LYNNFIELD — The Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EOEEA) has approved the Lynnfield Open Space & Recreation Plan.
With the approval, the town is now qualified to be reimbursed for many key grants — the most recent being the $1.6 million grant which was awarded to Lynnfield this past summer. The town can now apply for and possibly receive grant funding through 2028.
Director of Planning and Conservation Emilie Cademartori said the town’s plan had expired in 2018 and that it has been working since then to update the plan and submit it for approval.
“We spent many, many years trying to get it done,” she said. “We were almost there, but the process got dragged out until Jennifer (Welter) took over and finally submitted a plan, but that plan had significant, major and burdensome comments we had to address.
“We resubmitted and again got more comments to the point where we were all saying ‘come on.’ But we were lucky as the prior plan had already identified protection of those properties in our Open Space Plan and MVP (Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness) so I think the state, knowing that our plan already had protection and expansion of our open space, knew that we were going in the right direction. It’s not like it expired and we weren’t doing anything.”
Cademartori said the town’s only chapter properties are Richardson Green and Sagamore Golf, which are enrolled in the chapter tax-advantage program (Chapter 61B). She said it is important to have a plan in place that can be used internally as guidelines to make sure those properties are protected..
“It’s basically a road map for the town and also allows us to get funding, so the plan serves more than one purpose,” she said. “It allows us to manage and protect our chapter properties and receive grants.
Cademartori said that a key effort in getting plan approval came from Lynnfield High School student Lucy Madden, who conducted a town-wide survey as a part of her Girl Scout Gold Award project. That award — the highest achievement in Girl Scouts — recognizes girls who demonstrate extraordinary leadership through remarkable take-action projects that have a sustainable impact in their communities.
The results of the survey were presented at a public forum. Resident feedback about open space was largely consistent with feedback from the 1998 and 2010 Open Space Plans, the goals of the 2002 Master Plan, and echoed again in the Planning Board’s Master Plan Steering Committee’s town-wide survey in 2017. Consequently, the plan’s committee feels extremely confident that the goals and objectives of the plan reflect the desires of the community.
“Her Girl Scout Gold Award project was how to give residents better information on how to find and access chapter properties, to identify practical ways on how Lynnfield’s recreational spaces could be improved and better utilized,” Cademartori said. “She even created a Facebook page (Lynnfield Open Space and Recreation) to promote our conservation areas on social media. She felt that residents were not aware of the opportunities for recreation activities and organized clean-up days and nature walks.”
In September 2018, Madden’s efforts were rewarded with a Certificate of Appreciation, presented by Conservation Commission Chairman Paul Martindale, who said: “Lucy’s project has been a great service to our Open Space and Plan Committee,” adding that she demonstrated initiative, leadership and dedication to community service.
Open space plans are extremely comprehensive, detailing the entire community from history to demographics, economic data, environmental resources, identification of wildlife and endangered species, challenges to the community, development plans, and many more topics. At its heart, a plan represents what residents want for open space in their community. Plans must be updated and approved every seven years.
The plan’s goals include increasing public awareness of natural resources and conservation areas through education, site tours, posting on media channels; providing a range of recreational opportunities for all residents, and ensuring the protection of important wildlife habitats, surface waters, wetlands and other critical natural resources and scenic landscapes.
