Protecting open space pays off – cleaner water, stronger farms, and a landscape that defines us. Living in New Paltz, I’ve seen firsthand that the CPA strengthened, not slowed, our housing market. People continue to move here because the community protected what makes it special.”
Jim Delaune,
Director, Orange County Land Trust
What is a Community Preservation Fund?
A Community Preservation Fund provides a steady, predictable revenue stream dedicated exclusively to preservation. By law, these dollars can only be used for farmland protection, water quality, and other environmental priorities; never for general spending. It also gives landowners more options than development. Instead of relying solely on town budgets or waiting for bond approvals, willing landowners have a clear, reliable pathway to pursue conservation, protect their property, or work with the town on voluntary preservation agreements.
This fund ensures those opportunities are available when landowners want them; not only when the town can afford them. That gives a municipality the ability to plan ahead protecting what matters to the community, avoid future tax increases for land preservation, and leverage matching grants so each dollar stretches even further.
What can CPF funds be used for?
• Open space protection; acquiring development rights to keep natural landscapes from being converted into intensive development.
• Farmland preservation; securing agricultural easements that help farms remain farms.
• Trail corridors and public access; protecting or expanding walking, biking, and nature trails
• Historic preservation; supporting stewardship and restoration of historic sites
• Environmental protection; safeguarding aquifer recharge areas, wetlands, forests, and ecologically sensitive habitats.
The range of eligible parcels is diverse, from large open spaces to protect wildlife corridors with sweeping vistas to small lots that could someday be converted into pocket-parks to improve neighborhood quality of life.
How does a CPF work?
Through tools such as Purchase of Development Rights, Fee Simple Acquisition, and Conservation Easements, the CPF gives willing landowners alternatives to development. It also reduces reliance on bond approvals that increase town budgets and take months or years to secure.
These uses are set in advance with the adoption of a Community Preservation Plan with public oversight. The funding mechanism is a one-time closing fee collected from the buyer on the transfer of improved or vacant land. No extra tax on existing residents.
A Community Preservation Fund offers a sustainable, and community-driven approach in protecting the environment all while providing municipalities with financial stability for long-term goals.
To date, several Hudson Valley communities already have Community Preservation Funds including Towns of Red Hook, Warwick, New Paltz, Gardiner, Mabletown, Chatham, Rochester and City of Rochester.
In 2025, the Town of Chester was authorized by the NY State to have a Community Preservation Fund subject to a mandatory public vote. In 2026, the Town adopted a local law establishing a Community Preservation Advisory Board to help draft a Community Preservation Plan in anticipation of a public referendum to vote on a Community Preservation Fund set for the upcoming general election in November.
For more information on Chester’s opportunity to vote on CPF, click here.
Open Space protection has long been a cornerstone to land use planning and policy across the U.S. As the population of our area increases, more development will consume our farmland and change the rural landscape which is what draws so many people to live and visit here. Land use tools like zoning are no longer enough to safeguard important natural resources that are vital to the quality of life of residents.
Click here to read more about Community Preservation Funds, from ScenicHudson.org
” In fiscally challenging times, it is particularly important to understand and consider fully the economic benefits of open space”
Report by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.
A Community Preservation Fund (CPF) is a dedicated fund used by NYS municipalities to protect open space, drinking water, farmland, historic resources, and community character.
NO, this is NOT a property tax. The CPF does not add any new tax to your annual bill, and it does not increase your tax rate by a single dime.
A CPF is financed through a less than 1% ( 0.75%) one-time real‑estate transfer fee/tax that only new buyers pay when they purchase homes and land in Chester, NY. To keep this more affordable, the Chester law exempts the first $100,000 of the purchase price for approved land and the first $50,000 for unapproved land.
Here is an example: if a home is sold for $500,000, the transfer fee/tax is only on $400,000. The seller pays zero. This buyer pays a one-time transfer fee/tax of $3,000. This fee is eligible to be financed as part of closing costs, spreading that cost over 30 years. The CPF is a small investment to help protect the very attributes that motivate a person to choose to move to and live in Chester NY.
For nearly a decade, Republicans and Democratic elected officials, including local and NY State representatives in the Assembly and Senate, fought hard to allow Chester residents to have the opportunity to vote on a this Community Preservation Fund.
If approved by Chester voters on Nov 3, 2026, the Chester Community Preservation Fund will give residents the same opportunity to preserve land that other communities in the Hudson Valley now have. NY State law requires voter approval before a municipality can establish the fund.
A Community Preservation Fund can help protect natural areas, create more parkland or trails, avoid overdevelopment, and preserve community identity by providing willing landowners options to leave a conservation legacy for future generations.
For example, if the town purchases development rights, farmers can use these funds to reinvest, pay down debt, or save for retirement and still pass down the farm to their children or sell the property with the agricultural easement that keeps farmland viable for local food sources.
A landowner must voluntarily choose to conserve their property. The Town can use CPF funds only to purchase land, purchase development rights, or add conservation easements on property from willing sellers, following the priorities and criteria in Chester’s adopted Community Preservation Plan.
The property must be listed in the Plan, but no one is forced to sell. No land can be taken through eminent domain using CPF money. The CPF cannot be used for unrelated projects or general municipal expenses.
