Although it feels like drizzly November, it's only the final week of September. A couple of meetings scheduled for this week have been canceled, but the one of greatest interest--the public hearing on Colarusso--remains on the calendar.
- On Tuesday, September 26, the Hudson Development Corporation (HDC) Board holds its monthly meeting at 11:00 a.m. Note that this is one hour earlier than their typical meeting time. The agenda for the meeting can be found here. The meeting takes place in person only in the conference room at 1 North Front Street.
- Also on Tuesday, September 26, the board of Hudson Community Development & Planning Agency (HCDPA) meets at 4:30 p.m. The meeting is in person only at the Central Fire Station, 77 North Seventh Street.
- On Wednesday, September 27, the Columbia County Housing Task Force meets at 4:00 p.m. The meeting is a hybrid, taking place in person at 1 City Centre, Suite 3o1, and on Zoom. Click here to join the meeting remotely.
- Also on Wednesday, September 27, the Planning Board holds a public hearing on Colarusso's application for a conditional use permit for "road improvements." Information about what's being proposed and the issues surrounding it can be found here. The public hearing takes place in person at the Central Fire Station, 77 North Seventh Street, and on Zoom. Click here to join the meeting remotely.
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| Photo: Our Hudson Waterfront |
I'm a bit distressed that Hudson's LWRP, containing the city's waterfront policies and laws, rarely merits a mention in any of this. That's like tying one hand behind our backs.
ReplyDeleteFor those who'd ignore the LWRP without really understanding it, and on the basis that, for them, all compromise is bad, they gamble everything on an all-or-nothing crusade the aspirations of which invariably include some degree of heroic validation.
For everyone in opposition to the Colarusso proposal, losing everything means an eventual two-lane truck road to the waterfront. But just because the Greenport Planning Board cherry-picked and misrepresented Hudson's LWRP on its way to evading a proper SEQRA review, why is that a good reason to abandon the city's central and most recent planning document regarding the South Bay and the riverfront?
Do people appreciate that the LWRP was the crux of attorney Ken Dow's successful defense of the Hudson Planning Board against Colarusso's first lawsuit? (Have the current Planning Board members been made aware of that?)
Moreover, Dow's close read of the LWRP enriched everyone's understanding of what the city's waterfront policies and laws actually *ARE*. Dow's sophistication, as confirmed by Judge Melkonian, revealed the Planning Board's broad discretion on subjects that are anterior to the LWRP's comparatively trivial compromises.
Probably there are those who fear losing in court what the City has already won in court (oh Hudson), but there's enough in the LWRP alone for the Planning Board to reject the "Haul Road" proposal.
Rather than reject the LWRP out-of-hand, the incurable Young Turks, ever committed to all-or-nothing strategies, could instead devote their talents to denying a conditional use permit for any and all the company's operations. That's an all-or-nothing I can get behind, though a favorable outcome there would be stronger if both Colarusso applications were tackled - and rejected - simultaneously.