Feature image: Eliot Conservation Commission
Published: May 12, 2026
The places that communities value aren’t protected by accident. They require planning, partnership, community input, and the resources to help turn shared ideas into action. That’s exactly what happened in the town of Eliot, Maine earlier this year, when the Eliot Conservation Commission adopted the 2026 Open Space Plan. It was subsequently endorsed by the Select Board unanimously.
Eliot’s 2026 Open Space Plan is more than a municipal document. It’s a local success story that shows how communities can translate their local values into a shared vision that helps guide future decisions.
Why Open Space Planning Matters
An open space plan is an official municipal document that helps a community identify, prioritize, and protect the natural and recreational spaces that matter to residents. In simple terms, these spaces include forests, farms, trails, marshes, shorelines, parks, nature preserves, and other undeveloped or lightly developed lands. These spaces can be on both public and private property.
At its core, an open space plan helps a community answer important long-term questions:
- Which places are most important to protect?
- How best can we balance growth and conservation?
- What should a city/town do now to preserve the character and natural resources residents care about the most?
The answers to these questions are ones residents often care deeply about. The community's open space plan provides a record of those answers.
Additionally, these plans play a critical role in water protection. For example, protecting open spaces can preserve natural vegetative buffers along rivers, streams, ponds, and wetlands. These areas help to filter pollution before it reaches local waterways. Open space plans recommend protecting these spaces as they are, reducing the spread of impervious (or hard) surfaces, like roads, building rooftops, and parking lots, which prevent stormwater from soaking into the ground. When stormwater can infiltrate naturally, it helps recharge groundwater and reduces polluted runoff going into waterways.
These are not plans that sit on a shelf or in a folder on a hard drive. Rather, they are incredibly useful for Town Planners and municipal board members as they address a multitude of goals, from what land gets conserved to where to provide quality of life activities. As practical tools for addressing and supporting clean water, they help communities thrive.
Photo credit: Eliot Conservation Commission. A waterfront, sunset view near Pleasant Street in Eliot, Maine.
Local Leadership Supported by Partnership
At the center of Eliot’s Open Space Plan was the Eliot Conservation Commission and the Southern Maine Planning & Development Commission (SMPDC), whose partnership moved the project from an idea to implementation. PREP spoke with Lisa Wise of the Commission as well as Land Use Division Director Jamel Torres from SMPDC to learn more about their project, takeaways, and inspiration they hope to pass along to other communities considering an Open Space Plan update.
Their work was made possible by the Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership (PREP)’s PREPA Grant Program. Through the program, PREP supports 52 watershed municipalities in New Hampshire and Maine work toward water and natural resource protections.
Image Right: Lisa Wise of the Eliot Conservation Commission. Image Left: Jamel Torres of Southern Maine Planning & Development Commission.
A Plan Rooted in Community Priorities
So how does an Open Space Plan get started? In Eliot, Lisa Wise tells us the catalyst to work on an Open Space plan emerged in tandem with its Comprehensive Plan, a larger municipal plan that accounts for future growth, development, and land use. The town’s recent Comprehensive Plan update made clear that residents care deeply about Eliot’s natural resources and recreational spaces. In a community survey used to inform this plan, over 90% of respondents rated open spaces and wildlife as “very important” or “somewhat important.”
Photo credit: Eliot Conservation Commission. Children walk along a snowy trail in Goodwin Forest in Eliot, Maine.
Public feedback also demonstrated strong support for protecting as well as investing in the kinds of places that give Eliot character, like its marshes and ponds, woodlands, hiking trails, and scenic areas.
“Eliot’s Open Space Plan was from 2010. Given the recent Comprehensive Plan’s survey results and updated recommendations, we could see how updating our open space plan would provide the Town with a critical guiding document to focus our efforts. It would also align and support its larger vision and goals,” Lisa says. “It was the right moment to pursue this update.”
This kind of input gave the Eliot Conservation Commission and close partner Southern Maine Planning & Development Commission a strong community-backed foundation for updating Eliot’s Open Space Plan. It also makes clear that town planning does not happen in a vacuum, and that town road maps work best when they complement each other.
Partnership in Action
While 2010 may not seem long ago, a lot can change in 16 years. Development pressures shift. Community priorities evolve. New data and opportunities emerge. Municipal plans should reflect where a town or city is now and where it wants to go next.
Beyond this, SMPDC’s Jamel Torres tells us, document design and format have changed a lot in just the past five years. Working on a number of municipal planning documents, he underscores the importance of making municipal documents easier to read and use.
Photo credit: Eliot Conservation Commission. A scenic view of the York Pond area in Eliot, Maine.
“If you work or volunteer for a town or are a Town Manager, it’s great to have community-informed, formal documents to lean on when making decisions,” Jamel says. “An approved open space plan provides a good foundation and justification for decisions.”
SMPDC supported Eliot by bringing planning expertise, mapping support, real-time coordination, and regional perspective to the process. After all, a wildlife habitat doesn’t end at a town boundary line. This work included helping the town update focus areas, organize information, and create maps and tools that would be useful not just for this plan but for future decision-making as well.
One of these critical tools was the Eliot Open Space Plan (OSP) Map Viewer. Using the interactive mapper, the Town can review a variety of data layers to inform priorities and decisions .
Support from SMPDC was essential. Town staff and local Conservation Commission volunteers often balance many responsibilities at once. Even when a community has strong, locally backed ideas, the time and capacity needed to carry out a project can be challenging. Additional support from a dedicated team member plus PREP's no-match funding resources make an enormous difference in moving a good idea into motion.
A Community-Shaped Process
The technical work involved in an Open Space Plan matters greatly but so do the voices behind it. Led by the Conservation Commission, Eliot made community engagement a meaningful part of the process. They met with residents by tabling at Eliot Festival Day and other community events, and at a comprehensive plan showcase led by Town Planner Jeff Brubaker. This allowed residents to learn about the plan, ask questions, and see their values reflected into town decisions at places and events they already frequented.
The Commission also used survey responses from the Town’s Comprehensive Plan process, making valuable use of input they’d already received from town residents. Furthermore, it helped validate the purpose of the plan and its goals, and ensured alignment between the two planning documents.
The Impact
Funded by PREP with capacity support from SMPDC, Eliot now has an Open Space Plan that provides a practical framework for future decisions.
Plans like this one will help Eliot prioritize conservation projects, guide land-use conversations, and inform funding decisions. It also supports Town staff and board members as they weigh different priorities over time. The focus provided by a usable document and interactive mapping tool will help Eliot protect and care for what matters most.
Why Stories Like Eliot’s Matter Across the Watershed
While the plan is specific to Eliot, the lesson behind it reaches much farther. When communities have the support to plan ahead, they are better positioned to make decisions that protect natural resources, reflect community priorities, and build resilience over time.
PREP’s PREPA Grant program supports this foundation role. The program helps municipalities across the region advance projects that protect water quality, habitat, and natural resources while building local capacity for long-term planning and action. If communities are unsure where to start, PREP's partners with several planning commissions to conduct and update an assessment called The Piscataqua Region Environmental Planning Assessment, or PREPA. This assessment identifies opportunities for water quality and natural resource protections in our entire watershed, organized by municipality.
Across our watershed, cities and towns face the challenge of planning for the future when it comes to growth, conservation, housing, recreation, and water protections. These decisions are better supported when communities have resources and assistance for proactive planning
Eliot’s Open Space Plan is one example of what that support can make possible: a locally led, community-informed effort that now gives the town stronger footing for the future.