Colarusso Haul Road issue rises up again...Hudson needs a new lawyer--and fast.

To the editor:

You may have heard that Hudson was not successful in its case against the town of Greenport. Recognizing that zoning law can be complex, the gist here is that Hudson filed a case against Greenport arguing that Greenport should have issued a Positive Declaration regarding possible negative impacts during its SEQRA review of the proposed two-lane haul road. It was obvious to any of us who attended meetings in Greenport that as Lead Agency Greenport had everything to gain by supporting Colarusso (the company pays them the majority of its taxes) and given its support of suburban sprawl and lack of zoning regarding development is in no way interested in supporting Hudson’s attempts to protect its waterfront from the kind of re-industrialization the haul road would create. Note that Colarusso in no way promises to remove its trucks from Columbia Street if the haul road proposal goes through…so if we cave to Colarusso now we will have a two lane haul road at the waterfront and trucks on Columbia Street.

Why was Greenport designated Lead Agency, you ask? The bungling of this issue is the result of the incompetence of our city attorney Mitch Khosrova, which I outlined in a letter I have sent to Mayor Rick Rector.

There are other factors that have harmed Hudson’s efforts so far—false language in the DRI grant that supported Colarusso has been retracted, but this happened after the case was filed. Greenport has used this false language in the DRI grant on numerous occasions against the City of Hudson. We have former HDC Executive Director Sheena Salvino, our former mayor, and a number of grant writers to thank for that.

There is a another lawsuit making its way through the court related to work at the dock that Colarusso did without a permit.

We have challenges ahead. But one part is easy. Please consider writing a email to Mayor Rector, letting him know that you care about the waterfront and to demand better representation. Khosrova is paid with your tax dollars and mine. We deserve better and we need that to happen as soon as possible to defend our city against Colarusso. If Colarusso wins this battle they will accomplish what St Lawrence Cement could not: the destruction of our waterfront and all its potential, as well as serious damage to the city’s economic, social, and environmental health. This means damage to all businesses here as well as the safety and very livability of this city. We may disagree on some of the issues of Hudson life but I hope we can all agree that an industrialized waterfront will not do anything good for anyone in this city. Even if you live many blocks away from the waterfront, the proposed haul road will affect your life with noise, pollution, the significant loss of economic value to your home or business, and the loss of the waterfront as a place to relax and enjoy the extraordinary beauty of our river view.

Five minutes today will let our mayor know that you care about this city and its future. The time to start caring about this issue is today.

For those of you new to this issue, please feel free to contact me and I will give you a crash course.

And when you are done with your email to the Mayor—it can be short!--please send this request on to five or ten friends. We can do this, because we have zoning law on our side. Hudson should determine its waterfront future, not a company that doesn’t care what happens here. All signs point to their desire to ram this haul road through and then sell…to a larger company that really won’t care about Hudson.

Mayor Rick Rector: Mayor@cityofhudson.org

Julie Metz

Hudson