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

This area has the highest priority in the environmental value category. Because Branch Brook and its aquifer serves as a significant water source for Kennebunk, there remains a need to protect it from development and its associated environmental impacts.

Mousam River Corridor West of the Turnpike

This corridor includes sensitive lands along the Mousam, making it a high environmental priority. Additionally, the area is of high recreational priority as West Kennebunk does not have trail connectivity to the natural resource areas in its vicinity, such as the Blueberry Plains and Old Falls Pond. The Committee also recommended improved water access in the area.

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

Kennebunk Harbor was prioritized as a visual corridor for the need to maintain its historic character of a port. The land along the length of the river is considered to be of high environmental significance and should be permanently protected, with a trail that runs from Lower Village to the Eastern Trail.