As we all know, despite the opposition of the Common Council and Hudson Business Coalition and the the outrage of many Hudson residents, the Columbia County Board of Supervisors purchased 11 Warren Street from the Galvan Foundation last year for $3.4 million to use as office space, consigning Hudson to living with this Urban Renewal Era scar on the city's streetscape for decades to come.
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Because the building was designed to be a strip mall, there is some offstreet parking. but, as the Board of Supervisors knew from the outset, there are not enough parking spaces to accommodate the cars of the people who will be working in the building, not to mention the people who will be coming there to avail themselves of the services. The plan is to move the Board of Elections, the Probation Office, and the Public Defender's Office to this location.
Tonight, at the informal meeting of the Common Council, Jennifer Belton, councilmember for the Fourth Ward, reported that the Board of Supervisors Space Utilization Committee now wants the City to give them ten to fourteen onstreet parking spaces in the first block of Warren Street for the exclusive use of county employees working at 11 Warren Street. According to what Belton reported, the County would be willing to pay half the cost of an annual parking permit for each space, which is currently $250, in exchange for signage indicating that from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays the spaces are reserved for workers at 11 Warren Street.
It should be interesting to see how this plays out. Will the Common Council accommodate the Board of Supervisors, which clearly has no respect for our city, or will our councilmembers stand up for Hudson and the best interests of its residents?
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Update: Councilmember Belton has informed me that the payment proposed by representatives of the County for reserved parking spaces is not based on the current annual parking permit fee ($250) but rather on potential revenue from the parking spaces when the City carries out is plan to impose parking fees on all of Warren Street. At $1 an hour, this is calculated to be about $29,000 annually.
The Council can tell them to kick rocks. It’s the county’s fault for choosing that inadequate location. If they weren’t in such a rush to buy it in secret they could have done the due diligence. Even though I’m for metering the rest of Warren, we should have empathy for the residents there who can no longer park there for free. How would they feel if we basically then give it away to county employees?
ReplyDeleteUnion Jack,
DeleteAs a 22 year tax paying resident of the 100 block, I can tell you how the residents of my block feel. Like the City has run over us and not listened to a word any of us have said. The possible concession offered to those with "mobility issues" is to pay half price but keep the 2 hour parking limit.
And now, to possibly sell out parking for half price to the County , which has has total distain for Hudson is to add insult to injury. The County should have been fully aware of how much parking was available when they bought 11 Warren. Let the employees fight for available parking with a 2 hour limit like the rest of us.
Pam Kungle
Exactly, no one wants meters down here. I totally alters the character of the neighborhood in a negative way. It's not an improvement, like the ridiculous curb cuts being installed at the corner of 2nd and Warren. Whose hair brained idea was that? 2nd Street was already too narrow for two cars to pass, before the curb cuts made it even smaller. It makes no sense unless you make 2nd one way. Not to mention it takes out 8 - 12 parking spots.
DeleteWhat's the legal situation here? Apparently, the county can prune or remove trees when it's on property considered theirs. But city streets, and associated on-street parking on those, is presumably owned by the city. So the council can simply reject this?
ReplyDeleteThe answer is no.
ReplyDeleteThis is exactly what I said:
ReplyDeleteHi Everyone.
I have a couple of things that I’d like to discuss with you tonight.
The first is concerning parking at 11 Warren Street.
Margaret Morris and I met with some of the County Supervisors on their Space Utilization Committee. They asked if the city would be willing to give them the 10 to 14 parking spaces in front of 11 Warren Street and discount the parking fees by half. They are also willing to pay the entirety of the fees on a yearly basis. If we were to give them the use of the on street parking in front of 11 Warren this would only help with the parking issues for their staff. It does nothing to help with the parking issues that will be created when people use the services at 11 Warren (public defender, the probation office, and election board). During the meeting and again by email, I said that this was a problem of their creation and I thought that they should be doing more to mitigate the problem. I suggested that they take on the cost of paving and lining the gravel lot by the Ferry Street bridge. This would help alleviate the parking issues for both the county employees and the people that would use the services at 11 Warren. If the gravel lot is paved and lined, I also thought that the city should meter it. In discussing this with the parking committee, all were against discounts for the county and agreed that they should do more to help mitigate the parking issues.
Last June I wrote to the Planning Board concerning developers who put forward projects with inadequate parking, I noted the parking figures for 11 Warren Street. I told the planning board and many of my fellow council members, on different occasions, that I think it would be a good idea to charge developers who had inadequate parking, a fee for each parking space that they were not providing for their projects. This money could be set aside for repairs to already existing parking lots and the creation of new parking in the form of a parking garage and the acquisition of an EV Trolley to take people from municipal parking lots, up and down Warren St and to the Waterfront. Other municipalities have done this with success. It is an idea that I think is past due for our city.
I’m interested to know what you think.
