Thursday, April 15, 2021

More About the Depot District

The agenda for Tuesday night's Planning Board meeting indicated that the public hearing on the two buildings proposed for the "Depot District" would continue. It did, but in fact there was very little public comment. 

Lindsay Zefting of Alta Planning + Design was introduced as the traffic consultant retained to advise the Planning Board. Charles Gottlieb, the attorney working for Galvan on the project, took the opportunity to kvell, "It's been a long time since I have been involved in project with that much support," referring to the thirty-six form letters expressing support for the project submitted to the Planning Board. Gottlieb also noted that Galvan's responses to negative comments had been submitted to the Planning Board. Those responses begin of page 4 of the document found here. Chad Lindsay, engineer for Galvan, presented the plan for turning 602 Washington Street, the former location of Jack's Automotive & Towing, into a parking lot for tenants of the proposed building.


Lindberg said, "The overall plan is to repurpose the building now there," but to what purpose it might be put was not indicated.

An interesting part of the meeting came when Planning Board member Clark Wieman expressed concern about "Galvan's performance in the City of Hudson." He wondered, "Given Galvan's track record in Hudson, can this project be delivered?" He suggested there were other ways to solve the housing problem "relative to Galvan's inventory of properties in Hudson" and posited, "If the goal is to provide market rate and affordable housing . . . there is a case to be made to address the problem quickly or more quickly by dealing with Galvan's current inventory of properties." 

At this point Wieman was interrupted by Victoria Polidoro, counsel to the Planning Board, who reminded him, "When a project comes before the Planning Board, this board is concerned not with the applicant but with the project on paper and its impact." When Wieman protested that he was addressing concerns raised by the public, Polidoro cautioned, "The public is welcome to say what they want to say. I just want to remind the board members that your role is to review the project as proposed and not look at outside actions by this developer." 

Wieman's comments inspired Dan Kent of the Galvan Foundation to offer a litany of the foundation's achievements since its founding in 2012, chief among them completing construction on thirty-nine buildings in Hudson, noting that Galvan was the only organization that has developed any affordable housing in Hudson in the last decade. Wieman, however, remained skeptical, saying he had "strong concerns about Galvan's ability to manage a large project like this."

The recording of the entire Planning Board meeting can be found here. Wieman's comments begin at 2:12:14.
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10 comments:

  1. Isn't it a bitch, when your own Lawyer tell you to shut up.Good for Clark ,let it be know what Hudson has to deal with when it come to Galloway...NOT TO BE TRUSTED OR BELIEVED..

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  2. Galloway serves himself first, EVERY TIME

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  3. Excuse me, but Ms. Polidoro, counsel to the Planning Board, had better check the law if she believes that the bona fides of an applicant are relevant to the decision that the Planning Board makes. If that quote of Polidoro is accurate--"I just want to remind the board members that your role is to review the project as proposed and not look at outside actions by this developer"--the citizens of Hudson are in big trouble.

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  4. If the meetings were open and in City Hall as they used to be before the pandemic there would be a lot more of the public speaking out. Not everyone is familiar with Zoom and computers, nor have good hearing for the audios. So these projects are getting off lucky.

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    1. Funny you mention this-I asked about it at the April Informal. Other municipalities are going back to in-person meetings with social distancing and a videoconferencing option. No one on the Common Council is looking to install the necessary technology (it exists and is relatively cheap) to make this work. Common Council President Tom DePietro, that paragon of forethought and leadership, gave my question a blank stare followed shortly by a derisive dismissal. He's either such a coward that he's afraid of facing his own constituents and managerial shortcomings in a forum where he can't mute them, or he-oh, no wait. It's just that one thing.

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    2. Would-be dictators and the truly incompetent all recoil from the transparency of sunlight. Besides, I’m pretty sure Tom’s strings are being pulled by his puppet master.

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    3. Tom Pietro clearly doesn't want participation by the public. He dismisses and discourages any sane dialogue. He even tried to push a man down a flight of stairs who spoke. Why in God's name is this terrible man in city government much less leading it?

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  5. More raw sewage dumped into the river, seems a bit irresponsible to be adding more toilets when sewage cannot be properly treated and contained during a little rain.

    Issued: 04-16-2021, 07:07:27
    Affects: New York - Columbia - Hudson
    The Hudson (C) STP, NY0022039 is issuing this notification.
    Discharge location: 2 Dock Street, Hudson, NY
    Location details:
    Waterbody affected: Hudson River
    Discharge description:
    Potentially impacted public areas: Other -
    Discharge date and time: 04-15-2021 17:17:35
    Discharge duration: 10:06:27 Hours
    Discharge reason: Weather Conditions - Rain event caused high flows to system. CSO's will discharge intermittently throughout duration of event.
    Steps taken to contain discharge: Ensure all pumps are running to full capacity
    Volume/rate of discharge: 690,000 Gallons Actual
    Treated state of discharge: Partially Treated with Disinfection

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  6. All these despot dictator wannabes find Hudson somehow.

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