Open Space, Natural Resources, and Trails Committee

RECEIVED By City Clerk at 1:53 pm, 9/29/21 Amesbury Open Space, Natural Resources, and Trails Committee MEETING MINUTES March 24, 2021, 7:00 p.m. This meeting was conducted under the “Executive Order Suspending Certain Provisions of the Open Meeting Law” G.L. c. 30A, Section 20, signed on March 12, 2020. Attending: Vanessa Johnson-Hall, John Lopez, Rich Hucksam, Pascal Rettig, Jonathan Sherwood, Councilor Nick Wheeler, Steve Thiel 1. Call to Order: 7:02pm 2. Minutes from February 24, 2021. Moved: P Rettig; 2nd N. Wheeler. Unanimous via roll call. 3. Public Comment: No members of the public present. 4. Communications • Annual Conflict of Interest Training – City of Amesbury – do it! 5. Chair's Report • Essex National Heritage Area Grant Application – Deer Island - No word yet. • Special Joint Meeting with Lakes and Waterways, Monday March 29, 2021, regarding management of Lake Gardner Beach - Meeting agenda has not been released yet, so we don’t know what City’s objectives of meeting are. Jonathan has requested an idea of agenda before meeting so that we can adequately prepare. 6. Special Guests/Presentations: N/A 7. Referrals • 2021-042, An Ordinance to amend Amesbury Zoning Bylaws: This bill takes 2 sections of current zoning where open space is required to be set aside (for cluster subdivisions and planned unit development) and says plans need to be referred to the OSNRT for recommendation. OSNRT recommendation non-binding. Unanimously approved by Planning Board and majority of City Council, but needs 2/3rds. vote of the City Council. P. Rettig says that feedback from OSNRT would be extremely valuable to Planning Board on proposed open space. Moved to return to bill to council with positive recommendation N. Wheeler. 2nd R. Hucksam. Approved unanimously via roll call. 8. Projects • OSR 2020-21 Action Plan i. Trails Planning – Sherwood - There was a great workshop on Trails Planning at state Open Space Conference. Jonathan will send link on Sturbridge case study. Key part of ECTA work is to work with Cons Comm on framework for approval of trail work that impacts jurisdictional wetlands. Makes approval process more streamlined when time comes to implement trail work.  ii. Town Forest & Woodsom Farm Protections – N. Wheeler said discussions on hold until after budget discussions. Councilor Stanganelli has drafted an ordinance. Some of Town Forest parcels were on tax lien list that OSNRT reviewed with Cons Comm and made protection recommendations to City. Tax lien parcels have to be transferred to the c/c/c of the City before they can be designated as Article 97 land. This did not happen on Margaret Rice Park parcels, which is why they were able to be sold for development. Working on making sure this happens with Inventory of City-Owned parcels (see agenda item below). N. Wheeler offered to check original Woodsom Farm parcels to make sure none of them were tax title takings. iii. Outreach to Other Boards/Committees – Open Space Forum Part Two - Sherwood - Follow-up with City was to do another forum along the lines of what Cons Comm did several years ago. City was receptive to this idea. On Monday J. Lopez and J. Sherwood had call w/ Vice Chair of Lakes & Waterways, Cons Comm and City reps. Everyone thought good idea but what struggled with objective and format given pandemic. Would like to connect with MVP, OSRP to try to move forward on objectives in those plans. Conclusion was to have virtual forum focused on climate change resiliency. J. Sherwood was interested in other ideas from OSNRT. Another goal is to introduce and get buy-in on OSNRT. One idea is creating break-out sessions based on OSRP goals. Another goal is to build political support. Tom Murphy & J .Sherwood to bring ideas to discuss with group. • Conservation Commission Inventory of City-Owned Parcels – J. Sherwood circulated memo with recommendation that was submitted to the Mayor. J. Sherwood volunteered V. Johnson-Hall and R. Hucksam to make presentation on conservation options at the City. N. Wheeler comments: 63 Cynthia Lane is listed on here which City already owns; has a retention pond built by DPW in 2016. 58 Cynthia Road is likely developable. 38-1a and 1 – these are former Quinn Farm properties. 47-28: directly behind City drinking water wellhead. 53-103: N. Wheeler couldn’t find it on Assessors map or database. Riverfront Dr parcels – all 4 parcels are Merrimack Land Conservation Area; Cons Comm holds all 4. 0 Haverhill Rd and 206 Lions Mouth can come off b/c in Woodsom bill and so already Article 97. S. Thiel will revise list and re-submit to J. Lopez. • Criteria and Methods for Permanently Protected Land Required as Part of a Development Permit – P. Rettig will take another look and send notes to V. Johnson-Hall to finalize for next meeting. 9. Other Business. Overview of OSRP Action Plan: In general, we have made progress on OSRP Action items since finalizing of plans. Inventory of Cons Comm Lands – would be very helpful to have more data on this list. Not a good list of what is under c/c/c of Cons Comm. V. Johnson- Hall to reach out to Jen Hughes re. MVPC role. Caitlyn from City circulated memo asking when Boards & Committees are comfortable coming back in person. This didn’t go to everyone. No action at this time. General sentiment was to wait until more members are vaccinated. 10. Motion to Adjourn 8:44pm N. Wheeler: 2nd S. Thiel. Approved unanimously via roll call.