Warwick Grove is located in a distinctive area known as the Bellvale Valley. Once the basin of a great shallow lake, the valley boasts exceptionally rich soil and a diversity of wildlife and plant life.

The Warwick Grove Company approached the development of this community with patience, attention to detail, and a concerted effort to preserve trees and animals.

This enlightened approach looks at the community as part of the environment. Ecosystems don’t rearrange themselves around development. Rather good design uses nature as a centerpiece. It’s a simple concept and one whose time has come.

Concentrating the buildings and dwellings in one area is ecologically efficient; it leaves open space—meaningful open space—around the perimeter. This open space keeps the valley, and the species that roam within it, biologically interconnected.

One species that is particularly important is the federally threatened Bog Turtle. At a full-grown length of four inches, it is the United States’ smallest turtle, but this handsome little creature is distinguished by the bright orange patch on each side of its head and its dark brown shell.

Bog Turtles make their homes in swamps, marshy meadows—anything with a soft, muddy bottom. They travel from one wetland patch to another as the seasons or their needs change. And therein lies the problem. Bog Turtles need room to range and their habitat is often crisscrossed with roads.

The Bog Turtles lucky enough to live near Warwick Grove are guaranteed safe passage, thanks to a unique bridge/tunnel designed by LeylandAlliance that conducts them beneath the community’s roadways. Most impressive, this “Leyland Bridge” has become the new standard design requested by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation for developments in similar sensitive areas.

What is perhaps most remarkable about these bridges is they are state of the art and expensive, yet they were mandated by the community’s developer. Instead of doing the bare minimum for the environment, LeylandAlliance, with its partner at Warwick Grove, Tarragon Corporation, made the extra effort to do things right. In doing so, a new standard for responsible ecologically sound development has been set.

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