Open Space Committee
Open Space Committee - Trail Vision Team Meeting November 24, 2020
Present: Rick Gardner, Deb Cary, Susan Downing, Pat McGowan, Brian Keevan
Meeting began at 7:05 pm on Goto Meeting.
Minutes for the October 27th meeting were approved
Brief Sub-Committee Reports:
Survey: Susan reported that the survey is ready to go out.
We reviewed the seven questions.
Question: should we also try to piggyback on a town-wide mailing to get ‘best’ participation? We decided to try the electronic route first, if we do not get enough responses, we can do paper later.
Signage: Deb Cary reported the committee has met and decided to do a walk through of all public trails to assess the signage needs.
In parallel will be looking to see what other towns are doing.
Pat mentioned really good signage in Trustees of the Reservation land in Athol (or maybe Petersham?)
We discussed the value of ‘hiker’ signs that point the way to trail heads.
Communication/Promotion: Cary was not able to make the meeting, but he is planning a sub-committee meeting for December 1. We reviewed the scope and action steps that he published to the sub-committee.
Landowner: Rick is going to start this sub-group and will be scheduling a time for early December. We spent some time discussing landowner groups, particularly approaches to DCR.
Vision of the members: We spent the bulk of the meeting talking about our visions of what trails should look like.Dominik (via eMail):
I think improving and extending existing Princeton Trails are excellent goals. But in the spirit of visioning, I would love to see a multi-use path network that connects the different parts of town, maybe centered on a north-south and an east-west corridor. The ideal, in my view, would be that everybody could get everywhere in town by a combination of quiet roads (i.e., where speed limit is <25 mph) and a multiuse path.
In terms of development and maintenance, some businesses in town (Thirsty Lab, Monti’s, Mountain Side, Wachusett Mountain Ski Area, etc.) may be interested in promoting connectivity. Additionally, at some point it would be worthwhile to further explore opportunities with MassTrails Grants, DCR Trail System, and others. Some other neat examples are here (https://www.nrpa.org/success-stories/planning-for-parks-and-walkability-...).
Susan:
Would like to see something like her sister has in Colorado: A ‘backbone’ of multi-use trails that goes around the town, with hiking areas along the way. Easy for all residents to get on and off. Use the roads in some cases, but largely keep people off the roads.
East-west and north-south corridors are a good idea. Need to connect places like Wachusett Mountain, Wachusett Meadow, post office, school, East Princeton village.
Question: was the town able to get permission from private landowners or DCR type entity? Susan will try to check this.
Pat:
All good ideas, but we need to find a good way to work with private landowners and DCR.
Connecting trails is important, and it is also important to set the trail system up for horses. More horse-friendly trails.
Deb:
Connecting places in town is the most important thing. As much multi-use as possible but there will be places where multi-use will not be possible. May need to start with walking/hiking in some links.
Need a well-thought out plan, and also a strong maintenance plan. This will be important to instill confidence in landowners.
Brian:
Not really a trails vision but wanted to mention that DCR IS giving permission for trails in some cases (like Central Mass Rail Trail). Rick mentioned that he has heard from DCR that well-designed trails that consider DCR concerns may be possible.
Need to consider parking for everything we do.
We need to consider the intent of the trails. Are these going to be promoted for Princeton residents only? Or we be trying to pull in people from surrounding towns? If that latter, then landowners may be more reluctant.
How will we manage the volume of hikers? Landowners may be concerned, especially given the trail use at Wachusett Mountain. Can we limit hikers in some ways? Town residents only or limit parking, etc.
Rick:Thinks that there should be three priorities:
Town-wide backbone trails that people can jump on and off, with some spurs to get to other neighborhoods
Trail plan for each neighborhood, so people in all areas of town have a hiking area that they can get to
Provide for SAFE hiking and biking around town through an integrated roads and trails program.
In addition: Build a strong network of trail developers/maintainers, and build connections to other towns: Rail Trail, Sterling Trails, Trout Brook
Rick showed a map with two hikes that he did over the summer, and which were done largely on trails that formed loops around town.
Also showed a map very roughly showing areas of town where neighbors already have good trail connections vs those that do not.
We were missing many people for tonight’s meeting. Rick will work to pull in ‘vision’ ideas from those not able to attend this meeting.
Next meeting will be Tuesday January 5
Meeting adjourned at 8:10
Respectfully submitted, Rick Gardner