The Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission presented a draft report of the Bedford Open Space Plan Tuesday, Sept. 22, outlining ways to assist the town in future development while preserving open space and a “green infrastructure.”

The report was put together after the Bedford Open Space Task Force identified and developed a prioritized list of agricultural, open and undeveloped land to be protected through methods ranging from purchasing the land to voluntary measures by landowners.

Landowners remain free to do as they please with the land that is included in the report. The plan identified a “green infrastructure,” a connection of open space corridors that would provide the town with natural services, such as maintaining the quality of ground and surface water, providing habitats for plant and animal species in Bedford, providing connected open spaces for Bedford residents to enjoy and allowing for the movement of wildlife through town.

The green infrastructure is there not only for plants and animals, but also “for people to use and have elbow room and not always see your neighbors,” Karin Elmer, a town planner, said after the presentation.

The green infrastructure includes about 37 percent of the town’s land, including vacant property and already developed or protected land. In order to protect the land, the report lays out high-cost, low-cost and free strategies. High-cost options would include purchasing the land as town-owned conservation land or purchasing a conservation easement by the town on part of or all of a parcel.

Funding for measures that have a cost would come from the town’s conservation funding. Seventy percent of the town’s land use change tax goes to conservation funding. In 2002, the town bought the Joppa Hill Farm for $3.6 million to protect 312 acres of land.

Low-cost or free options to preserve open space include protection by regulation, establishing a land management agreement with the owner, and owner education.

Elmer said the intent of the plan is “not to create layers of zoning ordinances.” She said there are ways to protect land “without the town playing a regulatory role at all.” An example is providing property owners with fact sheets on “how to maintain your lawn next to a sensitive wetland,” she said.

She said people can also start planting native plants.

“By bringing in a lot of exotic plants, you can actually drive away some of the natural species that live there,” she said.

Mervyn Taub, chairman of the Bedford Conservation Commission, said the best way to protect land is to buy it. He said he had spoken to many of the property owners within the green infrastructure outlined.

“They are all people who are waiting for the next property boom,” he said, so they can sell the land to developers. He said some towns allot all of their change of land use tax revenues to conservation. He said the town’s purchase of the Joppa Hill Farm was “courageous.”

“If the town is serious about protecting open space you have got to be willing to bond the money to buy it,” he said.

But Elmer said even once land is being developed, open space can still be maintained through cooperation. She said if a developer wanted to build homes on land, the town could ask if he or she might consider avoiding the use of a grid layout.

“Can we have him do cul de sacs with lots of open spaces?” she said.

The town would not ask them to change development plans in any way that would make the land bring in less money, she said.

“That’s not our goal,” she said. “A lot of times it’s a win-win situation.”

Taub said he thought the open space plan was an “excellent start.”

“The point is, people must think of these issues,” he said. “If you don’t talk about it, they don’t think about it.”