GOSHEN – The Open Space Institute will be assisting Orange County in its conceptualization of a park at the former Camp LaGuardia property in Chester and Blooming Grove.
County Executive Steven Neuhaus proposed the park concept this past summer and he now said OSI is onboard with it.
“We will be developing at least a nine-mile extension to the existing Orange County Heritage Trail and its going to straddle Camp LaGuardia. So, the Open Space Institute is very interested in seeing that property developed into something that compliments that paved rail trail. So that being a park is front and foremost to them,” he told Mid-Hudson News.
The Camp LaGuardia property, in the towns of Blooming Grove and Chester, was purchased from the City of New York several years ago. It had served as a shelter for homeless men from New York.
Since the county bought the property, it has entertained proposals to develop it for everything from office space to housing, none of which panned out.
