A draft comprehensive plan would go a long way toward preserving open space in Warwick, Orange County's largest town, according to the Times Herald-Record.

The plan calls for increasing the amount of land preserved in new residential development projects and incentives for developers who build homes more densely. Local environmentalists cheered the new plan.

The comprehensive plan would be in addition to two taxpayer-sponsored programs that have preserved thousands of acres of open space in this decade. The first calls for requiring residential projects to leave at least 60 percent of property undeveloped, from the current 50 percent. The second would scrap the density bonus builders get for erecting homes in clusters, to protect scenic views, unless they also provide some public use, like a pedestrian trail.

The plan will be adopted later this year and used to rezone the town. To read the plan, visit: www.townofwarwick.org.