The following OP-Ed by Keith Ohmart is posted on his behalf.
The first of several public meetings reporting on progress of the Master Planning process for the West Lexington Greenway will be held on January 16, 2008 in the large meeting room of the Cary Memorial Library from 7 to 9 pm. Representatives of Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc., (VHB) the design firm appointed to produce the Master Plan, will present a summary of the work accomplished to date.
The goal of this project, funded by town Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds, is to plan for a network of trails, including universally accessible sections, linking all open space areas on the west side of Route 128. The five mile long study area extends from the City of Cambridge reservoir at the southern end, northward to the Burlington town line, and is largely bounded on the west by the towns of Lincoln and Bedford. The first step in this process has been to document existing conditions and compile an inventory of both natural resources present as well as the impact of human forms on this landscape. VHB has been working with the West Lexington Greenway Task Force, a committee comprised of Town staff and volunteers, to compile this information, which will be presented at the January 16 meeting.
VHB’s representatives have spent the fall compiling data from numerous trips in the field to identify natural features including plant and animal communities as well as physical features including topography and underlying geological features. The impact of human society on the land is also of critical importance to this process. Existing trails, roads, utility corridors, and historical features have been surveyed and mapped. This has resulted in the creation of a sizable database of information, which will be presented in summary fashion using maps and visual images.
Some five miles in length, the West Lexington Greenway represents in the aggregate, the largest semi-contiguous open space in the town of Lexington. Comprised primarily of old-field open space, forest and forest edge and a range of wetland habitats, the Greenway supports a wide variety of flora and fauna communities. The creation of a comprehensive inventory of these features is the critical first step that will then inform the planning process for the proposed trail network.
The purpose of creating this Master Plan is to create a detailed picture of the entire area in order to conduct an informed planning process for trail alignment. Areas of critical environmental importance need to be identified for protection. Opportunities to provide access to areas of environmental interest and beauty need to be considered. Accessible trail connections need to be planned. The desirability of encouraging non-motorized travel for both recreational and commuting activities needs to be considered. These and many other themes will eventually enter into future stages of the planning process.
The January 16 presentation and those to follow in future months are an integral part of the Master Planning process. The purpose of these meetings is to report periodically to the community on the work accomplished and to collect comments and feedback from the public at regular intervals. The West Lexington Greenway is a significant if perhaps under appreciated open space resource, a large portion of which has been set aside for preservation as open space by prior actions on the part of the Town.
January 16 is your opportunity as Lexington citizens to learn more about this resource and to participate in the planning process for its future.
Showing posts with label Planning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Planning. Show all posts
Monday, January 7, 2008
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Sidewalk Use In Lexington
By Jerry Van Hook
It is perhaps not surprising that bicycling enthusiasts would also want to promote better walking conditions in Lexington. After all, both are human-powered activities, good for our health, good for the environment, and good for the social benefits of being able to pause at any time to chat with friends and neighbors along the way.
Although the interest in promoting walking improvements had these logical roots, there were practical problems to its implementation. In 2002 when bicycle committee members began to talk seriously about safe walking routes in Lexington, we asked the then town manager Rick White for his opinion. He pointed out that, however desirable the objective, it was not within the charter of either the Bicycle Advisory Committee (BAC) or the Friends of the Minuteman Bikeway (FOMB) organization to take on such a project. A committee targeted specifically to improvements in sidewalks and walking paths would be in a better position to deal with the more controversial issues that araise.
This was good advice and we embraced it with enthusiasm. We first determined whether the Town had any current information on existing sidewalks. Boston Edison had some data as did the Town DPW, but it was incomplete. Members of the FOMB decided to make a study of every street in the town, usually on bicycle with maps and clipboards, recording those street segments with no sidewalks, those with a sidewalk on one side, and those with sidewalks on both sides. While this inventory was in progress, we learned that the federal government was putting forward a Safe Routes to School (SRTS) initiative which emphasized walking to school with parental supervision, particularly at the elementary school level. This seemed the best way forward since the children would benefit at an early age and the parents would also be encouraged to participate. Taking the completed sidewalk map, we marked the location of the six elementary schools in Lexington and superimposed circles of half mile radius as a reasonable walking distance. As part of this exercise we also obtained data on the school busing districts in 2003 and marked this on our map as an indication of the residential areas from which students and parents could walk. Beyond this radius it was expected that most students would be bussed to school.
With two middle schools and one high school in town, the routes these older children would take would depend on busing or by the alternate use of bicycles. It was assumed that roadway routes for bicyclists would generally connect with the Minuteman Bikeway and other off road paths from low traffic-density roads in the individual neighborhoods.
As the sidewalk inventory and SRTS programs evolved, it became even more evident that a separate sidewalk committee would be a better vehicle for these issues. Since the FOMB had several members that were also involved in stewardship of conservation lands throughout town, many of which were adjacent to schools, it was natural to focus on the less controversial task of improving walking paths through conservation land to enhance the access to all schools and to public spaces throughout Lexington. This program, described elsewhere in the Newsletter, is strong and ongoing under the leadership of bicycle committee member Mike Tabaczinsky and his volunteers.
