The Tuesday, March 14th Town Board meeting was an important event for Clinton United supporters.  The featured speaker of the evening was Robert McKeon, chair of Red Hook's Agriculture and Open Space Committee. Robert spoke to a standing-room only audience.

The challenge facing the Town of Clinton, according to McKeon, is this: Development is upon us. Our choice is whether we invest, as a community, in preservation or whether we invest in development.  If widespread development is permitted in Clinton, the Town will need to meet the demands of allocating increased resources to pay for increased services. Alternatively our resources can be directed toward preservation, which has the added value of maintaining the rural and historic character of Clinton. These are features that drew many of us here in the first place.

McKeon focused a little on the history of the "historical" bond measure that was passed in Red Hook with an 83% approval rate in 2003. The $3.5 million bond has had a relatively small impact on individual landowner's annual Town tax bill.  But the funds have enabled the local government to purchase development rights to property that would otherwise be threatened by large scale development.

The major concept behind Red Hook's approach is to keep local farms intact. A fiscal analysis conducted by McKeon three years ago, showed that it would be 20 times cheaper to maintain the Town's farms and open spaces than to sanction large-scale developments and be subsequently faced with increased taxes for schools, town services, maintenance, and a myriad hidden costs. So far the Town has preserved 3000 acres.

The bulk of McKeon's presentation outlined a variety of approaches in the "land use tool box" which towns or individuals can pursue. In addition to publicly supported purchase of development rights (PDR), there are private conservation easements. Also, the state legislature is currently considering a bill, the "Community Preservation Act," which would give towns the right to authorize a real estate transfer fee. This 2% fee, added on to the purchase price of any property, would be calculated only on the amount of money over the median sale price of similar properties in the local area. The monies raised by these fees would be earmarked for the town's preservation fund. McKeon also introduced the concept of term easements, as a temporary measure to reduce local taxes on property which a landowner elects to place in a limited-time conservation easement program. Creating a plan that may include some of these or similar "tools" provides landowners with options, which allows the government to meet them halfway to achieve common goals.

The material McKeon presented is a bit challenging to grasp in one sitting, but he had a rapt and attentive audience. He left us with these thoughts: