Today, Dunn and Done LLC--Caitlin Baiada, Sean Roland, and Gabriel Katz, managing partners--submitted a letter of concern to the members of the Planning Board regarding the Colarusso dock operation. Dunn and Done LLC is the group taking on the restoration and adaptive reuse of the iconic Dunn Warehouse building on the waterfront.
If the C.U.P. is granted without limitations, it is likely Dunn & Done LLC will not be able to move forward with the re-development due to the serious negative environmental, health, recreational, and economic impacts it presents to Hudson’s residents and the waterfront. An active gravel transfer station without City imposed stipulations on industrial activities compromises the waterfront for recreational use and creates an unsafe environment for residents and visitors alike. Thus, we anticipate that the unmitigated risk of increased industrial use at the waterfront will impede our ability to finance and operate the project successfully. . . .
For clarity, if the C.U.P is granted without stipulations, it is very likely that no revitalization of the Dunn Warehouse or the surrounding waterfront area will occur under our group's initiative.
The entire letter, together with the redevelopment concept presentation from October 2023 and the community engagement report from August 2024, can be found here. It will be remembered that Dunn and Done LLC partnered with the City of Hudson to apply for a NY SWIMS grant last year. Hudson was awarded a NY SWIMS grant in August 2024.
COPYRIGHT 2025 CAROLE OSTERINK
This letter clearly states what’s at stake and the choice we must choose - and which is better investment in the future, or do we give it all away to those who want go back to the past.
ReplyDeleteHey, if the Trump tariffs on Canadian oil keeps going up maybe we can bring back whaling :)
Better yet, why not the tank farm??
DeleteIt's absolutely amazing that anyone thinks it a good idea to allow hundreds of heavily-laden 60-ft long gravel trucks to cross two busy highways carrying 13,000 cars a day, then proceed through a protected wildlife habitat, then cross train tracks that carry 28 trains a day, then dump their load next to a beautiful waterfront park. 'Good ol' boy' politics is the only thing that explains this ridiculous situation. - PJ
ReplyDeleteAnd so the illusion of choice over the fate of the Colarusso dock is being perpetuated by a new player.
ReplyDeleteAre we now till the end of time pretending that the Planning Board has the option to deny the conditional use permit despite the legal realities saying otherwise? It seems that Dunn & Done LLC thinks so.
They must be pretty confident in this belief given that they leased the property from the city in full knowledge of the existence of the dock and what it's used for.
The latest iteration of this shit show will commence tomorrow when the new seventh member of the Planning Board will no doubt vote in favor of a public hearing.
So we'll have another Potemkin Village of a public hearing that will go nowhere.
Dear Not Peter Meyer and others, you left out the annoyance of hundreds of tourists -- and did I see a swimming pool, so maybe thousands -- competing for a view that can be had in thousands of places for a deepwater port that is one of a very few along the hundreds of miles of the Hudson River.... So, I hate to say it, but "hundreds of heavily-laden 60-ft long gravel trucks" compared to thousands of 20-ft smart cars clogging the way to tourist docs to give the elite a nice $300/night stay on that lovely property might be a worthy debate between apples and oranges. --peter meyer
ReplyDeleteSorry for the typos. ... "had in thousands of places along the hudson compared to one of a few deepwater ports for commerce, the is still important to Hudson -- and America.... --peter meyer
ReplyDeletePeter M, would you please outline the benefits for the City Of Hudson in having a bigass gravel dump and industrial truck route on our waterfront? Anxiously awaiting...
ReplyDeleteTax revenue.
DeleteHudson receives no sales tax revenue from sales made in Greenport.
DeleteIt only gets property taxes from Colarusso for the small portion of its property in Hudson, which are a pittance.
Both sales taxes and property taxes from this parcel would be higher with virtually any other use. Hudson could get more by putting a flipping XtraMart on the dock.
Tassilo, Of course the Hudson Planning Board has the right to deny a CPU to Colarusso. If it were a legal fait accompli, then why is the company participating in the process?
ReplyDeleteYou'd be surprised. I am pretty convinced it doesn't and that is based on a long conversation I had with an attorney over a year ago as I was trying to piece together the inscrutable origin story of Hudson's failed LWRP.
DeleteWhat the Planning Board can do is - within reason - set stipulations. They did this the last time they deliberated a Colarusso application in 2023.
What is less clear to me is if an email to the Planning Board, sent by the stakeholder Dunn & Done LLC, can be effective when it amounts to little more than flat-out blackmail. If I were the Planning Board, I'd be tempted to call the bluff of a party that just locked itself into a lease.
Hudson is not an heavy industrial city. It’s a small city full of small businesses including antique stores, book and record shops, designers, small manufacturers, locavore restaurants and bars, artists and artisans, and small manufacturers among the many other creative ventures going on here. Immense care and investment has gone into restoring and saving buildings fit to be condemned. The cost and time that goes into saving, restoring and revitalizing such an historically important town like Hudson is immense. Without a proper plan for how Hudson can move forward we’re a ship at sea with no rudder. Hudson is not an industrial city. Use of the waterfront should not be industrial. It’s only from absolute and total lack of vision and mismanagement that the will of the tax paying residents and business owners has been ignored, leaving Colarusso apparently calling the shots. Why? Colarusso is a company with plenty of funds to take its shipping operations to an appropriate industrial port to suit the scale of its operations. The dock serves a small fraction of its needs- it’s not vital to their operations. Public sentiment has been swayed through the perpetuation of lies and fairytales about the “long history” of their dock ownership and usage. Their pockets are deep and they seemingly hold the Planning Board (mayoral appointees) by the family jewels. The Planning Board has power. Tax paying residents and business owners of Hudson have given an enormous amount of input against Colarusso but seemingly have no representation. What is next? I believe that without strong leadership Colarusso will ruin the waterfront and its potential. Clouds of small particulate dust pollution will fill the valley and our waterfront. The marshes will suffer, people’s health will suffer. The city will suffer. Some leaders advocate for people to shut up and put up. I’ve seen enough activism in my short life time to know that is not an option. I stand with the local businesses and people against Colarusso’s dock usage. I stand for a fully revitalized waterfront park with nature, marine activities and local businesses thriving together.
