Final open house held for Comprehensive Plan

On Monday evening, Jan. 12, an open house was held in the Simoni Room of Morrill Memorial Library regarding the Norwood Comprehensive Plan that is now in its final stage of preparation.

The informal event (there was no agenda, nor were there any formal presentations) was set up to allow guests to browse from table to table, where each of the plan’s six core themes and their related goals were displayed, and a member of the Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee was also available to answer any questions. This basic but casually interactive format provided the opportunity for those interested to learn about the progress of the plan’s creation, provide input regarding its vision, themes, and goals, and to freely engage with the Steering Committee.

It was the second such open house (the first was held on Dec. 8 at the Senior Center), and it was the last of the most recent flurry of scheduled outreach events – including strategy roadshows – that have been taking place around Town since November.

When ready, the comprehensive plan will serve as a policy guide for the Town through 2035, in terms of decisions that will be made regarding its future preservation, change, and growth. It is scheduled for completion in April, but the process of collecting and interpreting the information to write it most effectively has been going on since August of 2024. This has played out in four phases, the last of which – Becoming Norwood Tomorrow – began in November and ends in February, after which the new comprehensive plan will be finalized for formal adoption.

At the open house, the six core themes informing what will be the Norwood Comprehensive Plan were broken down into these categories: overall quality of housing; safe and reliable transportation; commercial/economic improvement; the preservation and celebration of culture, history, and identity; making the environment green, resilient, and healthy; and the fostering of civic engagement and the investment in municipal infrastructure and services.

As guests went from table to table, they were also presented with specific goals within each core theme that were listed on categorized sheets. As they read through them, they could check off the ones that most resonated with them. Just under 20 people participated over the course of the two-hour event and, by the end of it, patterns could be observed by what had been checked off.

Across the core themes, those goals with 10 or more check marks were at the high end, but the one advocating for the reopening of Norwood Hospital as an acute care hospital (under the commercial/economic improvement theme) topped the list with 13 marks, followed by the creation of a multi-purpose municipal website for public use (under civic engagement) at 12.

The most aggregate check marks, however, were in the goal categories listed within the culture/history/identity and green/resilient/healthy core themes.

Under the culture/history/identity theme, two drew 11 check marks. One had to do with coordinating with building and business owners to continue a public art program showcasing local stories and talent. The other focused on the feasibility of using school facilities for evening and weekend community-programming and meeting spaces.

The marks under the green/resilient/healthy core theme were fairly consistent across all of its subcategories, but one – advocating for the extension of the Tiot Trail and its connection to the Town’s park network – drew 10 check marks.

The fact that the green category was so thoroughly marked up was reflected in the comments of several attendees, including those of Jennifer (who opted not to provide her last name), a long-time Norwood resident who had come by to better familiarize herself with the plan. “I feel like climate change is real and we have to get ready for it as a Town,” she said of the resonant theme for her. “So just to kind of be thinking ahead to try to prepare ourselves is essential.”

While she was impressed – as was everyone else who commented – with the comprehensiveness of the approach, Jennifer – like most of the other commenters – was also left with questions.

“To be honest, I’m leaving here feeling like I don’t really know what my next step is,” she said, before finding Jenn Goldson of the consulting group JM Goldson, and asking her a number of questions.

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Nathan Alvord – an eight-year resident of the Town with an interest in civic engagement who had found out about the initiative through a flyer in his electric bill – thought that the open house was mostly self-explanatory, but he also had questions about what was behind all that would be going into the Comprehensive Plan. “What are the resources?” he asked. “How much impetus is there to be able to implement all of these? There are quite a lot of tasks going forward here... I’m a little bit unaware of the force of who’s going to be implementing these policies, I guess.”

As the open house wound down, Town Meeting member Toni Eosco touched on another aspect of what Alvord had asked about earlier. “A lot of it comes down to money – money to implement them,” she said of making the plan’s goals real. “And then you need staff to make sure that people follow the rules.” She added that “there’s got to be some teeth in it.”

Eosco – who was fully engaged at every core theme table, asking questions and making comments – also wondered about the length and aggressiveness of the plan. She added that – up until now – she had only been familiar with five-year master plans. “So much changes in 10 years. How much of it can truly be applicable in its eighth, ninth, and tenth year?”

That noted, the open house was generally well received by those who attended and, from here, the process will now kick in to finalize the plan and submit it to the Planning Board in the spring.

To find out more about the Norwood Comprehensive Plan, visit https://tinyurl.com/yf8jc5tu.