Open Space and Recreation Plan - Town of Natick

Draft 9-16-11
SECTION 3 – COMMUNITY SETTING
A. Regional Context
Located 17 miles west of Boston in southern Middlesex County, Natick provides a mixture of
suburban residential, commercial, and light industrial land use. Local and regional commercial
districts are situated along its major highways, reflective of its location within an easy commute to
Boston, Worcester, and Providence. Its three major transportation arteries are the Massachusetts
Turnpike, Route 9, and the Boston and Albany Railroad, all of which connect Boston with western
Massachusetts. Natick owes much of its growth to its location on these major east-west corridors.
Routes 27 and 135, major collector roads, cross in the center of town and provide connections to
Framingham to the west, Wellesley to the east, Wayland to the north, and Sherborn to the south.
Route 16 travels through South Natick, connecting Wellesley and Sherborn. See Map 1 Regional
Context.
Natick is within the jurisdiction of Boston’s Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), and
participates in regional planning efforts as part of the MetroWest Regional Collaborative (MWRC), a
sub-region of MAPC. Natick participated in MAPC’s 2008 production of “MetroFuture,” the official
regional plan for Greater Boston. This Open Space and Recreation Plan is consistent with that plan,
especially in its acknowledgment of regional natural and recreational resources, in its
recommendation for communicating with neighboring Towns to identify potential trails which could
cross town borders, and in focusing growth within existing cores with infrastructure.
The State Division of Conservation Services has a statewide open space and recreation plan called
Massachusetts Outdoors 2006 also known as the Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan
(SCORP). Some of the findings of that plan for the region that includes Natick are discussed in
Section 7, Analysis of Needs.
Natick is nestled between the upper basin of the Charles and Concord Rivers in Middlesex County
and shares four of its largest and most popular open spaces with neighboring towns.
The Broadmoor Wildlife Sanctuary, owned by the Massachusetts Audubon Society, consists
of 624 acres plus another 165 acres under conservation restriction. 1 More than two-thirds of
this area is within Natick, the remainder in Sherborn. It has 9 miles of walking trails through a
variety of habitats, as well as a universally accessible trail. It provides a venue for hiking,
birdwatching, photography, cross-country skiing and other activities, and offers year-round
access.
1 For a definition and information on Conservation Restrictions, see Appendix.
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