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Trails Committee shares early designs for play areas with OSPC

FILE PHOTO/JERRY SPAR

Although members expressed concerns over parts of the early design plan, the Open Space Preservation Commission on Thursday voted to support a play area on open space at the Hughes Farm property.

Trails Committee member Linda Chuss met with the commission to share her group’s vision for a child-friendly segment of the Hughes Farm Trail. Described in documents submitted to the OSPC as a “kids natural play area,” it would consist of wooden structures, granite and other natural materials.

“The main reason we want to do it is, if we can give kids something to do and come there with their parents, we can expose them to natural play areas and open natural environment,” she said.

The Trails Committee has been working on a play area at the Hughes Farm Trail since 2024. It hopes to make an appealing, accessible space for children and families.

The proposed plan calls for up to five play areas with various structures kids can “jump around on, climb on, maybe put sticks together,” said Chuss. The Trails Committee would clear these areas of vegetation. Wood chips would be put down for safety and to help keep vegetation from growing back.

Another wish list item on the plan is a path that cuts through a meadow up to a stand of trees. This path also would be covered with wood chips, and a structure at its end could provide kids an opportunity to look at the meadow from above, said Chuss.

She clarified that these ideas were not set in stone, and noted that other trails in the region, such as the Broadmoor Wildlife Sanctuary in Natick, have similar play areas.

OSPC chair Ed Harrow mostly was in favor of the plan but expressed hesitation over cutting through the meadow. He wondered if the proposed structure at the meadow’s edge still could be accessible by the path that goes around its perimeter.

Member Steve Levandosky pointed out that the area might be designated as a nesting meadow and worried about disrupting existing habitat.

Chuss stressed that the proposed meadow path was optional. “We really don’t have to do it,” she said.

Following further discussion about where to locate granite structures from the property that the Trails Committee could repurpose for benches, the OSPC voted unanimously to support the project moving forward to next steps.

— NICK SCHOFIELD

Latest News

A.F. Amorello & Sons will be out on Main Street this week conducting small repairs and working through a punch list of items.

MassDOT will close a ramp from I-495 southbound to I-90 at the interchange in Hopkinton on Tuesday night.

Eleanor Moser, 87, of Hopkinton passed away July 9.

Photo of the Day

Two audience members sit front and center Sunday to take in Beatles tribute band Studio Two’s performance at the first Sunday Concerts on the Common event of the summer.

PHOTO/NICK SCHOFIELD