The Malta Town Board approved a resolution Monday night, May 7, that forms a partnership with Saratoga P.L.A.N. to create a 125-acre nature preserve along Round Lake off Route 67. The resolution calls for the town to contribute $140,000 to the purchase price of 92 inland acres but also to pay an additional $200,000 to purchase a 31.31 acre lot that offers frontage on Round Lake. While P.L.A.N. will own one parcel and the town the other, the two properties will together be known as the Round Lake Preserve and function as a single nature and recreation preserve.
We are here to celebrate an extraordinary partnership, said Julie Stokes, chairwoman of the Saratoga P.L.A.N. board of directors at the Monday, May 7, meeting. She noted that the Sweeney family approached P.L.A.N. at the suggestion of Audrey Ball, the director of parks, recreation, and buildings for the town. Stokes thanked the town of Malta for its leadership in the areas of trail development and land preservation.
`Malta has stepped forward over the last decade and a half,` she said.
Stokes cited the town’s decision to pave its section of the Zim Smith Trail as evidence of its dedication and suggested that Malta is an example for other local municipalities.
Stokes called the Round Lake Preserve properties `remarkable` and said they will eventually include a trail system as well as passive recreation. An access road from Route 67 will likely be constructed. The waterfront access to Round Lake will allow kayakers, canoers, and windsurfers to utilize Round Lake regularly. In addition to the Round Lake frontage, the property also has frontage on the Anthony Kill.
`This is an opportunity to protect farm land and natural resources,` she said. The property has been identified in a number of local and state documents citing the importance on the area. The town has identified the property in a number plans and reports over the years. On the state level, the property has been identified as a host to the swamp smartweed, a plant identified as one of the most endangered in the state. The state’s Open Space Plan references the area and the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation’s Phase 1 study of the property found archaeological artifacts.
`There are very valuable archaeological resources on the property,` said Malta Supervisor Paul Sausville. In addition to the archaeological resources, Laura Welles, the conservation program manager, said the purchase and protection of this property will benefit the community by providing public access to most of the site, including the shores of Round Lake and the Anthony Kill. Additionally, she said the partnership will `protect spectacular views of open space and Round Lake from Route 67 and the property.` Water quality and important ecological areas on the property, including a heron rookery, will also be protected with this purchase.
Saratoga P.L.A.N. has been promised $350,000 in funding from the state’s Environmental Protection Fund. That grant money was contingent on P.L.A.N. finding matching money from other resources. Saratoga County has agreed to pay $100,000 with P.L.A.N. putting in $50,000 of its own money. While Malta had been asked to initially contribute just $100,000 when other funding mechanisms fell through, P.L.A.N. approached the town board about increasing the contribution to meet the required match as well as the property owner’s asking price.
At the same time, the town board became aware of the lakefront property owner’s desire to maintain life estate privileges on the parcel that is 31.31 acres. Owner Larry Sweeney had initially asked that he and his wife be provided sole use of the lakefront parcel with no public access until after he and his wife were deceased, but instead the town will own the land.
In addition to the $340,000 to be spent by the town, the resolution also allows the Town of Malta to supply bridge funding to Saratoga P.L.A.N. In order to receive the state’s promised funding, P.L.A.N. must first spend the money and get reimbursed by the state.
There is a 30-day waiting period on the spending the approved money. No action will take place at the end of that time frame if a petition has been filed by residents. “