We, the 11 Warren Street Action Group, came together to persuade you that converting 11 Warren Street to house County departments is the wrong decision for Hudson and Columbia County. We understand the County's urgent need for office space for the cramped Board of Elections and others. But we believe there are far less expensive and better solutions.
The County's 11 Warren Street Project will:
- Cost the County, and in turn taxpayers, $8.9 million ($3.35M purchase + $5.53M renovations), or $477 per SF.
- Take the property off Hudson tax rolls.
- Dash hopes of positive redevelopment of the property (the city needs affordable housing, daycare, community spaces, etc.).
- Create a traffic nightmare (forcing more cars onto our already congested main street. Traffic on Warren Street near its intersection with Front Street becomes regularly congested with every arrival of an AMTRAK train (14 trains per day 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.).
- Make parking extremely difficult for employees, voters, people using the services at 11 Warren, and residents of the neighborhood (there is insufficient parking for employees and none for people using the services that will be offered at 11 Warren).
Following the Board of Supervisors' January 24 meeting, we organized a petition on behalf of concerned citizens of the City of Hudson and Columbia County. See attached Petition Statement opposing the County's plans for 11 Warren, plus two listings of signatures collected online via change.org [816 signatures] and in-person (at Hudson Farmers' Market, on Warren St, and other venues) [85 signatures]. Through June 4, the Petition has drawn 901 signatures, including many from Hudson proper and Columbia County.
Thank you in advance for reviewing this information.
We have asked for a meeting to discuss the project and to this date have not received a response. We appreciate the opportunity for ongoing community dialogue and look forward to meeting with you to discuss our report and the petition. You, as County Supervisors, have a duty to taxpayers to reconsider these plans.
In February, the Hudson Common Council unanimously passed a resolution opposing the County's plans for the building. So far, county officials, in particular Matt Murell who chairs the Board of Supervisors, have shown nothing but hubristic determination to pursue their wrongheaded plans for 11 Warren Street.
COPYRIGHT 2024 CAROLE OSTERINK
The look on Murrell's face during the public comment time at the most recent meeting at 401 State was one of "why do we even let these people speak?" Honestly, it's more than a bit spooky. Of course, he doesn't live in Hudson.
ReplyDeleteEric Galloway proposed a good redevelopment plan that everyone hated, unfortunately. I thought it was a good proposal.
ReplyDeletenow Hudson is getting exactly what it has always had, more county offices and less on the tax rolls.
It's not true at all that everyone hated it. Also, what is not true is that the plan was proposed by Eric Galloway. It was proposed by Benchmark Development. When it became known that Columbia County planned to buy the building, I contacted the principals of Benchmark to find out why that plan had been abandoned. This is what I was told, all of which was reported in this post: https://gossipsofrivertown.blogspot.com/2024/02/about-11-warren-street.html.
Delete"Our deal with Galvan was time sensitive in that it had a clock for gaining approvals. The timeline was reasonable under normal circumstances. However, the effects of COVID were still very much being felt as we pursued the early work related to this project. Advancing development activities during that time was challenging to say the least. Galvan was not willing to adjust or extend the time horizon on this deal to accommodate the new reality. We were very disappointed as it is our belief that Hudson deserves a premium mixed-use project at such a gateway location, and it is our opinion that our proposed project would have had a great positive impact."
Sorry i said anything -- but im really sorry the proposal never got built.
DeleteMe too, j kay--responding to the latter comment not the former.
DeleteThe best thing to do with that block would be to divide it back into the previously existing lots and sell each one at a discount with the stipulation that the owner build back a replica of the building that was originally there.
DeleteThat would be a historic restoration.
The problem in Hudson and the county is "good ol' boy" government. Our political culture stopped evolving about 1939.
ReplyDeleteGalvan did a nice job of taking down a 19th century brick house and re-assembling it on Union St. Perhaps the same could be done with #11 Warren. Take that sucker apart brick-by-brick and re-locate it on Fairview Avenue in Greenport, where it would be a stunning addition to that landscape.
ReplyDeleteIf I remember correctly it was more like a Star Trek transporter accident where the form of the person appears made from other composite materials, but the actual person materialized as particles floating somewhere out in space.
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