At its regular monthly meeting on Tuesday, the Common Council considered a resolution authorizing Councilmember Margaret Morris (First Ward), chair of the ad hoc Truck Route Committee, to send a letter to the NYS Department of Transportation (DOT) requesting changes to the truck routes that pass through Hudson. The resolution was put on the agenda by three councilmembers (Morris, Dewan Sarwar [Second Ward], Mohammed Rony [Second Ward]), because Council president Tom DePietro, who lives on Worth Avenue which could be negatively impacted by one of the requested changes, declined to do so. The letter, which can be found here (scroll past the resolution), makes two requests: that the Route 9G/23B truck route through Hudson be eliminated; that trucks more than 48 feet in length be prohibited from entering the City of Hudson unless they are making deliveries within the City of Hudson.
The letter was accompanied by this map, which shows how trucks go from one point to another in Greenport by passing through Hudson when there are other ways to go.
Donna Streitz, a community member on the ad hoc Truck Route Committee, prepared a six-page document analyzing the impact of eliminating Route 9G/23B as a truck route, using data from the truck study done by MJ Engineering in 2021. That document can also be found here (scroll to the end). Among the conclusions of Streitz's analysis was that eliminating the Route 9G/23B truck route would divert 26 trucks each weekday and 10 trucks each weekend day, but they would not all necessarily be diverted to the Route 9 truck route through Hudson. Some could decide to stay on Route 23 until they get to Route 9H. An important reason for sending the letter and making the request of DOT is that it would trigger a study specifically of the impact eliminating one of the two truck routes through Hudson would have. This seemed to be lost on many members of the Common Council and the public.
Councilmember Vicky Daskaloudi (Fifth Ward) worried about the impact of more truck traffic on Route 9 on Seventh Street Park. Councilmember Ryan Wallace (Third Ward) complained that the effort would punish a part of Hudson that is currently the most economically robust, namely Warren Street above Park Place. Susan Meyer, who lives on Worth Avenue, complained the initiative did nothing to mitigate truck traffic on Worth Avenue but instead increased it. She spoke of her house shaking and reduced property values and concluded, "It's not fair; it's not equitable."
Jason Foster, who lives on Green Street, where the two truck routes merge and all trucks transiting Hudson pass, pointed out that the access highway program is extremely powerful and predicted it would be extremely hard to eliminate both truck routes through Hudson. He opined, "Bypass is the only solution," and warned, "We run the risk of losing an opportunity."
Nevertheless, Wallace moved to table the resolution, and Councilmember Art Frick (First Ward) seconded it. In the vote that followed, five councilmembers (Theo Anthony [Fourth Ward], Morris, Rony, Sarowar, Malachi Walker [Fourth Ward]) were opposed to tabling the resolution, and five councilmembers (Daskaloudi, Frick, Amber Harris [Third Ward], Dominic Merante [Fifth Ward], Wallace) and Council president DePietro voted in favor of tabling the resolution. After the vote, DePietro commented, "No one's trying to shut this down."
COPYRIGHT 2023 CAROLE OSTERINK
No comments:
Post a Comment