HERMON – Like other growing towns, Hermon is looking to find a balance between residential growth and retaining some of its aesthetic rural quality.

On Wednesday, Hermon Town Councilors agreed to let the town’s planning board come up with an ordinance change proposal that would require substantial developments to include parcels of town-owned land designated as open space. This space then could be used for parks, trails or other things.

Details still need to be worked out, but councilors foresee changes that would require a certain percentage of space or number of plots to be reserved for the open areas. Councilor Michael Guthrie said the wording would have to be such that the open spaces on the developments would be large enough to make it worthwhile yet not so large that it would discourage development.

Having one-tenth of an acre set aside on a 4-acre lot, it was suggested, might not be worthwhile, while developers might balk at having to set aside as unusable a large chunk of their valuable properties.

Resident Joe Morse pressed for more open space. He said he moved to Hermon 18 years ago because he wanted to live where there was nature and relative quiet and space to enjoy the outdoors. Wild turkeys recently traipsed underneath his bird feeders and there have been moose and bear by his home.

He said he was concerned that Hermon would become overdeveloped.

“Before you know it, it will be just a mass of subdivisions,” he told the council.

In another land-related issue, the council authorized Town Manager Clint Deschene to look into eminent domain procedures to acquire land for future cemetery use. The town is running out of cemetery space and Deschene said that land adjacent to current cemeteries isn’t for sale, or its price is beyond what the town will pay.