop a good open space plan." Parks and recreation representatives said programming has grown in recent years from a handful of events to roughly 40—50 programs annually, and committee members said the OSRP survey should help determine what activities residents actually want.

Participants discussed several land projects and acquisitions to record in the inventory: previously completed parcels such as Westbrook, mitigation parcels set aside for solar projects, and a multi-parcel forest legacy initiative described by one participant as "about 600 acres" on the town's south edge with plans for trails. Committee members asked that the consultant verify protected-status designations in state GIS layers, noting MassGIS ownership and Article 97 protection flags are not always accurate.

The project manager reviewed PVPC's scope of services: prepare required maps (regional context, zoning, soils/geology, protected open space and a new climate-change map), develop and circulate the public survey, draft chapters and supporting text, format the plan and provide the letter of support the state requires. She requested that committee members review drafts and help verify local data and outreach lists.

Committee members raised past efforts to build sidewalks and pursue Complete Streets funding, noting local resistance in some neighborhoods and past funding shifts that stalled projects. Members also described challenges on trails, including unauthorized motorbike use and campfires; land-trust representatives said signage, selective closures, and camera monitoring have been discussed as mitigation.

On next steps, the project manager said she will circulate an updated chapter 3 roughly a week before the next meeting and recommended aiming for a mid-August committee meeting to continue chapter reviews and finalize public-outreach plans. She reminded members that, as an appointed committee, they must not discuss board business outside of public meetings.

The committee did not take any formal votes during the meeting; no motion or adoption was recorded. The update process described at the meeting will determine which past action items are retained, revised or removed when the draft plan is presented for committee review and the public visioning session.