In his "Alley Chat" for today, Peter Spear talks about the lawsuit filed this week against the City of Hudson and Kearney Development by a group of Mill Street residents. Spear uses an analogy to describe Mill Street Lofts in relation to the 2021 Affordable Housing Development Plan, which states: "The project ideas proposed for these sites [one of which was the Mill Street site] would result in quality development that gently increases the density of the City with mixed income housing. . . . " The italics, the color highlighting, and the boldface are as found in that document. Spear's analogy is this:
It is as if a chef invited us all into a conversation about the kind of meal we would want to have if we could have any meal, and we all sort of agreed it would be great to have a vegetarian meal with plant-based protein and not so much red meat. . . . The chef celebrated our choices, publicized our choices, and then when we arrive for the meal itself, there's nothing but a big, fat steak on a plate.
COPYRIGHT 2025 CAROLE OSTERINK
For those not on Instagram:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.spearformayor.com/alley-chats/v/happy-4th-of-july-support-for-our-neighbors-on-mill-street
Thank you, Carole, for sharing.
ReplyDeleteOne clarification, the promise of gentle density I am referencing is from the launch page of the Affordable Housing Plan in September of 2021.
On that webpage - which is no longer live, the City announced:
“ The Mayor’s Office has met with all Council members and has engaged with about 275 members of the public through online and in-person events to hear the community’s thoughts on housing.
The city had a wish list for this development that included maximizing units for low-income and moderate income residents, commercial spaces, environmentally friendly designs, homeownership opportunities, and designs that fit in Hudson.
We heard from the community that people prefer smaller buildings scattered across different sites, which allows for more gentle density that fits with the surrounding neighborhood and allows households seeking affordably priced housing more choice in the neighborhoods they live in.”
They invited 275 of our neighbors to imagine the kind of housing they wanted. They clearly identified “gentle density” as the top community priority.
They then delivered a proposal that not only does not deliver on the stated community priority - it actively contradicts it.
It is not an exaggeration to compare it to feeding steak to an aspiring vegetarian.
Thank you, Peter, for this correction. Although the concept was definitely part of the 2017 document, the actual term "gentle density" was introduced in the 2021 study. I have edited the post to provide a link to that later study--completed during the tenure of our current mayor.
DeleteAnd BTW I found your analogy appealing because I have been a vegetarian (well, truth be told, a pescatarian) for more than thirty years.
DeleteIndeed -
ReplyDeleteAnd to extend your chef analogy... everyone paid for a meal, is now famished, and no one will leave happy.
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Hudson keeps airballing its shot on public housing... in a town where almost everyone wants more affordable housing, and more (gentle) density.
The Planning Board wasted more than a year forcing through a flawed plan, ignoring legal requirements, dismissing public input, and approving a project bound for court. The mayor and his allies misinformed the public about the procedural and environmental missteps, but more alarmingly, the fact that Hudsonians were never going to live in the proposed housing due to its national lottery requirements.
Now the City may waste taxpayer money on legal fees that could have been used in so many better ways.
The public loses time. Developers lose money. Taxpayers see their dollars drained on legal fights instead of infrastructure for all and attracting private investment.
Sean Kearney (the developer) and his firm will likely lose their entire investment to date, or spend at least half a million dollars more on legal fees gambling the plan might proceed.
But at minimum, this Article 78 will drag on 6 to 9 months, by which time a new Common Council is unlikely to ratify any land sale. Even if the developers win, appeals will take another 18 months and who knows what will come out in discovery with HCSD on the curious property rights transfer.
Hudson first scared off small private developers with rent control and high Welcome Stranger Taxes. Now any wise public or private housing developer will think twice before partnering with Kamal and Michelle's Hudson.
Environmental groups, long major players in Hudson Valley politics and finance, will be eager to support the Mill Street neighbors to defend the Public Trust Doctrine and ensure SEQRA is properly followed, not just here but across the region in even more vulnerable areas.
And to think the Mill Street neighbors raised all these concerns so respectfully, so politely, several times, in public and in private.
All frustrated parties, and that includes Kearney and Albany, have Mayor Kamal, Housing Justice Director Michelle Tullo, and Theresa Joyner from Planning Board to blame.