According to a recent study, one consistent value and resource that the majority of New Paltz residents see fit to protect is open space. Last week, Seth McKee and Cara Lee, members of the town's Open Space Commission (OSC), presented the recent survey findings to both the village and town boards.

1,600 surveys were mailed out to residents this past spring, with an attempt to obtain responses from households with a range of property values. The OSC divided the tax rolls into three categories; properties with a lower assessment, middle assessment and high assessment. Each category received 400 surveys mailed randomly. Another 400 were sent out to non-property owners, residents that were taken from the voting rolls.

The OSC also ran the survey in the New Paltz Times and received 100 responses, which the group tallied separately from the other survey.

The results were compelling.

More than two-thirds of respondents [67 percent] favored some level of a tax increase to support open space. "That was our most significant finding," said Lee. "The majority of respondents said that they supported a range of $10 to $100 per year to support open space protection. That is a lot! We could buy a lot of open space with that!"

One-third of the respondents who supported a tax increase for open space said that they were willing to put $100 to $300 per year towards the effort.

"I think what is also significant is that our survey came out in April -- the cruelest month for questions about tax increases," Lee noted. "Despite that, the majority of respondents supported expenditures for open space protection."

While not everyone was willing to accept a tax increase towards this effort, 77 percent said that the "town and village should actively pursue protection open space as a strategy to keep New Paltz fiscally healthy and affordable."

66 percent supported the concept championed by open space enthusiasts to "concentrate development in or near the village center of New Paltz and preserve open space in outlying areas."

New Paltz farmlands generated the greatest support out of all of the survey's questions. An overwhelming number of respondents, 82 percent, supported "policies to retain agricultural activity in our community."

"Those policies are not just financial mechanisms for purchase of development rights for local farmlands but also policies that help keep our working farms economically vital and thriving," said McKee.

Not all comments in the returned surveys were supportive. The OSC listed a sampling of the negative comments. One of these included the statement "I believe the most expensive open space we have is between the ears of our elected officials."

Another one said, "I believe our taxes are insane compared to other states and there should be no reasons for further increases in our taxes in the foreseeable future."

Both the town and village boards applauded the work of the volunteer committee and agreed that the next step would be to explore financial mechanisms to protect the natural resource. "This is very, very encouraging news," said councilwoman Kitty Brown, "and we thank you very much." "I think it's interesting that the same percentage of residents, 67 percent, said that they would support a tax increase for open space protection," said deputy supervisor Jim Bacon. "Because that is the same percentage of people who supported open space preservation when we conducted a survey in the early 1990's for our Comprehensive Town Master Plan."

New Paltz village mayor Jason West said that the survey results only served to further fuel his board's desire to preserve open space. "We've always been excited to pursue open space preservation measures," he said. "This gives me real hope that the people of the village and town are willing to spend their hard-earned dollars to protect open space. But it makes sense when you look at consumer trends. People are often very willing to spend a little extra to make sure that they purchase environmentally friendly products that help ensure a better world for all of us."

West said that the village board plans to look very closely at the approach that the Town of Warwick took for its open space preservation plan. "They created a density bonus for developers who built in or very near the village boundaries," he explained. "Then they received a cash payment from those developers for the density bonus and put it in a fund that is used to purchase open space in the outlying areas."

What is the next step for the Open Space Commission? "We have hired Shingebiss [Associates, a local grant-writing firm] to do two things," explained McKee. "The first is to research the financial mechanisms for open space preservation -- whether through the purchase of development rights or other options. They will also research the grant opportunities towards these efforts. The second thing they are working on is researching what other communities have done to preserve open space. There are many communities that have had great success with this and we could use that information to inform whatever plan we come up with."

"We also want to learn what they did that was not successful," added Lee.

The Open Space Commission thanked the community for taking the time to respond to the survey and mail it in.

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