Uh, good evening everyone, and welcome to the village of hastings on hudson, new york. Uh,
this is no longer an official board of trustees special meeting 'cause we don't
have a quorum, uh, but the village manager, and I believe
that it's more important to continue this just as a community meeting instead of delaying this and putting it
off another month and running into scheduling issues with our, our, uh,
partners at lang. Uh, so we're going to continue with this this evening.
um, I'd like to thank recreation chair. Um,
she's been neglecting her grandchildren tonight by being here today. Uh, joanne bater,
devo, and angela reese, you're here in the back. Thank you for being here for the recognition.
um, and everyone else. So you wanna introduce?
sure. Yeah. Uh, good evening everybody, and, uh, thank
you very much, um, lang for, uh, being here to share this presentation
with our, uh, group. And the presentation is being filmed, so we
will be able to show it on our, our tv station and for anybody
that's not, not here tonight. Um, you may recall a couple
of years ago, the village had a kind of a preliminary, uh,
opportunity to assess mcc kran park, what needs to be done to
stabilize the park, most importantly, and what we can do to,
uh, just, you know, improve, improve the park for the enjoyment of all the residents
that live in the area. And so, um, we were, we had
gotten, uh, we had done some, we had done some preliminary plans
through that process, and then we applied for another grant
and we received a, um, half a million dollar grant, which we were able,
uh, we were, we were looking at how to kind of, um,
spend that money and then, um, we were fortunate
in some negotiations with arco to be able to
get a $3 million contribution from, uh, bpr
co for, uh, the restoration of nick krin park.
so we very, uh, stood, the board, worked very, uh, diligently
to find a, um, consultant that we thought would be
best for the project. We interviewed, I believe, uh, six or seven,
uh, different firms, and we had, uh, proposals
from I believe 11. And, uh, we chose lagan, uh,
as the best, uh, selection. And we've been working with them now for the
past couple of months to kind of massage what
had been done before and, uh, see and come up with a plan
for, uh, the project which is designed to both stabilize
the park and kind of, uh, have, make it be more
resilient to the action of the river and also
the action of storms and things like that. So, um, without further
ado, I would like to just introduce, uh, meredith, juliana and
jean, uh, rege, excuse me if I messed
your name up terribly. And also with them are, are victor cizik
and keith warner. And, uh, they'll, after we're gonna have a presentation,
then there'll be an opportunity for questions from anybody who wants to ask any questions.
and then, uh, there's some, there's some, uh, uh, photos
and, and things in the back, and there's an, there'll be an opportunity for some,
uh, direct one-on-one conversation with our consultants and
anybody else who's here. So, uh, thank you so much and, uh, please. Uh,
yeah, perfect. Thank you. That was great. Um, covered
it all our agenda and history and everything. So that was,
that was perfect. Um, okay, so,
um, to start out with, uh, first of all, meredith mentioned, my name's
meredith. I'm a project landscape architect. Um, just a little background on
our firm in general to start with. Um, lang is
a large multidisciplinary engineering and design firm. So,
uh, we cover a lot of different services here, but the ones that
are involved in this project, um, we actually have six disciplines all working
together, um, on this project. So we have geotech
site, civil survey, uh, our waterfront and
natural resources folks who also assist us with permitting because
they really have that covered. Um, and then landscape architecture also. So,
um, we actually are about 50 different offices, but, uh, our team,
all six of these services are all based out of white plains in new york city.
so we're really local folks. , um, a lot of westchester
experience. Um, so there are others that are
on our team that are not here today, but will be the face of the project for
tonight's uh, purposes. So we have, um, a few folks
that weren't able to make it. Um, kristen unfortunately was, is our kind
of head project manager and unfortunately couldn't make it tonight, but
get me instead on the landscape architecture side. Victor's also
a landscape architect. Keith is on our site civil side and jean is on our waterfront,
um, and repping geotech for us also.
um, so,
um, to start with, I think, um,
you know, as we were pursuing the project, like marybeth was certain route, we were kind of interviewing
and going through the process and every single person on our team had
some kind of personal connection to the town of sings. Whether that
was, um, you know, they had come down here and they'd gone to harvest on
hudson for like a celebration lunch or they went to a wedding
or had some other kind of, you know, memory that was here in this town.
