GOSHEN – Orange County officials are reducing the number of properties for which it will grant open space grants this year, County Planning Commissioner David Church told the Ways and Means Committee of the County Legislature on Wednesday.

The county had committed up to $5.5 million for open space purchases and has spent about $4.5 million of that in the first three years of the program.

This year, it will be addressed a little differently. The six to seven proposed open space purchases working through the process will continue with only one new one added, said Church.

That is in large part due to the concerns about the county’s fiscal condition in light of the state of the economy. Church said there is also some interest by some to “retool the system to have a different focus potentially.”

For now, the county will not be committing any additional dollars to the program.