LWRP Again

It was exactly four months ago--in May--when the LWRP made a brief reappearance and then disappeared again so that Cheryl Roberts and the BFJ planners could edit out the errors and inconsistencies pointed out by Sam Pratt at a well-attended Valley Alliance meeting at Basilica Hudson. Twice in the past month, Common Council President Don Moore has predicted that there would soon be a special meeting of the Common Council to discuss the revised document, but so far that meeting hasn't been scheduled. In the meantime, persistent questions remain and new questions arise. 

The proposed appointment of Guy Falkenheimer as "Dock Master" suggests some recognition of the need to manage on-water uses of the waterfront, but the question remains: Why is there no Harbor Management Plan in the LWRP? The need for such a plan seems critical since the LWRP embraces the notion of a "mixed use" waterfront, with kayaks and small recreational boats sharing space with giant barges hauling aggregate.

Roberts and Moore have both explained that a Harbor Management Plan is "embedded" throughout the LWRP, but somehow that doesn't seem adequate. The NYS DOS Division of Coastal Resources defines the benefits of a Harbor Management Plan as these:

• determining the status of harbor areas and developing a strategy to achieve goals for harbor areas
• technical assistance in addressing harbor management issues
• financial assistance for small-scale construction and land acquisition projects
• research, design, and other preconstruction activities that implement the harbor managment plan
• addressing harbor and nearshore issues that transcend local boundaries

Will Hudson realize any of these benefits if our Harbor Management Plan is one that is embedded in our LWRP?

A reader brought some other issues to Gossips attention, which have to do with the boundaries shown on LWRP maps. For example, the map at left shows shows the western boundary of the LWRP area. The yellow and red line indicates the boundary proposed in the LWRP. The magenta line, farther west and intersecting Middle Ground Flats, shows the boundary recommended by the Department of State for a Harbor Management Area. This raises the question of why the LWRP limits the area it wishes to regulate. The same is true for the southern boundary of the LWRP area. Instead of extending all the way to the Hudson-Greenport border, the LWRP area stops short of it.
     

And then there is question of the mystery property--Tax ID #109.15-1-3--the ownership of which, it seems, is unknown.