DRI Update

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the meetings of the DRI Committee, the group overseeing the planning and execution of the City's projects funded by the Downtown Revitalization Initiative, have ceased to be public. Meeting summaries are posted on the City of Hudson website, but it may be days before those summaries appear. 

Ronald Kopnicki has often complained about the lack of transparency surrounding DRI Committee meetings, and he did so again on Tuesday, at the Hudson Development Corporation meeting, after asking what role the DRI Committee would play in the development of the Kaz and Dunn parcels. Council president Tom DePietro, who is part of the DRI Committee, told him the committee had not met recently, but Kopnicki challenged that statement, saying there was a summary of a meeting that took place by conference call on November 18, with all but one member of the committee participating. Yesterday, a DRI Committee meeting appeared on the city calendar, and the phone number and the codes for the conference call were provided. Needless to say, Gossips joined the call, as did Kopnicki. Here's what was learned.

It was reported that Starr Whitehouse is 30 to 60 days away from resolving some SEQR issues surrounding the Promenade Hill renovations, which may push the project back a month. It had been anticipated that the RFP for construction would be issued in January, a construction company selected in February, and work would begin in March or April. It was indicated that "SHPO [State Historic Preservation Office] must be engaged" and the final design would be presented to the Historic Preservation Commission, perhaps at its meeting on Friday, December 4.

The design for the entrance to Promenade Hill, or the "Lower Promenade" as it's now being called, has not been seen by the public since October, when it was presented at the informal Common Council meeting, and it is not known if any changes to the design have been made.

The Complete Streets, or Hudson Connects, project is running "slightly behind" Promenade Hill. Arterial, the firm doing the project, is expected to make a presentation to the Common Council in the next week or so, but Chris Round of Chazen reported today that Arterial was "six to eight months out." According to Round, "They haven't defined it; they haven't designed it."

The Furgary Boat Club, or the Shacks, now being called the Historic Fishing Village, seems now to be in the hands of SHPO. It was reported that SHPO had made recommendations about the site, and Caren LoBrutto of Chazen had questions about the recommendations needing a response from SHPO.

Photo: State Historic Preservation Office

Regarding the Dunn warehouse project, Michael Chameides, the mayor's aide, reported that "HDC has taken us up on the offer to combine [parcels] and create a shared vision." Gossips has learned that representatives of HDC will meet with "the City"--presumably represented by Mayor Kamal Johnson, DePietro, and Chameides--tomorrow, Friday, December 4.

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