This could have been predicted. Kitty's Restaurant LLC, Montgomery Street Projects LLC, Hudson Steel House LLC, Basilica Industries LLC, Basilica Arts LLC, South Bay Railyard LLC, and Our Hudson Waterfront have filed an Article 78 petition "for a judgment to annul, vacate, and in all respects void the City of Hudson Planning Board resolution to grant site plan and conditional use permit approval" for Colarusso's dock operations. The petition, which was filed on December 19, can be found here.
Lawsuit translated for a Hudson audience:
ReplyDeleteImagine you bought a historic building on Warren Street. The Code says you can "continue using the building, but only with the facade as it existed in 2011."
You ask the Planning Board for a permit.
The new Planning Board hands you one that says: "Approved: You can continue using the building." (Notice they deleted the part about "the facade as it existed in 2011").
Because they deleted that one specific phrase, you now legally claim you have permission to tear the entire front off and replace it with a glass skyscraper, ignoring the historic rules.
The lawsuit is the reasonable neighbors protesting; "You can't just delete the historic rule to let them do whatever they want"
Regardless of what happens here... Theresa Joyner's hot mic comments as PB Chair will be devastating for the defense.
And the City of Hudson will lose funds to a legal process that would not have been necessary if a more capable Planning Board had been appointed by the mayor.
And the Colarusso folks, long-time employers in the County.... guilty of the "crime" of wearing American flag shoulder patches on Warren Street in the 2020s, will continue to have business uncertainty.
The cost of an inexperienced mayor (Kamal) and his political appointees, continue beyond 2025.