A Gossips reader and observer of the waterfront sent this picture and the accompanying comment, which Gossips shares with permission.
Plotting Hudson's new waterfront.
Approximately 74k trucks running across 9 and 9G every year (not counting the supporting tug boats, excavators, conveyor belts and bulldozers). All so Hudson can get a small percentage of trucks off of Columbia Street, for the benefit of a Greenport company that I've heard outsources some of their drivers to contractors who live over an hour away. Who is this good for? Not for Hudson.
Welcome to the future of Hudson's waterfront.
That comment is spot on. For seven years local residents showed up and respectfully provided the Hudson Planning with a ton of good information, all of which was ignored. Further, the PB paid no attention to the long list of significant impacts identified by the very professional engineering consultants, Barton & Loguidice. Those impacts should have been given intense scrutiny, given that the waterfront is critical to Hudson's economy and quality of life. It is impossible to imagine a more disappointing, shameful, and chickenshit dereliction of duty.
ReplyDeleteIt is easy to brush past judicial decisions, marginalized residents, and a nuanced history. The most effective way to inspire change is not through the Planning Board, who's job is to enforce the zoning law the Common Council sets, but to appeal to the Common Council itself to change laws to promote smarter growth. Somehow, city representatives have been unscathed in the debate over the haul road, when they are the only ones, legally, who could have done something to address it. As far as the current reality, nothing is set in stone for the waterfront, but the Planning Board can only do so much based on the court's decision. I would implore concerned residents to reach out to their ward representatives to make stronger laws around the uses possible on the waterfront. I do take issue with the minimization of getting trucks off of Columbia Street. I would bet that the reader who wrote the comment does not experience the daily pollution that Hudson's most marginalized face from the trucks.
ReplyDeleteCarole, may I ask where you are getting those numbers from? 74000 trucks per year? How many tugboats a day? Haven't heard anything about them moving more equipment down there. Are you just assuming this will happen?
DeleteRead more carefully, Lew. This is not my statement but rather that of a reader, but since you have challenged it.
DeleteTwo of the conditions of the approval for the haul road granted by the Planning Board are that (1) the haul road be used only five days a week (Monday through Friday) and (2) the maximum number of trips a day is 284. Five days a week, 52 weeks a year, 284 trips a day adds up to 73,846 trips a year. Granted the reader whose statement I published rounded up a tad, but this is what could happen. Obviously, you have more faith than others that it is not what WILL happen.
Change all the laws you want, ACS is there doing their thing. They’re grandfathered. New laws can’t touch them.
DeleteThe following comment was submitted to Gossips as a text:
ReplyDeleteThe PB’s approval of the expansion of the haul road allows for an exception to use Columbia St of up to 40 days a year (during flooding on the road or when Colarusso is blasting anywhere on their site). How many times a year do you think the bay floods? How often do you think Colarusso could blast or say they’re blasting? Do the math. Let’s say they have been running approximately 20 trucks a day on Columbia St now (5,200 trucks/yr) and can run 284 trucks a day for 40 days a year for common reasons (11,360 trucks/yr). That's almost double the amount of trucks. Let’s talk about the air quality on Columbia Street then?
What if they just threaten to do that? The city would have to give them anything they want.
I wish someone would come to Hudson with professional air testing equipment and give us an idea of how much nasty stuff we are all breathing, especially those living along the truck route. And especially now with all the infrastructure projects going on (machinery, trucks, etc. spewing). I bet it would be a frightening amount of noxious air.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the City could restrict truck size and weight on city streets off of the State designated truck route? They would have to stick to the gravel road. A stoplight at the intersection of the gravel road that is activated by approaching trucks would eliminate the hazard of passing trucks. A toll booth there that would charge each passing gravel truck would be a good idea as well, maybe $100 a load?
ReplyDeleteThese are all excellent points that should be brought up at Common Council meetings.
DeleteFrequent commenter on this subject "Unheimlich" submitted this by email:
ReplyDeleteColarusso's use is not "grandfathered."
Judge Melkonian's 2019 Decision and Order (and not dicta) already concluded that "the extensive record herein reflects that the Planning Board made it abundantly clear to petitioners that inasmuch as petitioners' nonconforming use had ceased, they would be required to obtain a conditional use permit for their continued dock operations."
Again, without a CUP (permit) from the Planning Board, the company's right to operate has "ceased." Couldn't be simpler.
Residents should stop fixating on truck numbers and instead pressure the City to impose a Stop Work Order based on the zoning infraction. Let the company appeal that order, and then let the ZBA adjudicate the meaning and extent of what Colarusso argued for years was an unlawful "second SEQRA review" (a point they lost before Melkonian).
Then, when Colarusso takes the City to court again, consider hiring attorney Ken Dow who already successfully explained the Core-Riverfront District to an appreciative Melkonian. You will not lose.
But for now, forget all about truck numbers (for now). Grasp this: Colarusso just won recognition that the entirety of its mine reaches the river! Read the state's mining laws to appreciate just how desperate your situation is.
Hudson is so doomed. But why? The situation is spectacularly idiotic when you consider that Colarusso's right to operate in the City has "CEASED"! They've lost the right altogether. Moreover, the only support for the company's claim that it is "grandfathered" is the continuation of its operations. That's a tautology, not a valid argument.
In fact Colarusso is well beyond its rights, and has been infringing on your rights since January 23, 2019 (Melkonian).
But why would the City of Hudson opt to issue a Stop Work Order?
Residents who don't grasp that government is "of, by, and for the people" are an ongoing part of this problem. But that means placing the city's existing policies and laws in the service of tax-paying residents. Instead you fixate on truck numbers. Sad.
74,000 trucks per year??? That equates to about 203 trucks per day, every day or almost 8 1/2 trucks per hour or one every 7 minutes, all day, every day, 365 days per year. Seriously? A true Democrat / Liberal would find a way to tax each on of the trucks and use the Monday for climate change abatement.
ReplyDelete