Plan emerges to complete Buxton Gorge Preserve purchase

By JEFF MORRIS 

Map shows the parcel proposed for purchase outlined in red. COURTESY TOWN OF BEDFORD 

Lori Ensinger, a member of the town’s Open Space Acquisition Committee and former president of the Westchester Land Trust, appeared at the town board’s May 19 meeting to propose a partnership that would complete the Buxton Gorge Preserve by adding 13.3 acres of open space.

Under the proposal, the town’s Open Space Fund, which has a current balance of approximately $1.7 million, would be responsible for 20% of the purchase cost. That cost is not yet known, but Ensinger estimated it would be a “modest expenditure.” In an example Ensinger gave, the town would be responsible for $320,000, which she thought was roughly “in the ballpark.”

The Open Space Fund was established in 2000 for the acquisition of land for open space, parks and the protection of surface and groundwater drinking supplies. It is funded by an annual special tax levy equal to 2% of the town’s General Fund.

Ensinger explained that a state water quality grant that was obtained by WLT offers the town an opportunity to acquire the parcel as part of a public-private partnership, with the state covering 80% of the cost.

Janelle Robbins, WLT’s vice president of conservation, noted that WLT had originally applied for the grant for a different parcel, which they were actually then able to acquire with private funding. Having already obtained the funding, they were able to pivot the state grant to a different project that met the same water quality goals. “I don’t want it to seem like we were presumptuous,” she said, explaining it was not a case of having applied for the grant without consulting the town first. 

Ensinger said completing the Buxton purchase has been a priority of the OSAC for quite a few years, and there are very few properties that have a willing seller, a willing buyer and funding all coming together.

The property is across the road from Bedford Community Church — an “interested and willing seller”— and adjacent to and contiguous with the 85 acres of open space in the Buxton Gorge Preserve, which would amplify the ecological function of that parcel. Ensinger said it is the last undeveloped parcel of the original 95-acre Buxton Gorge.

Under the proposal, the town would partner with WLT to use an already-awarded Water Quality Improvement Project grant. WLT would purchase the parcel from Bedford Community Church, then immediately transfer ownership to the town to manage as part of Buxton Gorge Preserve.

Ensinger said the project advances the town’s water protection and conservation priorities, protects lands within the town’s legislatively-designated Aquifer Protection Zone and Critical Environmental Areas, and meets the 2025 Comprehensive Plan goals. The parcel lies entirely atop the Bedford aquifer, protecting that aquifer, public wells and the Broad Brook watershed. Broad Brook, a tributary to the Muscoot Reservoir, flows through the property.

Ensinger said the parcel is within 500 feet of three public drinking water supply wells, and buffers the aquifer and wells from the ecological pressures of Interstate 684, which runs just to the east.

The town held a celebration in July 2024, marking what was then considered the completion of Buxton Gorge Preserve. The property had been on the town’s radar for more than 20 years. A forested area that lies between Buxton Road, the Rome Avenue apartments and New York State Department of Corrections property, it surrounds a spectacular natural gorge formed by glaciers and erosion over thousands of years.

The first portion of the town’s purchase was negotiated in 2019 between then-Supervisor Chris Burdick and W. Grant Gregory, chairman of Lakeover Development Company, which had acquired the property in 2003. The town board approved the purchase of 56 acres that included the gorge in April 2020. It was the largest open space acquisition in the town’s history.

In August 2023, the OSAC asked the board to consider the purchase of three additional parcels of land adjacent to the preserve, and the committee negotiated to buy them. The town board approved the expenditure of $1,500,000 from the Open Space Fund in November 2023 for the purchase, which added 30 more acres to link the original parcel to the Bedford Hills neighborhood.

Ensinger noted an identical partnership structure and funding mechanism had been used for the town’s Muscoot Reservoir Preserve acquisition in 2025, “continuing a joint legacy of watershed protection.”

Using money from the Open Space Fund for this purchase of an additional 13 acres of Buxton property will again be subject to a public hearing and town board approval. But there are more steps required before any purchase can move forward, including appraisals commissioned by WLT and Bedford Community Church; the church seeking approvals from the state Attorney General, under the New York State Religious Corporations Law; WLT and the church entering into a purchase agreement; WLT and the town entering into a Memorandum of Understanding; WLT conducting all due diligence required by the state Department of Environmental Conservation; and the state DEC reviewing and issuing approvals. 

The estimated timeline for closing on the purchase of the property is 15 to 24 months.