An Open Letter to Our Mayor

Gossips received this letter this afternoon and agreed to publish it.

Dear Mayor Johnson,

As Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet, “Something is Rotten in the State of Denmark.” Well, I fear something is rotten in the City of Hudson with our Mayor-appointed Planning Board. Ethics and professionalism be damned! Who needs experience? We don’t need to hear from the public, or Hudson businesses. Let’s just get this thing over and done with!

… And who cares about Hudson’s waterfront history?!

• 1982: Hudson Common Council unanimously resolves to prevent further development in South Bay.
• 1996: Hudson Vision Plan is introduced, advocating for a deindustrialized waterfront.
• 1998-2005: Friends of Hudson and allies block the St. Lawrence Cement Plant project, which fails a coastal impact review.
• 2001: Hudson Planning Commission applies for party status with NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), affirming the goal of deindustrializing the waterfront.
• 2005: Secretary of State Randy Daniels mandates rezoning to phase out heavy industry in favor of public-benefit uses.
• 2006: A public survey finds that heavy industry is the least popular waterfront use, while parks/recreation is the most preferred.
• 2011: Hudson updates its zoning – Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan (LWRP) to remove industrial activities as permitted uses in waterfront zones, establishing the Core Riverfront (C-R) District.
• 2012: NYS Department of State designates South Bay Creek & Marsh as a protected wildlife area.
• 2017: Hudson wins a $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) grant to support waterfront redevelopment.

Based on their actions at the February 11 monthly meeting, the Planning Board, and their counsel (legal and engineering), appear to be taking directions from the Applicant’s playbook, and ignoring the voice and the will of the public who for decades have overwhelmingly expressed the desire for positive non-industrial waterfront development.

The public shouldn’t have to:

·        Beg for the Planning Board to do its job, with ethical standards and professionalism.

·        Lose sleep at night worrying about the fate of its waterfront and its city because of the proposed plans by a single Greenport business that has been operating without a permit since it acquired the dock in 2014. And whose plans will result in potentially massive industrialization of the waterfront, create significant hazards to the public’s health, safety and welfare, and jeopardize existing Core-Riverfront District businesses and the revitalization of adjacent waterfront areas (e.g., Dunn Warehouse, Kaz Development).

·       Spend countless hours writing letters to the Planning Board pleading for a lawful public hearing on perhaps the biggest conditional use permit application ever considered by the Board 

·       Plead to be allowed to attend meetings virtually for a myriad of reasons, to be able to speak during public comment period, and to enable transparency.

·       Hire attorneys to interpret court decisions and the law because the Planning Board’s counsel appears to have misinterpreted said court decisions and the law.

·       Arrange to audio/video-record Planning Board meetings for fear that the Board will not record and make meetings available to the public; and resort to bringing posters to meetings to express concerns for fear of not being able to speak.

A lawful public hearing should be allowed and hybrid meetings reinstated. And, the scope of review expanded to the entire dock operations in accordance with the City Zoning Code, as per the independent legal input recently provided to the Board by two highly respected and reputable attorneys; one of whom was the City Attorney for the City of Hudson during the dock conditional use permit review 8 years ago.

Bottomline regarding the Application:

·       The Applicant’s expanding trucking operations threaten public safety at major crossings (Route 9, Route 9G, and the Amtrak rail at Broad Street), and threaten the health and welfare of residents living in close proximity to commercial docks and the public while recreating and using public facilities adjacent to commercial docks.

·       The gravel shipping expansion is incompatible with Hudson’s long-standing deindustrialization goals and jeopardizes the South Bay Creek & Marsh protected area.

If the Applicant’s proposed dock operations do not meet City Zoning Code requirements, and the Applicant is unwilling to agree to meaningful conditional limitations to mitigate risks, then the Dock Conditional Use Permit application should be denied.

The Planning Board's reviews should not be taken lightly or made in haste. If this Planning Board is not up to the task of carefully evaluating and determining whether or not the Application meets City Zoning Code requirements, with the utmost professional and ethical standards, then they should be replaced.

Mr. Mayor, the future of our city and our waterfront are at stake. The "legacy" decisions made by the Planning Board will have long-ranging impact on our beloved City of Hudson and its waterfront, for future generations, and for decades to come.

Sincerely,

Concerned Hudson Citizen