Business View Magazine | March 2019

190 cause of the way the island developed, primar- ily driven by private development interests and no active local government, there was a real dearth of open space and parks. So, we’ve invested over $150 million over 25-plus years and have acquired something approaching 1,500 acres of land. We’ve built parks on it and fire stations, but we’ve also set a lot of it aside for green space. We have one major highway, US 278, that comes onto the island from the mainland and travels a good part of the length of the island, and because of our efforts and the efforts of some private developers to set aside some green space in their developments, more than half of the frontage on our major road is permanently green. There’s just no other town that can say that about their main drag. It’s been a pretty incredible conservation effort.” “The land acquisition program played a sig- nificant role in us receiving a Sustainable Communities designation from the Audubon Society,” adds Shawn Colin, Director of Com- Stephen Riley, Town Manager,