The Lexington Planning Board under Glen Garber was the first to use the information gathered by the FOMB on walking and bicycling routes. This resulted in the publication in 2004 of the report "THE LEXINGTON WE WANT" which incorporated the sidewalk survey and the existing bike paths and recommended low-traffic roadways for bicyclist use in this town. The Selectmen had been giving thought to creating a Lexington Sidewalk Committee (LSC) and in the Spring of 2005 the committee was formed. Its charter was to be a systematic evaluation of walking conditions and a plan for improvements which would be ongoing over the years. This LSC would take on as an early task a program fostering SRTS at the elementary schools, thereafter expanding to all the schools. Walking to centers of commerce and public gathering would also be promoted and the issues on sidewalk construction and maintenance would be addressed. The present writer was appointed as a member of the LSC and regularly reports on their activities at the bicycle committee meetings. Our committees are justly proud of their part in laying the groundwork on walking conditions in Lexington and in their continuing involvement in bringing better conditions for these two alternatives to the community.
Jerry is a member of Friends of the Minuteman Bikeway (FOMB) and the Lexington Sidewalk Committee (LSC)
It is perhaps not surprising that bicycling enthusiasts would also want to promote better walking conditions in Lexington. After all, both are human-powered activities, good for our health, good for the environment, and good for the social benefits of being able to pause at any time to chat with friends and neighbors along the way.
Although the interest in promoting walking improvements had these logical roots, there were practical problems to its implementation. In 2002 when bicycle committee members began to talk seriously about safe walking routes in Lexington, we asked the then town manager Rick White for his opinion. He pointed out that, however desirable the objective, it was not within the charter of either the Bicycle Advisory Committee (BAC) or the Friends of the Minuteman Bikeway (FOMB) organization to take on such a project. A committee targeted specifically to improvements in sidewalks and walking paths would be in a better position to deal with the more controversial issues that araise.
This was good advice and we embraced it with enthusiasm. We first determined whether the Town had any current information on existing sidewalks. Boston Edison had some data as did the Town DPW, but it was incomplete. Members of the FOMB decided to make a study of every street in the town, usually on bicycle with maps and clipboards, recording those street segments with no sidewalks, those with a sidewalk on one side, and those with sidewalks on both sides. While this inventory was in progress, we learned that the federal government was putting forward a Safe Routes to School (SRTS) initiative which emphasized walking to school with parental supervision, particularly at the elementary school level. This seemed the best way forward since the children would benefit at an early age and the parents would also be encouraged to participate. Taking the completed sidewalk map, we marked the location of the six elementary schools in Lexington and superimposed circles of half mile radius as a reasonable walking distance. As part of this exercise we also obtained data on the school busing districts in 2003 and marked this on our map as an indication of the residential areas from which students and parents could walk. Beyond this radius it was expected that most students would be bussed to school.
With two middle schools and one high school in town, the routes these older children would take would depend on busing or by the alternate use of bicycles. It was assumed that roadway routes for bicyclists would generally connect with the Minuteman Bikeway and other off road paths from low traffic-density roads in the individual neighborhoods.
As the sidewalk inventory and SRTS programs evolved, it became even more evident that a separate sidewalk committee would be a better vehicle for these issues. Since the FOMB had several members that were also involved in stewardship of conservation lands throughout town, many of which were adjacent to schools, it was natural to focus on the less controversial task of improving walking paths through conservation land to enhance the access to all schools and to public spaces throughout Lexington. This program, described elsewhere in the Newsletter, is strong and ongoing under the leadership of bicycle committee member Mike Tabaczinsky and his volunteers.
The Lexington Planning Board under Glen Garber was the first to use the information gathered by the FOMB on walking and bicycling routes. This resulted in the publication in 2004 of the report "THE LEXINGTON WE WANT" which incorporated the sidewalk survey and the existing bike paths and recommended low-traffic roadways for bicyclist use in this town. The Selectmen had been giving thought to creating a Lexington Sidewalk Committee (LSC) and in the Spring of 2005 the committee was formed. Its charter was to be a systematic evaluation of walking conditions and a plan for improvements which would be ongoing over the years. This LSC would take on as an early task a program fostering SRTS at the elementary schools, thereafter expanding to all the schools. Walking to centers of commerce and public gathering would also be promoted and the issues on sidewalk construction and maintenance would be addressed. The present writer was appointed as a member of the LSC and regularly reports on their activities at the bicycle committee meetings. Our committees are justly proud of their part in laying the groundwork on walking conditions in Lexington and in their continuing involvement in bringing better conditions for these two alternatives to the community.
Jerry is a member of Friends of the Minuteman Bikeway (FOMB) and the Lexington Sidewalk Committee (LSC)
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