5 February, 2015
2015 has had a fantastic start as the committee begins the process to develop a Master Plan for the trail route. The vision for the town is to have a trail connecting with the Milford Rail Trail, leading to downtown Hopkinton, and ending at the Ashland town line. There are several route possibilities, including connecting through Legacy Farms North.
The committee has engaged the Conway School of Landscape Design to assist with this process. They specialize in environmentally sound site design and land use planning. They will be with us from January to June 2015. Our kick-off meeting with their team was on January 13th, and we will be working with them as they examine optimum routing. They will be working around town researching at the ground level. The end product next summer is expected to include options for routes to connect from the Milford town line to the Ashland town line, which will be presented to a town wide audience.
Additionally, the committee has been working diligently to have the acquisition of a one mile parcel of old rail bed land placed on the annual Town Meeting warrant this May. In fact, the Hopkinton Community Preservation Committee recently voted to support funding its acquisition which will move it to Town Meeting this May. This parcel is on the Milford side of town which will get us on our way to connect to the Milford trail up to Granite Street. From that point there is not much distance remaining to connect to the Center Trail leading to downtown Hopkinton.
We now have a website, http://uctc.hopkintonma.gov. Please visit it to follow our progress. All of our meetings are open to the public, and are scheduled bi-monthly at 7PM on the first and third Wednesdays. The committee meetings usually take place in the Planning Board Room # 211, on the 2nd floor of Town Hall, but please check the Town Calendar on the town website for the most current time and place of the meetings.
Regards,
The Hopkinton Upper Charles Trail Committee