ReplyDeleteColarusso is a locally owned and operated company. The Hudson waterfront has historically included shipping including industrial products. Recall the Basillica was a glue factory where Australian jackrabbit pelts were reduced to mucillage. Beyond that, moving aggregate on roads to another deep water port when Hudson is one of the river’s historic deep water ports is contrary to state policy that calls for aggregate to move by water whenever possible. Clearly limits need to exist so the city and the company can coexist. But the historic uses of the waterfront have always included industry. Often smelly industry.
DeleteThe Hudson waterfront has commonly gone inactive or defunct for many periods throughout its history, from the whaling era forward. The whaling industry repeatedly failed before disappearing entirely in the early 19th century... The first cement plant (c. 1900) didn't even last a decade before starting up a decade later. The Atlas plant then closed during the Depression. It then failed again in the 1970s. Other industries left behind wastes which had to be removed and remediated at enormous State/local expense. From 1977-2005 there was zero industrial shipping from the current dock; the only very occasional use in the 1990s-early 2000s was salt shipments for local roads, which heavily regulated by the City, but were canceled by Hudson when Cargill violated its permits.
DeleteMuch of the industrial mythology spread by SLC and its successors is just that.
For those of you who think the Colarusso gravel dump and industrial truck route is a good thing for Hudson, here's a suggestion; Take a drive through the Hudson River communities that have aggregate / cement industry. Without exception, they are the most run-down, miserable, economically-depressed towns in the area. Extractive rock industries have such brutal downside impacts that nobody wants to live near them. Hence, no new investment from more benign forms of business. And worse, the companies have a long history of tearing up the landscape and then walking away and leaving their mess behind. There is nearly zero employment at the Colarusso dock for Hudson residents-- the drivers are coming from out in the county and elsewhere. Thus, Hudson suffers the many impacts in trade for what? What is the attractive upside for the City? The State of NY awarded Hudson a $10 million grant specifically for improvements in the waterfront zone, so why would we want to permit a crappy industrial operation that is a major negative on local quality of life? I'm still waiting for someone to articulate the good reason for Hudson to tolerate increased blasting, heavy truck traffic, diesel fumes, danger, and visual blight. ~ PJ
ReplyDeleteIt's worth noting that the gravel business is extremely low-margin in terms of profitability (about $2/per ton.) So the Colarusso business plan doesn't make any sense unless the company ramps up the volume of truck and barge traffic significantly. Therein lies the threat to the Hudson waterfront.
ReplyDeleteDunn and Done is acting lke the plamt just magically showed up overnight. Anyone would have done their due diligence before entering into an agreement. It sounds like an excuse to back out of the deal.
ReplyDeleteThe proliferation of Peters here is really annoying. Maybe something can be done to disambiguate this. I believe I am now talking to not Peter Meyer but Peter Jung:
ReplyDeleteWhat the margins of their business are isn't your call to make.
I will also contradict your claim that no one wants to live near them (the quarries, I assume). I live within walking distance to Colarusso's. When they blast, my house shakes a tiny bit. It's perfectly fine.
"I'm still waiting for someone to articulate the good reason for Hudson to tolerate increased blasting, heavy truck traffic, diesel fumes, danger, and visual blight" ⬅ The ultimate arbiter here is the law. Nothing else matters. In the past, it has sided with Colarusso and not with you.
It's why I said elsewhere that the proceedings in front of the Planning Board project the illusion of a choice. The board has some wiggle room and can impose certain stipulations on the applicant but there are limits beyond which it cannot go.
I don't know if Mr. Von Parseval is an attorney or not but a majority of the comments and discussions I've heard disagree with his legal analysis. If that's true, and he's wrong, then I have yet to hear a single argument that holds water in support of the CUP. Why would any true citizen or lover of Hudson choose committing our waterfront to years more of unhealthy, toxic, and non income producing heavy industry over restored, beautiful, income and job producing recreational areas? How is increasing Colarusso and Sons' bottom line more favorable than creating an area that will allow everyone, near and far, to enjoy and take pride in? Our waterfront could be the jewel of the river and there are a lot of folks living here, old and new, that want that and would see their quality of life improved if it happened. The only reason to the contrary I've heard is, I don't like change! Unfortunately, change is always happening, and can't be stopped, so why not choose the path that makes the future a happier, healthier, and more prosperous one?
ReplyDeleteWhy is everyone assuming the land and dock will be for sale if the CPU is not issued?
DeleteWhoops! CUP
DeleteIronic coming from the folks building a huge money hungry hotel. If I may add in a neighborhood that doesn't want it.
ReplyDelete