An Acrobat (PDF) file of comments I filed late this afternoon regarding the City of Hudson draft Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan can be downloaded by clicking here.
The five main points made in the document (which is only a warm-up for more extensive comments to be filed with the New York State Department of State Division of Coastal Resources) are:
- The plan is not responsive to the Secretary of State's clear guidance about rezoning the Hudson Waterfront in his key April 2005 ruling on the St. Lawrence Cement proposal;
- The plan ignores and contradicts the repeated instructions of the State's Coastal staff advisors not to further industrialize the wetlands of Hudson's South Bay;
- The plan is not responsive to overwhelming public input preferring a more sustainable, forward-looking, long-range vision for the Waterfront, choosing instead to favor narrow and short-term private industrial interests;
- The plan's “alternatives analysis” for getting trucks off the City’s streets and out of urban neighborhoods is both perfunctory, and based upon false premises.
- The plan worsens, rather than resolves, the "use conflict" in South Bay between heavy industry and public enjoyment that was identified more than 30 years ago.
The City could have a far more ambitious Waterfront plan—one which would serve a more diverse group of people over a wider area, providing social, economic and environmental benefits that could make this small City the top destination in the mid-Hudson Valley.
Instead, the plan’s consultant, attorneys and leaders (most notably former Waterfront chair Linda Mussmann of Time & Space Ltd.) turned their backs on the public’s clearly-articulated wishes. They failed to use the many tools provided to them to enact a more visionary and ambitious plan, instead choosing to cave in and cater privately to monied industrial interests.
But the public still has a chance with the State to correct the mess made by certain local leaders’ lack of gumption and integrity. Public input is being accepted by the State through mid-March; I'll post an email address for submitting comments soon:
Comments on the City of Hudson draft LWRP should be submitted by March 15, 2010 to: Kevin Millington, Department of State, Office of Coastal Resources, Local Government and Community Sustainability, 99 Washington Ave., Suite 1010, Albany, NY 12231-0001, (518) 473- 2479
