A map of land in Scarborough. The shaded areas indicate land that is either undeveloped, under conservation or reserved for recreational use. Contributed / Town of Scarborough

Scarborough is creating an open space plan to guide the town in its efforts to conserve land.

The goal of the plan, being developed by the ad-hoc Open Space Committee, is to come up with an inventory of open space and provide recommendations on how and where Scarborough can achieve its 30-by-30 goal – conserving 30% of its land by 2030.

“It feeds into the idea that we need an open space plan to really evaluate where we are at,” said Town Councilor Karin Shupe, the committee’s Town Council representative. “The first step was to identify all of the existing open space.”

The committee and its consultant, Viewshed, have determined that about 7,500 acres, or 24%, of the town’s 30,528 acres of land is either undeveloped, under conservation or used for recreation. Another 1,700 acres are needed to reach the 30-by-30 goal.

Conservation is a great tool to combat overdevelopment in town, said committee member Crescencia Maurer, and community engagement is key.

“Scarborough is growing pretty rapidly. We’re sort of competing with development for the remaining open space,” Maurer said. “So, we need to have a really good understanding of what Scarborough residents value most, what they want to see conserved, and have an action plan to help us achieve our 30-by-30 goal.”

“We want to prioritize what is important to Scarborough residents,” Shupe added. “With those priorities in mind, the consultants are going to come back with a plan to help us map out the town and determine where we should focus.”

Through a community workshop, online survey and tabling at events such as Concerts in the Park and the town’s weekly farmers market, the committee has uncovered some of those priorities.

“Habitat, marsh migration and clean water have been some of the top priorities,” Maurer said. “So, protecting open space that’s going to protect water quality, that’s going to allow the marsh to migrate, protect that beautiful marsh habitat and also a riverine habitat that we have.”

Other priorities identified have been agriculture and forestry, Maurer said, and the opportunity to provide feedback is still available on the open space plan’s page on the town’s website, scarboroughmaine.org.

“We’re trying to get more people to do that,” Shupe said. “We just want to keep hearing from residents about what their priorities are when it comes to open space and preserving Scarborough.”

The Town Council recently sent a $6 million bond to replenish Scarborough’s land acquisition fund, used to help conserve land in town, to the November ballot for a referendum vote. Shupe said that funding would come in handy when the town eventually implements the recommendations that spawn from the plan.

“One of the things I tried to emphasize to the council is we’re putting all of this time, effort and these resources into this open space plan, and part of the outcome will be to implement some of it,” Shupe said. “That will probably involve trying to buy some land to conserve.”

Maurer agreed, describing the fund as “a very important tool.”

“We need those underlying tools, and the land bond is a very important tool to help achieve both the 30-by-30 goal and to help when it comes time to implement this plan,” Maurer said.