Putnam legislators to vote on land takeover

CARA MATTHEWS
THE JOURNAL NEWS
Original publication: Feb. 06, 2001

Carmel - Little by little over the past 16 years, Putnam County officials have taken more than 1,500 acres whose owners didn't pay their taxes and designated it as "forever green."

Legislators may continue the tradition tonight, when they vote on turning 29 acres in Carmel and Philipstown into conservation areas. The meeting is at 7 p.m. in the Historic Putnam County Courthouse, located at the juncture of Routes 52 and 301.

The pieces are called the Muscoot Conservation Area in Carmel, two parcels that total 12.95 acres; the Manitou Conservation Area in Philipstown, 4.99 acres; and the Lake Glenacom Conservation Area in Carmel, three pieces of land near Union Valley Road that total 11.17 acres.

"This is a very wise way to dedicate land for future generations," said County Executive Robert Bondi, who is bringing the proposals before the Legislature.

The three properties belonged to developers who couldn't use the land and ended up not keeping up with the taxes, he said. The taxes owed on the sites were greater than their value, said George Michaud, director of the county's Real Property Tax Service Agency.

All are classified as wetlands, which are protected by law and thus not conducive to development, Bondi said.

Muscoot is two parcels in the heart of New York City watershed property, Bondi said. Glenacom includes a man-made lake, Michaud said. Manitou is a marsh, he said.

The practice of the county's taking the land in arrears started in 1985, Bondi said. The late Michael Ciaola, who headed a group called Save our Open Spaces, urged the county to enact the conservation legislation.

"This was basically his brainchild," said the county executive, who was a legislator at that time.

The county owns 1,788 acres of open space, most of which was acquired through the tax delinquency program. County land that wasn't acquired that way includes the 222 acres that make up Veterans War Memorial Park in Kent; 180 acres of donated land in Patterson, called Haviland Hollow Conservation Area and 1.5 acres in the Canopus Island Conservation Area, located in Carmel.

New York City owns 12,534 acres in the county that it pays taxes on, Michaud said. The state owns 18,911 acres across the county and makes payments to the county instead of paying property taxes.

Some of the land that the county has acquired in the past 16 years is part of what is called the Great Swamp. The swamp is more than 20 miles long and touches three counties in New York and Connecticut. The county took 22 parcels that equal 222 acres between 1989 and 1998.

The Putnam County Land Trust is negotiating with the county to manage county-owned land in the Great Swamp, said Hunter Pollock, president of the trust. The swamp is very valuable from an environmental standpoint, he said. For example, plants that can't grow elsewhere in the county can grow there, and the swamp can absorb and break down some pollutants that wash off from the roadways.

Carmel environmentalist Martin Brech said the tax delinquent property policy is good, but an open space proposal that county legislators are considering would do much more. Legislators may eventually ask voters to decide by referendum whether they want to spend $10 million to acquire open space.

Even though the land would go off the tax rolls, acquiring open space saves money because the cost of additional services — for example, building a new school — is much higher, he said.

"We're the fastest growing county in the state and we've desperately got to acquire more open space before it's too late," Brech said.