The second thing I wanted to talk about is the resolution that is being put forward tonight regarding Parking Fees. I think we should table this resolution and revisit it after the implementation of Phase III when all of the Warren Street and municipal lot kiosks are in place. I think we should be moving forward incrementally and deliberately, and informing the public of our plans, which as of now are not completely solidified. There are still a lot of unknowns and I would like to allow ourselves time to problem solve as we move through this process before adding another layer by increasing fees.
There was discussion about whether the informal meeting was the right place to have these conversations. If it is not I’m not sure where to have them…
Charging developers for not providing parking is a good idea. But the PB can't implement such a plan by itself -- it has no power to legislate. You on the other hand, Ms. Belton, do have the power to legislate. So, are you writing a local law to implement such an idea? If you are, and you need some help, give me a call. If you're not, why aren't you?
DeleteHold strong with the county, I know you’re just the messenger here passing on what they told you. This again is a failure of the county and a failure of the Hudson supervisors who never seem to be around to advocate for their city. All the towns have one supervisor and we have five, yet we may as well have zero.
DeleteI think you’re doing a good job with the Parking Committee. It’s a hard job to update our outdated system and methods. I agree that you should roll out the new pricing with a deliberate plan. Decisiveness and communication is important. We should definitely raise the prices, which are absurdly low, including tickets. I overhear many visitors, especially from NYC, who laugh about low they are compared to everywhere else and thus don’t bother to feed the meter. Even a ticket is worth not bothering to find quarters. I do however anticipate more pressure on Union and other residential streets by visitors and business employees avoiding meters. The next phase after the meter updates should consider residential parking permits - not for metered spaces but for residents on their non metered streets. This would help those neighborhoods around the train station and hospital as well. Employees can use the under utilized municipal lots.
As far as parking minimums, this problem was brought on by the council when they eliminated minimums (before your time). It is only logical that developers would take advantage of the current zoning regulations. It would not be fair, and probably grounds for a lawsuit for the city to penalize them for following the current parking minimums, or lack thereof. It would seem the best thing to do would be for the city council to establish new parking minimums, but allow developers an option to mitigate a lack of adequate parking by having them pay into a parking infrastructure fund. Much like the current setup in place relating to the sewer system where large developments that would generate more than a certain amount of waste would need to pay for credits for the combined separation project.
Conducting city business on a blog is totally unprofessional and inappropriate.
Delete11 Warren Street = Claire Cousin's Legacy.
ReplyDeleteAnd now Claire wants to bring this level incompetence to the 5th Ward... oy vey!
Linda Mussman sits on the Space Utilization Committee. Incredibly, she continues to have nothing to say on behalf of the City she represents.
ReplyDeleteLinda Mussmann submitted this reply by email:
DeleteMr. Marston-- I was not informed by the County nor by the Hudson Council people that this meeting regarding Parking for 11 Warren Street was taking place.
Margaret Morris
DeleteThis meeting originated as a request from Mr. Lagonia to meet with me to discuss parking at 11 Warren Street. I agreed to meet, but pointed out that I was not on the Parking Committee and that Jenny Belton should be there to represent that committee. It was not my understanding that this was a meeting with the County Space Utilization Committee. To my knowledge, Linda Mussman was not notified of the meeting nor was she invited.
DeleteRobert Lagonia, supervisor for Austerlitz, is a member of the Space Utilization Committee.
DeleteAs usual for Hudson, irony is the flavor of the month. People complain about the tax paying new hotels not having adeguate parking but want to give valuable spaces for residnts to a entity that will pay no taxes.
ReplyDeleteI can sympathize with the County. It's a terrible situation. In fact, I wonder if it doesn't make 11 Warren an untenable property for it purposes. If that's the case, I have a client who would love to make an offer to purchase it from the County, save the poor benighted Supervisors and their put-upon staff the agony and sheer torture of having to park on the street like the rest of us.
ReplyDeleteSerious about making an offer though -- just give me a call.
Have Matt Murrell come in front of the council to beg for Warren Street parking spaces and allow him to make a spectacle of himself. Then politely tell him, "NO PARKING FOR YOU, GO AWAY!"
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely not. Good grief.
ReplyDeleteThe recent design proposed for Rick's point would eliminate all of the off-street parking that is there now. Wishing the cars away is not going to work. Not for 11 Warren or the Riverfront Park.
ReplyDeleteJust a few months ago Randall T said at his ward meeting that taxes "have not gone up".... which was a few weeks after the $1m budget deficit... we now learned it is closer to $2m... and the city has a few months of cash cushion...
ReplyDeleteThis is like a train crash happening in front of our eyes and should be studied by whoever wants to write the next Parks and Recreation.
Also, someone tell "Strong Towns".... Kamal and Tom's tenure proves their entire thesis.
John Friedman has the right idea. The City of Hudson should resist the County in every way possible, and make them regret the unfortunate decision to buy #11 Warren. Perhaps with enough pushback from the City, the County will relent and sell the property to someone who will do something more attractive with that important location. The County could just as well rent space in one of the dreary strip malls on Fairview Avenue. ~ Peter Jung
ReplyDelete