14 Acres Preserved By Rockland Open Space Acquisition Program

Rockland County Executive Ed Day and Rockland County Legislature Chairman Jay Hood Jr. announced two more parcels purchased and preserved under the County’s Open Space Acquisition Program since its revival in 2020.

The County purchased 176 and 180 South Mountain Road, New City, preserving another 14 acres from development. The newly acquired Park will be preserved as open space, with the potential to add hiking trails in the future.

“This purchase is in addition to 25 acres of land protected in 2023,” 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐲 𝐄𝐱𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐄𝐝 𝐃𝐚𝐲. “With more funding now added to our Open Space Acquisition Program we can guarantee that acreage will increase.”

“It’s thrilling to use funds in such a way that it really gives back to the people, and we are excited to save even more property from development for our residents,” 𝐬𝐚𝐢𝐝 𝐋𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐬𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐢𝐫 𝐉𝐚𝐲 𝐇𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐉𝐫.

In total, 16 properties consisting of 23 lots were nominated. Of those, six were recommended for acquisition by the committee with the County ultimately deciding to acquire the four top-rated. There is one more property expected to be purchased in the last round of Open Space Acquisition nominations, totaling another 10 acres saved. This is not including the latest nomination round which kicked off in 2023. All properties nominated are vetted by our Open Space Advisory Committee made up of representatives from the Division of Environmental Resources, Department of Planning, Department of Health, and the Finance Department’s Tax Enforcement Unit. Field inspections are then performed, and each property is scored using a point system based on their attributes.

Once scored the top-rated properties were presented to the County Executive’s team to review and decide which parcels to purchase based on the Advisory Committee ratings.