Plans and Reports

VIEW FINAL REPORT

The Report charts the Town’s progress on identified goals for ecological land management and sets a timeline for accomplishing them.

The Town of Arlington, through the Department of Planning and Community Development (DPCD), issued the Public Land Management Plan (PLMP) in January 2023. The project goal was to create a management plan for Town-owned open space, recreational land, and other natural resources in line with other Town plans. The plan was funded through a Community Preservation Act grant. The landscape architecture firm KZLA produced the plan in collaboration with the Public Land Management Working Group made up of representatives of Town departments and committees.

The PLMP details a structure for maintaining and managing relevant lands, provides analysis of the policies that govern the lands in question, and advises on the treatment of such lands, including recommendations of best practices. This first edition of the plan includes large public lands, small conservation parcels, parks and fields, and monuments, open spaces, and gardens. Future editions will add concerns like playgrounds, courts, and specific sports fields concerns. The PLMP will be revisited in 2025 and other updates and additions will be scheduled every three years.

The Arlington Open Space Committee and the Department of Planning and Community Development are pleased to announce that the recently updated Open Space and Recreation Plan (OSRP) is now available on the Town website. The OSRP is a foundational document for all Town-wide planning and programs relating to parks, playgrounds, playing fields, natural resources, conservation land, sustainable development, climate resiliency, and other open space issues.

The planning process for developing for this most recent OSRP began in 2020, when the Open Space Committee received a grant from the Community Preservation Act Committee to hire a consultant, Horsley Witten Group, to help update the prior 2015 plan. The committee and consultants partnered with many Town departments, commissions, and organizations to obtain community input on open space and recreation goals and objectives. Two public forums were held, in June and December 2021, and an online public survey solicited responses from more than 1,000 residents. Information from all these sources, combined other research on the Town’s open space and recreation resources, contributed to the final plan. The OSRP received final approval from the Massachusetts Division of Conservation Services in November 2022 and is in effect until July 2029.