Warwick preserves 313 acres near conference center to expand trails

Warwick has secured 313 acres around the Warwick Conference Center at 62 Warwick Center Road, a move town leaders say will keep one of its most visible properties from being pushed into heavier development and instead fold it into a public preserve.

Supervisor Jesse Dwyer cast the deal as part of a “decades-long effort” to protect Warwick’s natural beauty and rural character while steering growth away from open land. The partnership with the Open Space Institute will create a town preserve intended to connect existing Warwick parks to regional trail systems and extend access toward Wawayanda State Park in New Jersey.

The practical stakes are more than scenic. Dwyer said the acquisition answers development pressure in the area by securing the land now, before more intensive use can take hold. The Warwick Conference Center itself will remain open, with about 100 acres set aside for its campus, but the surrounding acreage will be protected as open space. That gives the town long-term control over how the larger property functions and what kinds of traffic, building and land-use pressure can reach the site.

Warwick also said the property is mostly tax exempt, so the preservation deal should have little to no effect on the tax base. At the same time, the town has applied for a $3.5 million New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Open Space Conservation Grant to help support the project. The Warwick Town Board later adopted a resolution adding the 313 acres to the town’s Agricultural and Farmland Protection plan, tying the conference-center land to a broader preservation framework already used in Orange County.

The new preserve fits into a wider pattern. Warwick recently announced the preservation of 200 acres under its Property Development Rights program, showing the town is using preservation tools as an active planning strategy rather than a one-off land purchase. That approach is meant to maintain a buffer around open space while still leaving room for public use and recreation.

The same meeting also included another access-focused proposal: Warwick applied for a separate $275,000 grant for bathrooms and ADA improvements at Mountain Lake Park, especially near the pickleball courts and pool area. Together, the two actions show the town pairing land protection with public access investments, not simply locking property away.

OSI said it has spent more than 40 years helping save millions of acres for clean water, climate protection, recreation, habitat and healthy communities. In the Hudson Valley, its work has included regional trail connectivity and state park improvements, a fit with Warwick’s push to link local parks to Wawayanda State Park and expand recreation across the New York-New Jersey border.