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What is a master plan?
A master plan is a set of design concepts, maps and written guidelines that help the municipality maintain a healthy, beautiful, and enjoyable park and public space.
A master plan works together with a management plan and an operations plan to form a comprehensive approach to enhancing and maintaining a landscape like the Dartmouth Common over many decades.
What does a master plan do?
A master plan for a civic place like the Dartmouth Common establishes the vision and planning of the Common for the next several decades.
It sets the look and feel of the Common; it helps us figure out what activities and features work best; it gives direction on how to keep the landscape healthy, safe and enjoyable.
A master plan also establishes guidelines and makes recommendations to ensure a balance between buildings, parking lots, open space and park.
The master plan includes some direction on how the Common is managed, with a focus on ecological and financial sustainability, and direction on how to manage historic and special features of the landscape.
It works with land use, urban design and transportation plans as well as with a management plan and operations plan to form an all-inclusive approach to protecting and enhancing the Dartmouth Common over many decades.
Why does the Dartmouth Common need a master plan? Doesn’t the Regional Plan give the park the direction it needs?
For parks, the Regional Plan sets out an overall vision for the parks system across the region. However, the Regional Plan does not specifically address how to protect and enhance the things that make each park a unique experience for the park user.
The Regional Plan deals with the vision of a regional parks system. A park master plan works within the Regional Plan to deal with the unique characteristics and issues of individual landscapes like the Dartmouth Common. |
