The Planning Board meeting on Tuesday went on for four grueling hours. The first thirty minutes were devoted to the Hudson Housing Authority's redevelopment project, which Gossips reported on earlier. The next three and a half hours were taken up with Colarusso's application for a conditional use permit for its dock operations. The Colarusso team was there in force--not only JR Heffner and attorney T. J. Ruane, both also Paul Colarusso himself and their other attorney, John Privatera.
The Colarusso part of the meeting began with Ruane presenting renderings of the revised screening and landscaping plan meant to hide the dock operation from the surrounding area and to absorb the sound generated from the dock. Those renderings can be found here.
Landscaping plan involved the removel of the abandoned cement silo, to improve the view of the mountains from riverfront park. When the peregrine falcons that nest in the silo were brought up, peregrine falcons being an endangered species in New York State, Ruane said there were only two months in the year when they could remove the tower--two months during which the nest is not in use. Of course, what the peregrine falcons will do once their nesting site has been eliminated seems not to have been considered.
In the entire discussion of screening and landscaping, the detail that most engaged the Planning Board's attention was adding slats to the chain link fence along the eastern (facing South Front Street) and northern (facing Henry Hudson Riverfront Park) boundaries of the property. Installing slats in the chain link fence had been offered as a means to contain dust. Colarusso had suggested the slats could be green or black. At the meeting on Tuesday, Gene Shetsky said he would prefer no slats but definitely did not want black but might be OK with green. Bettina Young said she preferred green. After more discussion of the three options--black, green, or none at all--than seemed merited, the Planning Board settled on no slats.
There was also considerable discussion of the capsized barge, which apparently is still on our waterfront, waiting for its owner to retrieve it. Tugs pushed it south, beyond the dock, so it doesn't interfere with Colarusso's dock operation.
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| Photo: David Lee | Rural Intelligence |
All of that discussion took about half an hour. The next three hours were taken up going through the draft resolution, item by item--a resolution legal counsel Victoria Polidoro told the board she had created "to help them focus."
Page 2 of the resolution quotes from an August 20, 2020, letter from the Columbia County Planning Board, which recommended approval of the conditional use permit. Gaby Hoffmann asserted that in 2020 the Columbia County Planning Board (CCPB) reviewed "something quite different from what is being proposed now." She read from the minutes of the August 17, 2020, meeting of the CCPB, when the board made its recommendation to approve the conditional use permit, explaining that although the references are to the haul road the information is relevant to the dock:
The applicant proposes to improve the existing haul road between the quarry and the dock to accommodate two-way truck traffic, which will remove an estimated 14,000 to 16,000 truck trips annually at current conditions.
Having quoted from the minutes of the CCPB meeting, Hoffmann went on to say: "Fourteen to sixteen thousand truck trips annually is a lot less than what we're talking about currently. Based on my math, that's about 64 a day, so that would be a lot less than the 284 a day." Hoffmann argued that the CCPB recommendation for approval was based on numbers that were no longer accurate, "thus making the approval irrelevant, or at least problematic."
Hoffmann also read passages from the CCPB minutes that related specifically to the dock:
The hours of operation are proposed to as 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Friday. Trucks will not run on Saturday and Sunday, thereby reducing loading and unloading at the dock from 84 to 75 hours per week. The concessions to the operations of the docking operation will likely eliminate most if not all potential or perceived conflicts with any events at the City of Hudson Riverfront Park and the Basilica Industria as the functions are typically hosted during the weekends. The applicant is proposing concessions to limit the truck and dock operations to weekdays and to further limit the number of hours per day during which operation will be underway at the dock.
In contrast to this, the draft resolution states in its Conditional Use Permit Findings, 5 c:
Although dock operations may continue while the Haul Road is closed, the Board finds that these operations are less impactful without the truck traffic. The Applicant had agreed not to load or unload at the dock on major holidays and the Planning Board is further limiting operations on Sundays between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
Hoffmann insisted, "The park should be protected from all operations on weekends and holidays" and reiterated the opinion that "the details of the project have changed dramatically," so it should be referred again to the CCPB for a recommendation. When a vote was taken on sending the application back to the CCPB, only Hoffmann and Randall Martin voted in support of that action.
The process continued relentlessly, with Hoffmann pointing out problems with the draft resolution--the statement that Planning Board members had been "provided with links to all application materials and public comments"; the assumption that, because nonindustrial businesses have opened during the period of "unfettered operations" at the dock, the project will not be a significant deterrent; the quotes from the LWRP (Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan) clearly chosen to support the applicant's rights over the City's vision for the waterfront; the efficacy of the dust mitigation plan given the intensified activity (284 truck trips a day, six barges moored two abreast in the river)--and Planning Board chair Theresa Joyner asking repeatedly, "Does anyone else have a problem with this? Then we're gonna move on."
Around 10:00 p.m., when they had gotten to the Conditions of Approval in the resolution, Martin suggested that they stop and continue at another time. Hoffmann made a motion to adjourn, and Martin seconded it, but the motion was never voted on. Joyner said she wanted to go through the conditions, without discussion, and have board members email their changes, presumably to her and/or Polidoro. Fortunately, that didn't happen. When they got to the Ongoing Operating Condition that set the limit at 284 truck trips a day, it became clear that Joyner's forced march to the end of the resolution wasn't going to happen, and it was decided that the Planning Board would hold a special meeting to continue the discussion of the conditions of the conditional use permit on Tuesday, November 18. Unfortunately, that is the same day as the Common Council's regular monthly meeting, so the Planning Board meeting will have to take place at the Central Fire Station.
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