Spenser Walsh has an article today in the Register-Star about the Planning Board review of the project being proposed by the Hudson Housing Authority: "Hudson Planning Board working on approval for Bliss Towers project." The article does not include much information that has not already been reported by Gossips, but one of the images used to illustrate the article shows that one of the renderings of the project has been updated. The presentation visuals submitted on March 10 included a rendering that showed State Street "pedestrianized," but a subsequent rendering, posted to the Planning Board portal on March 24, has been revised to eliminate the "plaza" and show State Street marked for parking on each side.
Madeo told the HHA board that he expected there would be a special meeting of the Planning Board, focusing only on the HHA project, in the second or third week in May. He opined that they were "in pretty good shape with the Planning Board" and predicted they would have approval of the project by July.
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RE Mateo’s recent HHA Board update:
ReplyDelete"He opined that they were "in pretty good shape with the Planning Board" and predicted they would have approval of the project by July."
This seems to conflict with what we are hearing from the PB itself, which has been very transparent about not communicating an expected timeline, since so many SEQRA reviews are incomplete and HHA submissions were late and incomplete.
Mateo, what is the basis for that expectation, which you communicated to the "press"?
Beyond the schedule, there are 3 "uncommon" questions residents and the PB should be asking:
1. What is the final per-unit cost for Bliss 3.0, and how does it stack up against other New York State public housing projects?
2. Why are entities in the project’s financial stack making unsolicited due diligence calls all around Hudson?
3. If the financing is solid, why are the lenders and investors back-channeling for information?
The PB assumes all other parties are fully in the loop. Other parties assume the PB is in the loop. Meanwhile, life-long public servants in the County and City do not know what is going on with this project now, even after being approached by Dodson.
Why? Because he believes (and likely may) own a member of the PB.
DeleteThe fabulous irony here, the dirt in the dirty joke, is that a self-labeled progressive, without a sense of irony or humor (or ethics), is recreating the good ole boy network that Hudson is so famous for.
It is just curious which lawyer gave the City of Hudson advice on conflicts of interest here.
Delete~
Back to uncommon questions, does anyone know the current Per Unit Cost, for the new Bliss development, not factoring in the average cost over-run of virtually all public housing construction i New York state?
All other criticisms notwithstanding, keeping a city street with on-street parking passing through the development helps to tie the project back into the city and makes it much less of an isolated “outlier”. A positive development IMO that will benefit residents and the neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteYou sound so "in tune," Walter. When will you run for mayor?
Delete@ Walter - certainly a wise and fair point, generally, about the importance of connective arteries in a city.
DeleteThough of course the best way to avoid a periphery project, or Projects, or what other countries call Council Estates (UK), Banlieues (France), Townships (Africa) etc. is to not build them in the first place, and learn from the past.
This is why federal agencies, common sense, and experts, all believe in and advise:
- Scattered-Site Housing
- Mixed-Income / Choice Neighborhoods
- Moving to Opportunity Evidence
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moving_to_Opportunity
The Bliss 3.0 project plan fails miserably on "Scattered-Site", partially better on Mixed Income (in theory, depending on the AMI magic that does not work for Hudson vs. Columbia County), and fails on Moves To Opportunity.
Are those renderings really depicting the possible future of lower State Street? Here in Hudson?
ReplyDeleteWith all those mature trees, it looks more like a tropical paradise, perhaps even Eden. That funny!
Bill,
ReplyDeleteI don’t have the bandwidth or the skill set to run for mayor and am grateful that we now have a mayor that does.
You are good at trying to stop things from happening and at sometimes rightly criticizing things that have; I try to use my skill-set to improve things that are likely to happen or even tha should happen and I don’t mind taking a little heat and sarcasm for doing so. To each his or her own!