About our team
The Open Space Alliance is a Greater Lewes Foundation fund chaired by one of Lewe’s finest leaders, former Mayor James L. Ford III, and works in partnership with the Sussex County Land Trust.
Other members of the GLF Board are also involved, including Rob Gibbs, a leading Sussex County land use attorney, and John Schroeder, who chairs Delaware’s Open Space Council. GLF Project Manager, Mark Chura, also directs the Sussex County Land Trust.
Our campaign manager, Pam Costanzi brings 30-plus years of fundraising experience to the team. As a Lewes resident, she also has a personal commitment to ensure our open spaces are protected from future development.
About the properties
The 4th Street Preserve and Ard na Greine properties are owned by families with deep roots in the community who are passionate that their long-held family land be permanently protected as open space. Their goal, as ours, is to ensure these properties become community assets that will benefit current and future residents of the greater Lewes area.
Fourth Street Preserve
This forest tract encompasses 30 acres on both sides of the Fourth Street extended and serves as an attractive wooded gateway to Lewes from New Road. It is an important habitat for Lewes’s remaining wildlife and a significant contributor to air quality and carbon reduction.
The land also is important in water management to protect against flooding in adjacent communities.
Ard na Gréine
This 89-acre property lies between Savannah and New Roads with direct access to Canary Creek and the Lewes bike path. This tract has the potential to create entire new habitats by providing food for pollinating birds and insects, including our fragile honeybee and firefly populations.
Ard na Gréine, Gaelic for “the height of the sun”, was named by the original landowners and will continue to be known as such.
