To the Editor: As the Shared Leadership Team of the Kingston Land Trust, we urge Kingston voters to vote YES on the ballot measure this November to create a Community Preservation Fund. The fund would increase Kingston’s capacity to preserve clean water, historic Kingston resources, recreational and natural land, as well as urban agriculture through a transfer tax on high-end real estate transactions.

This fund will be overseen by a citizen advisory board, which could include you, and in accordance with New York State law may only be used for the preservation of open space, lands of exceptional scenic value, marshes and wetland, undeveloped shorelines, public access to preserved lands, hiking trails and historic places and properties. Land may only be acquired from willing sellers and cannot be otherwise taken.

In our area, the towns of New Paltz, Marbletown, Gardiner and Red Hook have Community Preservation Funds that are successfully being used for ecological stewardship of their municipalities.

The Kingston Land Trust believes this fund will go a long way toward accomplishing the conservation and public land access goals set in the Open Space Plan adopted by the Common Council in 2020, which we helped to create in community with the local population. This fund will help balance investment in urban growth and protection of unique and vital ecosystems that support us all.

The ballot measure will be on the back of the ballot, so remember to turn your ballot over! Learn more about this Kingston ballot measure at preservekingston.vote.

The Kingston Land Trust Shared Leadership Team