On the Topic of Economic Development

John Mason reports in the Register-Star today about last night's Common Council Economic Development Committee meeting: "City seeks $10M state grant for waterfront development." Gossips arrived late at the meeting and missed the discussion of the Downtown Revitalization Initiative (the $10 million grant), the competition for funding Gossips reported on several weeks ago. According to Mason's article, the DRI application submitted by Sheena Salvino, executive director of the Hudson Development Corporation, "breaks the neighborhood to be improved by the grant funding into four zones."

Bing Maps

The neighborhood in question is the South Bay Waterfront district, and the article describes the zones in this way: 

• The Waterfront Development Zone, including four acres on Water Street--the former Dunn warehouse building, the parking lots just north of it, which would conceivably be developed, and the Ferry Street Bridge.
• The Recreation-Reactivation Zone includes the interface between the industrial Colarusso property and the piers at the southern end of Henry Hudson Riverfront Park, with their fishing, kayak launches and picnic tables, as well as the sliver of land for which the Hudson Sloop Club got funding to create an environmental education center.
• The Transportation-Oriented Development Zone includes the area around the Kaz warehouse property, the Wick and the Amtrak station.
• The Innovation Zone includes Basilica Hudson and 99 S. Front St., formerly the LB building and now a business incubator.

Some insight into the nature of the investment being considered was provided in an email Salvino sent to the Hudson Business Coalition on May 24 to solicit letters of support for the City's DRI application. In the email, she described five elements of the investment proposal:

1. Build out of an open access network for improved internet access, providing fiber to each home and office in Hudson.
2. Citywide Complete Streets programming designed and operated to enable safe access for all users, including pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and transit riders of all ages and abilities.
3. Quality of life improvements such as rehab/upgrades to center city pocket parks, Promenade Hill Park, and Seventh Street Square; public restrooms on Warren Street; upgraded recycling/rubbish receptables, signage and wayfinding, community gardens & arts
4. Waterfront enhancements that will improve vehicular/pedestrian circulation and connections among the waterfront amenities, businesses, cultural anchors, and maritime focused activity.
5. Improve Hudson's resilience to sea level rise and address climate adaptation needs along the waterfront and 9G.

If not all proposed investments seem to fit within the proposed zones, it's likely that the application, which had to be done in a matter of weeks, may have evolved a bit in the last few days before it was due. What is important to remember is that if Hudson should get the $10 million, the first year and the first $300,000 will be spent planning how the rest of the money will be invested.

At last night's committee meeting, other grants being pursued in this year's Consolidated Funding Application (CFA) process were discussed. As happens every year, the City will be seeking the maximum--$400,000--from the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program. The lion's share of that amount would be used for stabilization and reconditioning of the Youth Center, but there would also be money for zoning revisions and for updating the City's fourteen-year-old Comprehensive Plan.

Salvino told the committee that the Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation (OPRHP) is dedicating $20 million in matching grants through the Environmental Protection Fund grant program--the most money this program has ever had to distribute in one year--and the City would be making an application to fund a site plan for the restoration/rehabilitation of Seventh Street Park, a.k.a. the Public Square.

The City will also be seeking a $50,000 grant from the Department of State for help in revising and updating the Local Waterfront Revitalization Program, which was adopted in 2011 but has yet to be submitted to or approved by the Department of State.

Toward the end of the meeting, Alderman Rick Rector (First Ward), who chairs the Economic Development Committee, brought up an issue of concern to him: the Dunn warehouse. Rector said he was "more and more concerned about the building and its condition" and wondered if any of the recommendations for stabilizing the building made in the feasibility study completed last summer had been carried out.

Calling the building "the gateway to the county" for people arriving by train or by water, Rector went on to suggest that it could be a civic center, an indoor/outdoor farmers' market. "The Dunn warehouse," he asserted, "could be a very proud moment for Hudson." 

Salvino said she wanted a comprehensive plan for the entire four acres along Water Street. Rector said he wanted to stabilize the building and suggested the committee revisit the feasibility study done last year. Alderman John Friedman (Third Ward), who sits on the Economic Development Committee, said he thought the master plan presented in the feasibility study was a good plan and urged moving forward to issue a request for proposal (RFP).

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