Town of Orleans, Open Space Committee: 2007 Annual Report

Here’s the Orleans Open Space Committee’s 2007 Annual Report, as it appears in the Orleans Annual Town Report for the Year 2007:

"Open Space Committee -- Approximately 6.45 acres of open space were protected permanently in 2007, through the Town’s purchase of additional holdings from the Sparrow family of South Orleans. The new parcel is located on Namequoit Road, across from John Kenrick Woods, which was acquired from the Sparrow family several years ago. It provides frontage on Arey’s Pond and the Namequoit River and completes a significant wildlife corridor extending from the watershed to the Peck property on the north side of the Namequoit River. This acquisition was the first proposed by the committee since the end of the Land Bank in 2005. Funding for the $1,275,000 purchase came from a grant from the State in the amount of $500,000, mitigation funds from Barnstable County from the development of Skaket Corners in the amount of $540,000 and $235,000 from a debt exclusion vote approved by the voters.

The Committee continued to work closely with the Orleans Conservation Trust and was able to preserve an additional 5.75 acres of land through the placement of Conservation Restrictions on four separate parcels.

Thus, through public and private actions an additional 12.2 acres of land in Orleans were permanently protected.

Comprehensive Plan Implementation -- The Orleans Comprehensive Plan charges the Committee with the primary task of helping to preserve 400 or more acres “using Land Bank and (Town) budget appropriated funding, plus private funding.” Since the formulation of that objective, over 230 acres have been protected or 58% of the 20-year goal.

Major efforts by the Orleans Conservation Trust and the Friends of Pleasant Bay through private fund raising for land purchases and through assistance to landowners to preserve land with Conservation Restrictions made a significant addition to the earlier Land Bank efforts. Completing the remaining 42 per cent of the 400-acre goal is very important but will be considerably more difficult now that the Land Bank funding has been terminated. It is clear that additional conservation restrictions, private donations, joint public/private efforts and zoning changes will play an increased role in achieving the 400 acre objective of the Plan."

For more information about open space in Orleans, please read the town's Conservation, Recreation and Open Space Plan (2006, 110 pages, 10.8 MB).