NYLCV joins in a celebration of the Hudson Valley Community Preservation Act's passage. Steel yourselves.

That's the message of an upcoming workshop [0] about the Hudson Valley Community Preservation Act that will help residents, community organizers and municipal officials mount successful campaigns for community preservation funds in Westchester and Putnam counties.

Unlike environmental bond acts, which see relatively little opposition, experience shows that CPFs are more rigorously disputed as they wend their way through local legislatures to the general election ballot. "You need to consider what it means to face opposition," says Stuart Lowrie, a conservation finance and policy advisor at the Nature Conservancy [1].

Lowrie, along with co-presenters Andy McLaughlin and Robert McKeon, will lead a Sept. 10 orientation and workshop in Katonah that is co-sponsored by the New York League of Conservation Voters. The three have successfully led CPF campaigns in Suffolk County, Warwick (Orange County) and Red Hook (Dutchess County).

The workshop comes two months after Gov. Eliot Spitzer [2] signed the Hudson Valley Community Preservation Act into law. The law allows towns and cities in Westchester and Putnam counties to create CPFs for a variety of purposes, including protecting open space, farmland and historic properties. The fund is supported by a fee levied on purchasers of real estate, not to exceed 2 percent of any property. First-time homeowners are exempted, as are properties below the median home price in the municipality.

But to be enacted, interested municipalities must put a CPF proposal before voters. There's the rub.

"With a bond act, maybe you make a small misstep, and the local paper does an editorial against you. What you don't have are people facing a well-organized opposition that does phone bank work and direct mail. That's exactly what you will get with a community preservation fund," Lowrie says.

During the two-hour orientation, which will be held at the Katonah Library, presenters will discuss their experiences in forming a coalition to pass CPFs. They will discuss the scope of the campaigns, what can go wrong and who is likely to fight you. There will be an opportunity to question the experts and get their thoughts about your local circumstances and prospects for CPF ballot initiatives.

"The floodgates are open, so it's essential to get our act together and have the best possible information," Lowrie adds.

The Hudson Valley Community Preservation Act Orientation and Information Workshop will take place Monday, Sept. 10, from 6 to 8 p.m., at the Katonah Library [3], 26 Bedford Road, Katonah, NY. For more information, visit www.nylcv.org [3] and click on Upcoming Events.