If at First You Don't Succeed . . .

Last year, Hudson competed for $10 million in Governor Andrew Cuomo's Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) and was unsuccessful. The $10 million for our region, the Capital Region, went to Glens Falls. This year, there's a second round and another $10 million to compete for, and Sheena Salvino, executive director of the Hudson Development Corporation, thinks we have a good chance of winning this time. Last year, there was only $5,000 to spend in preparing Hudson's application. This year, the Common Council voted to allocate $10,000 for the purpose, and Columbia Economic Development Corporation (CEDC) is investing another $10,000, so there will be $20,000 to hire consultants to help develop the application.

Since DRI Round 2 was announced on May 16, a group of community stakeholders has met twice to discuss the scope of the application. The first of eight items in a list of "desired attributes for participation in the DRI" is "Well-defined Boundaries," and the boundaries now being contemplated are shown on map below. The focus area includes just about everything west of Second Street, from Basilica Hudson at the south to Dock Street at the north. (Click on the image to enlarge.)

The DRI program emphasizes "using investments to reinforce and secure additional public and private investments proximal to, and within, downtown neighborhoods, and in doing so will build upon growth spurred by the Regional Economic Development Councils (REDCs)."

Salvino revealed at an HDC board meeting yesterday that River Architects of Cold Spring has been hired as landscape architects to help prepare the materials to be submitted with the application, but she stressed, as she has before, that, should Hudson be awarded the $10 million, the first $200,000 to $300,000 must be spent on comprehensive planning. 

The deadline for submitting the application is June 14, and a public meeting about the proposed application is expected to take place sometime next week. Thursday, June 1, has been discussed as the date for that meeting, but it has not yet been confirmed nor has a place for the meeting been determined.
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