FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 7, 2024

City of Kingston Passes Community Preservation Fund Into Law

KINGSTON, NY – Mayor Steven T. Noble is pleased to announce that the ballot measure for the City of Kingston’s Community Preservation Fund was overwhelming passed on Election Day.

The Community Preservation Fund, Local Law 10 of 2024 on Tuesday’s ballot, allows the City of Kingston to protect open spaces and natural resources, environment, and community by developing a reliable, ongoing source of funding without increasing annual property taxes to support local for parks, trails, land conservation, and historic preservation.

“I am thrilled that the Community Preservation Fund proposition passed with flying colors on Tuesday, and that our community is supportive of preserving our local natural resources for future generations,” said Mayor Noble. “I want to thank our partners at Kingston Land Trust and Scenic Hudson for their roles in making this effort a reality and Kingston residents for prioritizing our parks, nature preserves, wildlife refuges, and outdoor recreation areas enough to safeguard them for the future.”

“Scenic Hudson extends heartfelt congratulations to the City of Kingston for the passage of Proposition 4. As the first city to establish a Community Preservation Fund under the Hudson Valley Community Preservation Act, Kingston sets a powerful example of how communities of all sizes across the region can safeguard lands that they love,” said Scenic Hudson Government Relations Manager Carli Fraccarolli. “We commend the City, the Kingston Land Trust, and other local partners who dedicated significant time and effort to this initiative that will help protect Kingston’s drinking water, urban agriculture, historic resources, and outdoor recreation areas. We are proud to have played a role in helping support this community-driven success story.”

Julie Noble, City of Kingston Project Manager and Sustainability Coordinator said, “The adoption of Local Law 10 and the establishment of the Community Preservation Fund is the culmination of a decade of work by City staff, mapping, investigating evaluating and prioritizing open space and land preservation goals. I’m proud of the work that we’ve done and with the partnership that we’ve had with Scenic Hudson and the Kingston Land trust. We’ve worked closely with several municipalities from across the region to get to where we are, and this is the beginning of the next step for open space conservation for the City.”

Michael Drillinger, Kingston Land Trust Board Chair said, “Since at least 2019, the Kingston Land Trust has partnered with the City of Kingston with the goal of establishing a Community Preservation Fund. This effort gained momentum after the KLT commissioned a poll of Kingston voters this past March. That poll indicated that 62% of Kingston voters would approve a ballot measure. Encouraged by this, the Common Council passed the local laws necessary to establish a CPF. The KLT, with the help of a core of dedicated Kingston residents, an array of local influencers and regional organizations, and significant regional financial support, launched the Campaign for Kingston Community Preservation Fund. This was a home-grown, grassroots, organic, and collective effort. The Kingston community responded by putting out lawn signs, handing out flyers, sharing social media posts, writing letters to the editor, and talking to friends. The result paid off with 62% of Kingston voters approving the ballot proposal. We can all feel proud of what we accomplished together and the KLT looks forward to leveraging the CPF to protect our waters, open new public parks and trails, preserving more of our Kingston heritage, and protecting our natural environment.”

The law creates a tax in the amount of 1.25%, on the purchase of property sales exceeding the Ulster County median sale price (currently $376,500) to fund the purchase of land and conservation easements to protect water resources, preserve historic properties, develop trail systems, protect ecological resources, and other similar land conservation activities.

Created with funding from the NYSDEC Hudson River Estuary Program, the final Community Preservation Plan can be found here.

More information is available at https://engagekingston.com/community-preservation-plan.