At Tuesday night's Planning Board meeting, just minutes before 9:00 p.m., which, according to its chair Theresa Joyner, is supposed to be a "hard stop" for Planning Board meetings, the board heard a presentation on Zoom by Wendy Andringa of Assemblage Landscape Architecture DPC, the group that has been working for close to a decade on a climate-adaptive redesign of Henry Hudson Riverfront Park.
In her presentation, Andringa presented the timeline shown below of past and future work. It should be noted that the project is being funded primarily by the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, although the City was required to provide a $75,000 match for the most recent grant.
Introducing Andringa and the project, Joyner told the board: "This company is the company that was hired by the City to beautify the Henry Hudson waterfront, and they've already been in contact with Colarusso. They're going to try to work together [with them], along with public comments and Planning Board comments, because the part that they've been hired to design is the part right next to [the dock area]."
The project is focused on the area of the park known as "Rick's Point." The plans include restoring the woodlands along the southern edge, along the property line with Colarusso; restoring the shoreline to make it more responsive to flooding; creating rain gardens to absorb water; "greening" Rick's Point and creating a fishing pier; and restoring the historic railroad trestle.
Andringa's presentation can be viewed here, beginning at about 2:21:12.
A couple of interesting things came out in the discussion that followed the presentation. When Planning Board member Gini Casasco asked about maintenance of the area going forward, Andringa said they were working with the Conservation Advisory Council and the Columbia Land Conservancy and went on to say that the CLC was "spearheading a Friends of Hudson Parks." Curious. This is the first time Gossips has heard of any such initiative.
Joyner pursued the question of Andringa being in contact with Colarusso. Andringa said they had "reached out" to Colarusso and want to coordinate the design so that "together we can find a solution that works for everyone." She went on to say, "The first step will be to meet with Mr. Colarusso." Joyner urged Andringa to submit comments to the Planning Board and keep them informed, because, as she said, "We are in the process of granting a conditional use permit to Colarusso. If there is anything that you think we should impose on them that helps with your project, please submit that to us." In making this statement, Joyner seemed to struggle to find the right words, but the fact that she settled on saying they were "in the process of granting" rather than "in the process of reviewing" seems telling.
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Colarusso doesn't even have a permit to operate a gravel dump at the waterfront. They are still in front of the Hudson Planning Board. So why in the world is any agency or company "co-operating" with Colarusso at this point? We are living in a pathetic political culture. ~ PJ
ReplyDeletePJ, you never disappoint. When I saw there was a comment under this post, I knew it was from you before I had even seen it.
DeleteYou've had your fair share of rodeos in front of courts over the waterfront. Why not have another one in which you reveal to the world how Bond-villain Collarusso has been operating their docks illegally all along? Surely, that's a guaranteed win.
The Valley Alliance, Our Hudson Waterfront, I am sure there's others - what unites them is their misunderstanding and ignorance of legal realities. When Theresa noted how the Planning Board was in the process of approving the C.U.P., she didn't drop a conspiracy bomb on us. She stated what all but the most die-hard waterfront aficionados already knew: The conditional use permit will be granted. Anything else would amount to unconstitutional taking.
We are having the public hearing on April 10. I predict there will be a vocal group of citizens that will ask for the shutdown of the dock in its entirety. Their contributions will be a waste of air, just as it was when they did so on Sep 27, 2023.
The smart ones will point out that the Planning Board has some leeway in imposing stipulations and limits on Colarusso's use of the dock. The others will stick to what already didn't work in the past.