Wednesday, April 22, 2026

HHA and the Planning Board

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.


Regarding the Planning Board review of the project, at last Wednesday's meeting of the HHA Board of Commissioners, John Madeo of Mountco, HHA's development partner, reported that the Planning Board meeting that had happened the night before was "the first time since the transition there was real progress made." By "the transition," Madeo was referring the appointment of a new chair and two new members to replace members whose terms had expired. He also declared there was now "a good team in place on the Planning Board." (Revonda Smith, who chairs the HHA board, spoke of the recent appointment of "our girl Sara" to the Planning Board, alluding to Sara Black, who served on the HHA board for nearly a year before being appointed to the Planning Board earlier this month.)

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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3 comments:

  1. Hudson Common SenseApril 22, 2026 at 11:17 AM

    RE Mateo’s recent HHA Board update:

    "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.


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. John K. FriedmanApril 22, 2026 at 1:55 PM

      Why? Because he believes (and likely may) own a member of the PB.

      The 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.

      Delete
    2. Hudson Common SenseApril 22, 2026 at 3:13 PM

      It is just curious which lawyer gave the City of Hudson advice on conflicts of interest here.

      ~

      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?

      Delete

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