The goals of the Open Space Plan are to:

• Enhance the quality of life in Kennebunk by maximizing opportunities for meaningful relationships between people and nature
• Preserve open spaces for future generations
• Maintain and enhance existing open spaces, and to provide appropriate access to and connections between those open spaces
• Implement a strategy for prioritizing, protecting, acquiring and managing additional open spaces which are considered important to the long term needs of Kennebunk
• Integrate recreational use of open space where appropriate
• Retain cultural landscape patterns, such as walkable neighborhoods, rural farm fields edged by stone walls, streetscapes

The Open Space Planning Committee looked at Kennebunk’s natural resources in terms of their environmental, recreational and historical/cultural importance. This led them to prioritize the following areas:

Branch Brook Corridor

Mousam River Corridor West of the Turnpike

Alewive Road Corridor
This corridor has an open, agricultural landscape found nowhere else in Kennebunk. For this reason, it ranks highest as a visual corridor that is threatened by development. Land along this corridor should be considered the highest priority for open space preservation. Additionally, there remains little recreational access to these lands. The Committee recommends adding trail connectivity between the preserved lands in the area.

Brown St. – Parson’s Beach – Rte 9 Corridor
This area was seen as a priority for maintaining visual corridors of forest and marshland. It’s primary importance, however, was seen in development of trails through the area, including a trail parallel to Brown St. and the opening of Harts Rd. as a publicly accessible trail.

Kennebunk River Corridor