On Tuesday, April 27, at 6:00 p.m., there is to be a virtual public meeting on the Truck Traffic Route Feasibility Study. The announcement of the event describes it in this way:
The purpose of the virtual meeting is twofold: To present the research and get public input. The City's consultant team will provide a project overview and present the proposed truck route alternatives under consideration. Also, the public will be invited to provide input on proposed alternate routes, as well as how nearby communities may be impacted by possible route changes via participant polls and, at the end of the presentation, a question and answer session.
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| Photo: Bill Huston |
By accident or design, the public meeting about the truck route study takes place at exactly the same time as the special meeting of the Planning Board to continue its consideration of Colarusso's conditional use permit applications, which also involves trucks passing through the city.
Registration for the public meeting about the truck route is required. To learn more about the meeting and to register, click here.
Anyone new to Hudson, say in the past 10 years, is probably unaware that the Colarusso company’s two permit applications relate to a three-year truck study and its consequent plan, all of which reached into the hundreds of pages.
ReplyDeleteBut while one of the applications is necessitated by the 2011 plan’s changes to the Zoning Code, the other is for a proposal unlike anything previously considered. To achieve its goal, the applicant has simply ignored the 2011 plan. The tactic is working, too.
At the meeting for the Truck Traffic Route Feasibility Study, be on guard for anyone who either deliberately or unwittingly confuses the state truck route issue with one of its subsets, the Colarusso gravel truck issue, as if the city never conducted the 2011 study and formally adopted the resulting plan.
The 2011 plan should be implemented as is, with the expected decrease of gravel trucks on public streets factored into the Truck Traffic Route Feasibility Study.
But what is the purpose of these exhausting planning efforts if the public which benefits from the solutions loses interest so quickly?
Attrition, newcomers and memories are short. All in favor of Colarusso's longevity. The date of one of the meetings should be changed to accommodate the public.
ReplyDeleteThey certainly should. This is not the first time City meetings have been scheduled at competing times, and it's hard not to wonder if there is intent behind it. I'm not sure if it is the mayor's office that has scheduled this special meeting, but if so people should write to him at mayor@cityofhudson.org and demand the meeting time be changed so citizens who wish to be engaged in their community can attend both meetings.
DeleteTo put it simply, has the study of truck route alternatives yet considered the substantial reduction of truck traffic through the city which is contingent on the outcome of a parallel truck study begun in 2008?
DeleteWith both studies’ public meetings scheduled at the same moment, you get the idea that nobody has a clear overview of the issues involved.
(I believe that the Planning Board meeting was scheduled first.)