Chester’s Community Preservation Advisory Council reviews potential projects, evaluates them against the Community Preservation Plan, and formally recommends any purchase or easement. The Town Board must then vote to approve expenditures, ensuring decisions follow a transparent, public process grounded in resident priorities.
What if there is not enough money in the fund for a project?
The Town can apply for matching grants from other sources to help reach goals. For example, Orange County has an open space program that will cover up to 50% of the purchase price, not to exceed 50% of the appraised value.
The Town of Warwick was one of the two pioneering “early adopters” in the Hudson Valley to implement a Community Preservation Fund back in 2006.
Over the last two decades, the fund has been an overwhelming success, leading the community to vote overwhelmingly to extend the program’s lifespan.
Because of their CPF, Warwick has permanently shielded roughly 5,000 total acres of open space and farmland from suburban sprawl through a combination of direct land purchases and the purchase of development rights.
Many Warwick real estate agents say that buyers understand that this fee helps keep Warwick beautiful and special. Warwick and other places that have approved their Community Preservation Funds consistently see home values in their towns appreciate faster than towns without a CPF.
As November approaches, expect misinformation or efforts to undermine confidence in the process.
Don’t let that distract from the core issue; Chester residents have the right to make an informed choice based on verified facts and the town’s official Community Preservation Plan.
In October 2025, NYS Governor Hochul signed a bill that gives the Town of Chester, NY, the authority to create Community Preservation Funds.
Press Release from the Town of Chester, click here.
The Town of Chester adopted a local law establishing a Community Preservation Advisory Board. The 2026 Community Preservation Plan will be adopted shortly and then a public referendum to vote on a Community Preservation Fund is set for the upcoming general election.
Town of Chester website for official updates on public notices, click here.
Long-time residents can choose to protect the investment they already made in their community and new residents can contribute to a shared future in preserving the quality of life in Orange County.
You can talk with your neighbors, public officials and state representatives about preservation funding. You are all in this together! Long-time residents can choose to protect the investment they already made in their community and new residents can contribute to a shared future in preserving the quality of life in Orange County.
There is a push for a County wide Community Preservation Bill. Please look up your representative, and make a quick call in support.
To find your NY State Assembly Representative:
NYS Assembly Member Directory, click here
To find your NY State Senator:
NYS Senate Directory, click here
To find your NY State Senators, Committees, And Other Legislative Group:
NY State Senators, Committees, And Other Legislative Group Directory, click here
Current Community Preservation Bills waiting in committee:
State-wide:
NY State Assembly Bill 2023-A6257A (nysenate.gov)
NY State Senate Bill 2023-S4098A (nysenate.gov)
UPDATE:
In October 2025, NYS Governor Hochul signed a bill that gives the Town of Chester, NY, the authority to create Community Preservation Funds.
Read Press Release from the Town of Chester, click here.
More news to follow.
Several communities in Orange County would like to follow suit and they have recently completed a Community Preservation Plan (CPP). Attempts have been made to get legislation passed by the State in order to vote on Community Preservation funding like the Town of Warwick. In addition, Orange County government moved forward a Home Rule Request for the New York State Legislature to amend general municipal law and the tax law to include Orange County as a “designated community” within the Hudson Valley Community Preservation Act of 2007. Note, this act already allows municipalities in Ulster, Westchester, Putnam, and Dutchess counties to institute property tax transfers of up to 2 percent to fill community preservation funds.
Community Preservation Fund legislation is crucial in order to give options to the residents of Orange County on how best to protect valuable resources. However, the State is holding back municipalities from the opportunity to vote on a funding mechanism that is allowed in nearby Counties. Orange County municipalities are struggling for a long term revenue source solution to further their preservation planning goals to save natural resources, creating parks, protecting active farmland and preserving historic and cultural resources. In addition, willing landowners would like the option to participate in a municipal purchase of development rights program to save lands with priority preservation values. Once created, a purchase of development rights program is eligible for matching grants from other sources to help communities reach their goals.
There are still economically important lands out there like watersheds and farmlands, historic and scenic areas of significance – all at risk of being lost forever. Thanks go out to organizations and conservation groups that have been assisting in these preservation efforts for years but we recognize it is getting increasingly difficult to fund. Orange County is feeling the pressure to protect important natural resources, which are essential to the health and well-being of its residents into the future. As new development increases, municipalities need to continually identify areas that should be protected AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, communities NEED TO HAVE THE MEANS TO PROTECT THEM.
Of course, there are many steps in the law-making process with a CPF with the Senate and Assembly passing a Bill and eventually getting signed by the Governor. And if legislation does pass, then a vote is still needed at the local level.
In Orange County, only the Town of Warwick has a transfer tax of .75% for the sale of real property, which was approved by public referendum in 2006.
On improved real property there is an exemption for the first $100,000 and on unimproved real property there is an exemption on the first $50,000.
When a house or land is sold in Warwick, the buyer pays the fee, which is generally less than the amount charged for title fees in a mortgage’s closing costs. The seller pays nothing.
This fee is added to a dedicated escrow fund that can only be used for projects identified in the Town’s adopted Community Preservation Plan to preserve the community character of Warwick. Unlike other closing costs, this money goes directly back into the community, and you can point to what was preserved, right down the road.
Warwick’s Purchase of Development Rights program has been a great success, preserving thousands of acres of farmland and undeveloped land in all sections of the town.
More information can be found here Community Preservation – Town of Warwick.