Smart Growth Alliance aims to keep quality of life

Group holds forum Sunday on town’s preservation fund proposition, By Linda Smith Hancharick Warwick — Maybe you were born and bred here. Maybe you moved here years ago and are now raising your own kids here. You might be a newcomer, just discovering the Warwick Valley. Whatever the case, there is something special about Warwick that has attracted people and kept them here for generations. That something special - and the desire to keep it - is what brought together a group of Warwickians to form the Warwick Smart Growth Alliance. Smart growth is a term used to describe the efforts of communities to manage and direct growth in a way that minimizes damage to the environment and builds livable towns and cities. It is the opposite of sprawl. There are smart growth groups throughout the country. Warwick’s Smart Growth Alliance is a cross section of the town. It’s members include a town councilman, a retired farm equipment salesman and open space advocate, local business owners, an historian, a psychology professor, a former school board member and philosophy professor and a Wall Street executive, among others. What the group is focusing its efforts on at present is getting the town’s Community Preservation Fund approved by voters this coming November. Passed by the state Legislature last summer, this legislation allows the Town of Warwick to impose a 0.75 percent tax on all real estate transactions with the proceeds going into the town’s open space preservation fund. The amount is paid by the buyer. But first, it has to gain the approval of the voters in the town. Preserving farms, members of the Smart Growth Alliance say, not only maintains beautiful open space, but also preserves a vital asset to the town and the county — the business of agriculture. The fund will also be used to protect water resources, wildlife habitats historical structures and develop passive recreation. In 2000, town voters approved a $9.5 million Purchase of Development Rights program which, combined with federal, state and private funds, has enabled more than 2,000 acres of land to remain open space with no chance of development in the future. According to statistics provided by Cornell Cooperative Extension, the Glynwood Center and Capstone Management, there are 94 working farms throughout the town, totaling more than 16,000 acres. Agribusiness in the town of Warwick generates $87 million into the town’s economy, yet requires much less in municipal services than residential development. According to the statistics, for every dollar in property taxes paid by a homeowner, $1.08 in municipal services are required. Conversely, for every dollar paid by a farmer in property taxes, just 43 cents in services are required. The Alliance feels it is worth saving farms for economic reasons, as well as aesthetic ones. Quality of life is another reason the group gives for fighting for this initiative. “The process of residential development, we realize, costs more money,” said Andrew McLaughlin, a member of the group’s steering committee. “Development almost never pays for itself. It increases taxes and causes a decline in the quality of life. If we are not proactive and start to deal with that, we might as well go to New Jersey and sit at a stop light.” “I don’t think we want to turn into Rockland or Bergen County,” said Penny Steyer, also a member of the steering committee. The members of the alliance know they face an uphill battle in some circles, but they feel they are making headway. Many in the real estate business have said they are against adding another cost to buying a house. They say it will force people to look in neighboring communities or New Jersey rather than buy here in Warwick. Not so, say alliance members. When a proposition similar to this one was introduced on Long Island a few years ago, realtors were against it, according to Alliance member Seymour Gordon. The measure passed, however. And within a short time, Gordon said, the realtors came around to supporting it. It didn’t hurt values at all. On the contrary, home values increased and the legislation was renewed overwhelmingly. This is the hope of the alliance for Warwick. “We have to educate the voters,” said Steyer. The alliance members say they are already making progress. The group’s list of supporters is growing daily. It includes residents from every area of the town — all three villages as well as the hamlets of Pine Island, Amity and Bellvale — and even some real estate professionals. “We have the opportunity to do this now,” said Steyer. “If we don’t take control of our own destiny, it won’t just be the local developers here. It will be Hovnanian and Toll Brothers. If we don’t take charge, we’ll be swallowed by the ‘burbs. We’ll just be a faceless, beige society. We as a community want to be involved and retain the character of Warwick.” The Warwick Smart Growth Alliance is hosting a visioning fair on Sunday, April 2, from 2-4 p.m. at the Warwick Conference Center on Hoyt Road.