Douglas County hosting open house about Open Space Plan

Douglas County is hosting an open house about the Open Space Plan from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 26, at the Lawrence Union Pacific Depot, 402 N. Second St. It is an opportunity for community members to stop by and learn about the project team’s progress and to provide feedback. There will be activities for children and a raffle entry for all attendees.

The purpose of the open house is to gather feedback on the focus areas and preliminary recommendations. The community event will build on the success of the first outreach series in May and June of this year, which included nearly 1,000 survey responses, two public workshops, and a series of focus groups with a range of interested parties.

On Wednesday, Oct. 25, the Open Space Plan project team will provide an update for Douglas County Commissioners during a work session at 4 p.m. in the County Courthouse, 1100 Massachusetts St. The meeting is open to the public and is also available on Zoom. For meeting information, visit the County’s website at https://dgcoks.gov/county-commission.

Additionally, the project team is gathering feedback on guiding values, priority areas and potential funding sources through a new questionnaire on the Open Space website: dgcoks.org/openspace. The questionnaire will be available until Sunday, Nov. 12.

A structure, tools and funding source are necessary to protect, restore, support and manage existing and potential future open space. Willing private landowners are and will continue to be vital partners in voluntarily protecting open space. The community is asked to weigh in on various program models to support management of open space in the future as well as their willingness to support various levels of funding.

The project team plans to release and publish a draft plan in early 2024.

The need for an Open Space Plan was identified in “Plan 2040: A Comprehensive Plan for Unincorporated Douglas County and the City of Lawrence,” which was adopted in 2019. The 2019 Charter in which Douglas County committed to the development of an Open Space plan outlined the following benefits of planning for such spaces:

• promotes high quality of life and activates healthy lifestyles.
• controls flooding and sustains stormwater management and resilience.
• maintains rural character, including agriculture sectors.
• enhances ecological integrity, preserves native landscapes and wildlife habitat.

The Open Space project team includes Douglas County staff from Sustainability, Zoning and Codes, Heritage Conservation and Communications, and environmental planning and design consulting firm Logan Simpson.

For more information, visit: dgcoks.org/openspace.