Want a Skate Park For Belmont? Take This Survey!

One of the quiet successes of Belmont in the last two decades has been in the area of parks and open space. During that time, our town has not only secured large scale open spaces with trails and meadows, like Lone Tree Hill. We have also undertaken the makeovers of the Town’s main public parks: Grove Street, Town Field, Joey’s Park, Grove Street Park, the Underwood pool – and upgraded our playgrounds, public tennis courts and more.

That’s no small feat, especially in a community as financially constrained as Belmont, where spending on parks and recreation typically falls to the bottom of the list of budget items.

But its no accident either: just about all of those improvements we’ve seen are the direct result of town voters passing the Community Preservation Act (CPA) back in 2010, with funding for the program beginning in Fiscal Year 2012. (Read Blogging Belmont’s coverage of that vote here.)

The CPA allows towns that adopt the measure to create a local fund for housing, historic preservation, open space, and recreation by adding a small surcharge of up to 3% on property taxes, which is then matched by state funds from a statewide. (Note: the state matching funds are capped and, therefore, are a fraction of any individual town’s allotment.) Passing the CPA immediately created a reliable source of funding for parks, open space and affordable housing. And it created the Community Preservation Committee (CPC) to recommend projects, which manages proposals for CPA funding, keeps the program aligned with state requirements.

A citizen survey on open space and recreation

So – good job, Belmont! We’ve really up-leveled our parks and open spaces. AND, there’s more work to be done. The question is: What are our priorities as a community when it comes to parks and open spaces? That’s a question that the Town would like an answer to, as it prepares its next 10 year Open Space and Recreation Plan (OSRP). The OSRP is necessary tfor Belmont to qualify for grants from the Division of Conservation Services and guides the town as it looks to protect and enhance open- and recreational spaces: parks, playgrounds, trails, and so on.

This is the start of a six-month-long planning process to update its Open Space and Recreation Plan with the survey key to the planning and scope as the Town looks to understand community priorities and identify areas for improvement.

The survey takes about 10 minutes and asks you about your use of the town’s parks and open spaces and your preferences for new public spaces.

Some examples to consider: a skate park for our town, more small, neighborhood “pocket parks” to make better use of town own land. (*cough* Golden Bowl! *cough*)

The survey runs through January 31st, 2026, so go ahead and click and fill it out now before the window closes!