Orange County Plans $4 Million for Open Space Preservation in 2025

A farm for sale in Warwick, N.Y., on Oct. 13, 2023. Cara Ding/The Epoch Times

ORANGE COUNTY, N.Y.—Orange County legislators voted to infuse an additional $4 million into the newly reactivated open space fund at the recent Rules as well as Ways and Means committee meetings.

Alan Sorensen, county planning commissioner, requested the funding—all to be financed through county bonds—from lawmakers as part of the approved 2025 county capital plan.

Noting that almost all of the $1 million seed money used to reactivate the fund last summer has been spent, Sorensen said the need for land preservation justifies the increased investment.

“We can fund not only acquisitions of land for parkland ...  but we are also funding conservation easements on farms,” he told county lawmakers at an April 16 committee meeting.

“Another thing that we could do is to provide funding to protect watersheds,” he said, adding that the county money will be leveraged with other governmental grants for greater impacts.

The open space fund provides grants of up to half of the costs for the purchase of land or development rights on land by local governments, nonprofits, and private landowners.

Before going dormant in 2009, the county fund had contributed $6 million to preserve more than 2,000 acres of land, valued at $13.5 million, according to the county planning department.

Sorensen added that last year, his department solicited two rounds of applications, which resulted in increased participation. The first round saw only one applicant, while the second welcomed six, which demonstrated a growing need as word of the reactivated fund spread.

During the second round, three applications were awarded at the recommendation of his department, including the acquisition of 136 acres of land in the town of Warwick for a new community forest.

The project, largely undertaken by the Orange County Land Trust, has already received a competitive federal grant—it is one of 13 awardees nationwide—and, once completed, will result in the county’s first federally designated community forest.

Orange County has committed up to $227,500, or about a quarter of the purchase cost, toward the Warwick project, according to Sorensen.

The other two awardees were the Town of Wallkill for the purchase of 18.5 acres of land to be added to the town park and the village of Woodbury for the acquisition of 25.6 acres of land for a new park. The committed county funds amount to $267,600 for Wallkill and $225,000 for Woodbury.

In 2025, two rounds of applications are planned in May and September.

Sorensen’s funding request awaits approval at the full legislative body meeting on May 1.