The planning grant referred to is the $131,250 awarded by the Regional Economic Development Councils to design a recreational and natural trail in the North Bay Recreation and Natural Center.
Back in April 2o12, Mayor William Hallenbeck offered the Foster's site as a location for a dog park. Within a week, that plan was scrapped, when it was discovered that it would cost from $120,000 to $228,440 to complete the demolition of the buildings on the site. Since then, whenever there is talk of cleaning up the old Foster's site, using it as a dog park is never mentioned. Instead the reuse of the site everyone seems to have in mind is a parking lot for the North Bay Recreation and Natural Center.
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Anywhere else and this would be unequivocally great news.
ReplyDeleteHowever, after their last collaboration on brownfields remediation during the BOA Program application process, the shared ambition of the city and the HDC foundered on their failure to include the program's required public participation.
The Environmental Restoration Program is similar to BOA in its requirement that the city "prepare and implement a public participation plan prior to remedial activities at a property."
The program specifies "communication between the public and municipality prior to the selection of a course of action, disclosure of information, public notice of the availability of a draft remedial plan, a 45-day comment period, technical assistance, and a public hearing if substantive issues are raised."
The city must also comply with the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) for remediation of the Foster's site, which means that the project will see a higher level of environmental scrutiny than another nearby project which will divert millions of gallons of untreated runoff directly into the North Bay.
In the latter case, the required Public Comment period for the application was honored in June, but the application itself - along with the phony rationale for the project's exemption from SEQRA - was withheld from the public. We were forced to comment on an application we hadn't seen because there was no time left to obtain it through official channels (FOIL).
The City of Hudson's contempt for its residents is legendary, and though this ERP grant is a welcome development, it remains to be seen whether City Hall's "screw you" attitude won't still screw it up.
Unfortunately, the HDC may also play a role in this.
I'm not very hopeful. And really, who would be?
ERP FAQ: http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/8652.html
"Developers" using tax dollars to place a permanent parking lot, where future fishermen, would give their right arm for?
ReplyDeleteWhat many local land lovers don't realize; there is a natural, (low tide) canoe and kayak sluice right there. Runs all the way to open river, why shorten its path?
If only this city were run by navigators.
1 Riparian