What is North Castle Preservation Alliance?
An alliance of residents dedicated to safeguarding North Castle’s natural resources and character through responsible stewardship.
We are a working group of the Town of North Castle’s Conservation Board and Open Space Committee. Our goal is to help the Town protect its natural resources and character by facilitating the purchase or preservation of key parcels of land located in North White Plains, Armonk and Banksville which has significant natural, historic and/or cultural value.
North Castle is at a Critical Juncture:
Loss of town character and environmentally important land
Once-idyllic parcels subdivided into expensive dense housing
Increasing traffic and congestion
What Can Be Done?
While we cannot change what has already occurred, we can protect what remains – our fields, woodlands, rocky outcroppings, ponds, and scenic vistas – by providing our Town’s government with the financial tools needed to purchase land.
If our Town government has the funds needed to purchase key parcels when they become available, we could preserve much of what has made North Castle such a special and beautiful place to live.
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Preserving Land Costs Money
Available Financial Tools for Preservation
Bonds: Like the Open Space Bond approved in 1984 (and which expired in 2004), bonds act like credit cards, with funds drawn when needed and with costs added to local taxes
Community Preservation Funds (CPFs): Used by five other Hudson Valley towns, CPFs act like bank accounts that are funded with one-time transfer taxes paid by new home buyers.
Property Tax: Similar to what is currently used in Bedford, this is a small annual tax. Proceeds of the tax accumulate in an interest bearing account reserve fund specifically for land preservation.
While each of these tools has advantages and disadvantages, they each would provide North Castle with something that it does not have now: money to preserve land and money that could be leveraged with state and federal matching grants to purchase more land.
– Next Steps –
Developing background materials :
Meeting with residents :
To help inform residents about: (a) the need for North Castle to take a proactive approach to land preservation; and (b) the available financial tools, including their impact on each resident.
To answer questions about preservation and the available financial tools; and to learn about resident’s preservation-related priorities, preferences and concerns.
Conducting a Town-wide survey :
To solicit and record resident’s perspectives related to preservation and their preferences among the available financial tools.
Developing recommendations :
Synthesizing the survey results to provide suggestions to the Town Board on the preferred funding mechanisms for preserving land in North Castle.
What can you do?
* Attend a meeting in your hamlet
* Participate in the Town-wide Survey
* Join us in preserving North Castle
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