Land preservation funds continue to rise: Four of five towns see monthly increases

The Community Preservation Fund (CPF) continues to show gains in revenues for four of the five East End towns.

Figures for January 2021 released by Assemblyman Fred Thiele Jr. (I-Sag Harbor) show increases for Shelter Island, Southampton, East Hampton and Riverhead compared with numbers for the same month of 2020. Only Southold saw a dip in its CPF revenues.

The money is generated by a 2% tax paid by most purchases of properties in the five East End towns. The money is used for land preservation with up to 20% being available for water quality improvement projects.

Shelter Island topped the list in terms of percentages, increasing its January 2021 by an extraordinary 837.8%, bringing in $750,000 this year for land preservation compared with $80,000 for January 2020.

Southampton saw a 172.4% hike, netting $13.02 million this January compared with 4.78 million in January 2020. East Hampton saw a 118.2% increase, bringing in $5.76 million compared with $2.64 million the previous January.

Riverhead saw a 15.7% increase, or $620,000 this January compared with $510,000 in January 2020.

Only Southold saw a decline at minus 15.6% with its January 2021 CPF revenues at $920,000, while it brought in $1.09 million in January 2020.

The entire East End saw CPF revenues totaling $21.07 million in January, the second largest monthly revenue figure in the history of the program, Mr. Thiele said. Only $9.1 million came in for January 2020, before the pandemic became the major factor in the real estate market.

The largest single month revenues totaled $21.3 million in December 2020.

During the previous 12 months, the CPF money totaled $154.4 million. Since it’s inception in 1999, the fund has generated $1.62 billion.