At the July 12 monthly meeting of the Philipstown Town Board, Susan Bates, Managing Director of the Hudson Highlands Land Trust, announced that she had prepared a $36,895 grant application for the Town Board to submit to the Regional Planning Authority and the Federal Government, to be used to gather open space and natural resource data and integrate the information into the new Town Comprehensive Plan.

The U.S.D.A. Forestry Service is in the process of updating their 1992 New York and New Jersey Highlands Regional Study, and has received $750,000 from the Federal Government for this purpose. They are providing matching funds grants "for land conservation projects in New Jersey and New York communities to demonstrate the use of comprehensive resource information and collaborative land use decision making."

According to Ms. Bates, "Philipstown is in the perfect area to take advantage of this program." She said that the $36,000 grant will be used to help Philipstown finish the open space inventory, and to use natural resource data to set priorities for parcels for conservation. It is expected that this information will be incorporated into the Town’s new comprehensive plan.

Ms. Bates told the PCN&R that one result of this work would be the creation of integrated Geographic Information Systems (GIS) maps for the Town that will include open space and natural resource data, as well as property information provided by the County. GIS is a software application which allows for the layering of maps and coordination of geographic data.

Says Bates, "Philipstown’s [grant] application is to integrate the County’s parcel-based information with the regional data, and to create maps which can then be used in [future] town-wide planning forums. If the Town is successful in getting this grant, it will take care of funding the open space portion of the comprehensive plan. It will also be a wonderful jump-start for getting GIS capabilities into the Town’s planning process."

Bates said that the entire project would include matching funds from the Town of $20,000, as well as $6,750 of in-kind services - $2,250 for clerical support and $4,500 for the Comprehensive Plan Special Board and other related task forces. She added that the volunteers serving on the board and task forces could also use their hours as an in-kind contribution from the Town. $11,650 of in-kind services would be provided from the Hudson Highlands Land Trust. Bates pointed out that Town’s cash portion would include $18,000 for land use consultant/attorney fees.

Supervisor William Mazzuca thanked Ms. Bates for her work on the grant, adding, "This has come at an opportune time for [the Town]."