Promenade Hill Update

The deadline for submissions in the Consolidated Funding Application (CFA) process was recently announced: July 31, 2015. The total amount money available--more than ever before--was also announced: $750 million. Although it is not known what other projects the City of Hudson may seek to fund, there will undoubtedly be an application for Promenade Hill that involves, at last report, the construction of a ramp for accessibility and a historic rehabilitation of the grounds.

Painting of Promenade Hill by Henry Ary

Last June, it was decided that the application for Promenade Hill would be postponed until this year. Two reasons were given: (1) there was, in the words of Bill Roehr of TGW Consultants, "a conflict between the goal of access and historic landscape treatment" which would require a more extensive master plan to resolve; (2) the timing did not allow for public participation in planning the project.

Almost a year has passed since the decision was made to postpone the application, this year's deadline is only eleven weeks away, the only inkling of what will be proposed for Promenade Hill is the two possibilities for ramps presented to the Common Council Economic Development Corporation in February, and there has been no public participation in planning the project at all. So Gossips decided to ask Roehr, his colleague at TGW Consultants John Duchessi, and Sheena Salvino, executive director of the Hudson Development Corporation, what was happening with the project. 

The only answer came from Salvino, who shared her knowledge of the status of things. (1) Photos of Promenade Hill and an aerial map have been submitted to the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation for review. (Because Promenade Hill is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, whatever is done there must have the approval of the State Historic Preservation Office.) (2) A site survey of the grounds is underway. 

Salvino went on to say that "the recommendations, in terms of design, rehabilitation, materials made by OPRHP [i.e., SHPO] will be incorporated into the plan . . . [presented] for feedback." It is not known when, in the next eleven weeks, the plan will be presented to the people of Hudson.
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