Déjà Vu All Over Again . . . and Something Else

(Is it significant that this is the sixth time in six years that Gossips has used the title "Déjà Vu All Over Again"?)

Tonight, this item appears under New Business on the agenda for the Greenport Planning Board.

Colarusso Quarry Co. – Application for Site Plan Review for a Haul Road from the Colarusso facility on Newman Road to the Hudson River Waterfront. (May require a coordinated review with the City of Hudson Planning Board). 

This same proposal was before the Greenport Planning Board six years ago, in January 2010. That time, the haul road was being proposed by O&G/Holcim; this time, it's being proposed A. Colarusso & Son, which acquired the Holcim property in Hudson and Greenport in 2014.

When this proposal was made more than six years ago, Cheryl Roberts, when city attorney for Hudson, sent a letter to O&G warning that "seeking approval from the Town of Greenport Planning Board in advance of a declaration of lead agency and undertaking a coordinated review . . . amounts to segmentation in violation of 6NYCRR 617.3(g)." This time, the Greenport Planning Board is acknowledging upfront that the project may require a coordinated review with the City of Hudson Planning Board.

As it did in 2010, the Valley Alliance has submitted a written statement about this proposal, which includes concerns about the South Bay Creek & Wetland, possible SEQRA violations, and traffic issues. The full text of the Valley Alliance's letter to the Greenport Planning Board can be read here.

One thing that's different today from the way things were in 2010 is that back then this is what the road going east from Route 9G looked like.

In January 2010, Gossips reported about the road being proposed: "From 9G east, it will be two lanes, each lane 12 feet wide, with shoulders." Today, the road going east appears to be exactly what was proposed in 2010. Gossips sources have reported that the road going east is 29 feet wide.

The first 930 feet of the road from Route 9G east to Route 9 is actually in Hudson not in Greenport, in a part of the Southern Waterfront Area zoned Recreational Conservation in the 2011 Local Waterfront Revitalization Program (LWRP). The agenda for the next Hudson Planning Board meeting, which takes place on Thursday, June 9, is not yet available.  

Also on the agenda for tonight's Greenport Planning Board meeting is an application to build "retail establishments at 161 Fairview Avenue." The address indicated is between McDonald's and the Gothic Revival house that survives from an earlier time. What impact the proposed commercial development will have on the house, which now appears abandoned, is not known.

Photo: Paul Barrett

The Greenport Planning Board meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. tonight at the Greenport Town Hall, 600 Town Hall Drive, off Healy Blvd. in Greenport.
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