The League urges the counties and municipalities to:

• Prepare county and local open space plans, based on a systematic inventory of open lands with scenic, recreational, historical, environmental and other natural/cultural resource values.
• Take advantage of state and federal funding for parkland acquisition and the development and preservation of farmland and other types of open space.  Appropriations from current reserves or bond authorizations should be made when such funding requires local matching funds.  Acquisition should be either in fee title or by conservation easement.
• Pursue local parkland acquisition and preservation, sound development, management and maintenance practices, adequate budgets and staffing. Discourage commercialization of parks in most circumstances.
• Encourage the retention of working farms through establishment of market sites, development of county farm plans, use of state financial aid from the Environmental Protection Fund for purchase of development rights (conservation easements) matched with county and local funds, use of conservation zoning, encouragement of current use tax policies, agricultural districts, consolidation of farmland parcels where possible for treatment in local comprehensive plans, and education of farming communities on the availability of easements.
• Encourage regional and county planning, greater inter-municipal coordination and intergovernmental cooperation to address issues and problems that are regional in scope (e.g. hold an annual regional planning summit among the county leaders and the mayors of Albany, Schenectady and Troy.)
• Pursue regional/county/local planning that focuses on Smart Growth and sustainable development principles. 
• Take advantage of available state funding (e.g. use state funding for local planning as available through the Hudson River Greenway Commission and the State Coastal Management Program).
• Support establishment of Empire Economic Zones in cities rather than in suburban areas.  The proposed Luther Forest Technology Park, if approved, would be an example of a wrong use of the Empire Zone subsidies because it would stimulate unprecedented growth in the middle of a suburban county.
• Establish adequate land use controls before extending major new water lines to rural areas, to avoid promoting sprawl.