Andover Residents Invited to Complete Open Space and Recreation Survey
The Town of Andover has begun the process of updating its Open Space and Recreation Plan and is inviting residents, visitors, and other members of the community to participate in a survey that will help establish priorities for the protection, management, and enhancement of open space and recreational resources in Andover over the coming years.
Members of the community encouraged to complete Open Space and Recreation survey as Town begins development of new plan.
The Town of Andover has begun the process of updating its Open Space and Recreation Plan and is inviting residents, visitors, and other members of the community to participate in a survey that will help establish priorities for the protection, management, and enhancement of open space and recreational resources in Andover over the coming years.
The Open Space and Recreation Plan serves as a comprehensive guide for the Town’s approach to conservation and recreation. Open space encompasses conservation land, parks, trails, athletic fields, and other natural and recreational areas that contribute to Andover’s character and quality of life. The Plan evaluates existing resources and community needs while also establishing goals and strategies to guide future planning, investment, land protection, recreational improvements, and stewardship.
Community input will be an important component of the planning process. The survey is intended to provide the Town with a better understanding of how people currently use municipal open spaces, which resources and experiences they value most, and how they would like to see open space and recreational opportunities evolve in the future. Participants will also be asked to weigh in on priorities for future investments in conservation and active recreation, as well as opportunities to make Andover’s open spaces more accessible, welcoming, and easier for people throughout the community to use.
Click here to take the survey.
Feedback received through the survey will directly inform the goals and recommendations included in the updated Plan. Community input played a similar role in the development of the Town’s 2018 Open Space and Recreation Plan, which incorporated the results of an online survey completed by more than 1,500 participants as one of several sources used to establish the Town’s open space and recreation goals and objectives.
The completed Open Space and Recreation Plan will provide a detailed assessment of Andover’s conservation and recreational resources and establish an action plan for the years ahead. The Town’s 2018 Plan included an inventory of public and private conservation and recreation lands, an analysis of demographic and development trends, an assessment of community and resource-protection needs, goals related to conservation and recreation, and strategies addressing accessibility, stewardship, trails, active recreation, environmental resiliency, and other priorities.
Maintaining an up-to-date Open Space and Recreation Plan also enables the Town to pursue valuable state funding opportunities that can help advance local conservation and recreation priorities. The Town has previously identified programs including the Commonwealth’s LAND and PARC grant programs as potential sources of matching funding for land protection, recreational improvements, accessibility projects, trails, and other investments. The 2018 Plan specifically identified maintaining an approved plan as an important tool in allowing Andover to seek state and other grant funding for the acquisition and improvement of open space and recreation sites.
Andover’s most recent Open Space and Recreation Plan was adopted in 2018 and builds on a longstanding planning effort in the community, following previous plans completed in 1970, 1976, 1983, 1989, 1998, 2001, and 2009. The purpose of this work was captured in Andover’s 1989 Conservation and Recreation Plan, which called for a “balanced and integrated effort to protect invaluable natural resources while providing active and passive recreational opportunities for all townspeople.” That principle continued to guide the 2018 Plan and will provide important context as the Town establishes priorities for its next update.
The Town encourages anyone who lives, works, recreates, or spends time in Andover to participate in the survey. Broad community participation will help ensure that the updated Open Space and Recreation Plan reflects how these resources are used today and establishes priorities that respond to the community’s needs for the future.