A 6-year-old girl named Remy spent opening day touching and smelling flowers she'd never encountered quite like this before. That's the scene from Thursday, when Andover's first sensory garden opened at 138 Chandler Road — an outdoor space built specifically for residents with disabilities, offering plants with textures ranging from kitten-soft to hairbrush-rough and scents like spearmint, according to the Andover Townsman.

Who built it, and why it matters.

The town's Commission on Disability developed the garden inside the Chandler Road Community Garden as part of the first phase of a larger recreational area project. Commission co-chair Julee Armitage brought her daughter Remy to explore the space on opening day, joined by co-chair Stephen Surette and member Eileen Reilly, according to the Eagle Tribune.

More than just one garden.

The sensory garden sits alongside 45 community garden beds, including six built at table height specifically for wheelchair users, according to the town's project page — accessibility woven into the design from the very start, thanks to planning work from Director of Recreation Joe Connelly and Reilly.

A much bigger investment is already on the way.

This garden is only the first piece of what's coming to the Chandler Road site. Voters overwhelmingly approved $5 million for Phase 2 at a June Special Town Meeting, passing it 958 to 311. That next phase will add a lighted synthetic turf field, a 5,000-square-foot playground, roughly 1.2 miles of trails, more than 80 parking spaces, and a picnic pavilion, according to town meeting records. Finance Committee member Kim Perry told voters the finished turf field alone is expected to bring in $250,000 a year in revenue.

The Select Board has already made managing that construction a formal goal for the coming year, though member Kevin Coffey flagged concerns about inflation and staying on schedule as the project moves forward. Once complete, the site will also give west Andover its first playground not tied to a school — a detail Andover Soccer Association representative Joe Noonan highlighted as a meaningful first for the neighborhood.

No groundbreaking date has been set for Phase 2 yet. In the meantime, the sensory garden is open to the public now at 138 Chandler Road.