A Monthly Retrospective of Linda Puglisi’s 30 Years as Town of Cortlandt Supervisor
For the three decades Linda Puglisi has been Town of Cortlandt Supervisor, she takes pride in many things, not least working with her town boards to add more than 3,000 acres of open space, as she says,“for recreational purposes and/or for protection of the environment, so our residents can enjoy our Town’s natural beauty. We protected wetlands, aquifers, watershed, lakes and trees with legislation and ordinances for the present, and for our future, with balanced economic growth, in the appropriate areas of Town.”
While we don’t have room to list them all, here are selected highlights of her open space legacy …
- Rezoned outdated Emery Mine property to residential on Colabough Pond Road and off Croton Avenue with more than 60 homes built on the 100-plus acres, with no mining allowed.
- Voted to block proposal for 300 town houses off Oregon Road, now 14-home Blue Jay Estates.
- Gateway to the Hudson Highlands – 360 acres of dedicated parkland, ideal for hiking to a Cortlandt summit. Original plan was for 360 single–family homes.
- Reduced Habitat Lafayette development (now Cortlandt Estates) from 300 to 117 homes.
- The Jessye Norman Property off Mt. Airy Road (once owned by the opera star) is a sensitive and significant ecological property in our community. The town purchased most of the 30 acres to preserve the land. No more than three new homes can be built on the remaining property.
- To protect wildlife and biodiversity, purchased Furnace Dock Lake and the watershed area off Furnace Dock Road from Con Edison for $300,000, with one-third paid by the adjoining property owner of a proposed townhouse project.
- Abby Rose property off Maple Ave/Furnace Dock Road — the Town recently acquired about 129 acres from the property owner to protect the integrity of this land and area. The preserved property cannot be built upon.
- Fifty acres off Sniffen Mountain Road/Furnace Dock Road were preserved for hiking trails/open space after, at our request, Valeria’s developer donated the land to the Town rather than construct 10 single–family homes.
- In Hamlet of Verplanck …
- Town purchased former Newman property on the Hudson River for $600,000, converting it into Cortlandt Waterfront Park.
- Town purchased 99 acres from Con Edison off Broadway for Hudson River recreational and/or municipal use, or for small businesses.