so, um, we were really excited to kind of get this opportunity
to work on the project and then we got to know a little bit more
even, you know, about the, the town and the village and everything. And,
um, just really became kind of enamored with the community
and the family friendly atmosphere and um, this kind of dedication
to like arts and the environment and the access to the water that we have in
as part of mc kron. And that's really been
kind of a guiding light for us as . We worked through the project. So,
um, then we got to know a little bit more about ekron itself and um,
had, you know, how could you not, uh, fall in love with just
the views that are around. Um, so we really kind of break
down our site opportunities and constraints that start to guide, um, our
design decisions. And of course the memorable views
up and down the water out to the manhattan skyline and the palisades.
um, and even up to the bridge and everything are part of the opportunities that you
see right off the bat. Uh, but even going a little deeper than
that, you know, realizing that this is really a community space, um, plenty
of opportunities for lots of amenities and activities. And we
got this great understanding of all of the different things that happened there. And then
also, as mary beth was mentioning, started to learn about a little
bit more of the constraints as we walked around. Um, do you wanna
touch on this for our lives? ? So I just, um, it's a beautiful park.
you speak into the microphone, you need to speak into the microphone. Okay. Sorry.
that one closer . So it is, it's a beautiful park, beautiful views.
um, but the park itself is deteriorating,
um, mostly because of high winds. It's right on the river.
we're gonna get high tides there. We're gonna have, you know, wave action.
there's erosion that you can see in some of these pictures. You can see the erosion happening at the
surface flooding. So these are all things that we wanted to consider
when we were going to be reconstructing this park to be something
that everyone wants to go to and use. But as you can see in these
pictures, there will be times that, or there were times that it wasn't usable.
so this was some of our restraints with the highways tidal area
on the water, um, and making sure that this can be more resilient
and sustainable. Um, and you'll
see that those concerns for the shoreline and the erosion
are really, um, would drive a lot of our decisions throughout this
whole process also. Um,
so to start with just a little bit of kind of project history, landon's
project history on the project, um, we always start out every project with what
we call the due diligence phase. Uh, this is basically the phase of
work that mary beth was alluding to that we've been working through the last couple of months
where we learn all of the sort of technical
info that we need to about the project. Um, so, so far we've
completed our survey including a full boundary and topographic survey,
so that's fully updated, um, now and then also
a bathometric survey. So that's a survey of the water, what happens
below the water so that we can understand things like the mean high water and
how the shoreline restoration is going to work. Um, we've also
completed a wetland investigation where we actually found that there are not
flagged wetlands, um, which helps our permitting makes it a little bit easier
for us. Um, and then on the geotech side, we are
actually working now on, um, completing some borings.
so land borings. Yep. Yeah, , the land borings are in progress.
um, and that will give us a lot of information about the soil and characteristics of the soil.
um, and then we'll also be doing two borings in the water to understand
what's happening below the surface of the water. Um,
also throughout the project we've been working really closely, um, as
mary beth said, with our meetings with the village, but also with coordinating
with our adjacent owners. So we've done a design review with
arco, um, for the anaconda buyer site
that's next door across from kinley so that we understand
what their future plans are for that project. They understand our plans
and we're not, uh, proposing anything that's gonna be incorrect and also
not clear after
we work what we're working. And also
that minor male locality know, you know, what's computer and our
process re our soil. So we make sure that we can make,
um, have our schedule at this point. And
you can see where we are is highlighted in yellow there, where it, um,
public presentation, you're all here. That's what we're doing tonight. Um,
so the, this is nicely timed for us in our schedule
so that we can incorporate feedback, um, from all of you that
actually live here and interact with the space on a regular basis. And then
we will take all of that feedback and continue to rev refine.
uh, what I'll be showing you is the recommended, uh, site
plan. Um, we'll continue to refine that,
incorporate everybody's feedback as we get more and more kind of info from the
public. And then we'll be starting to work through the permitting
process as well. So you can see that sort of in the middle of the screen there. And then,
uh, refining the cost estimate as well so that we can look towards
a fall 2026 bidding construction
phase for the project. Um,
okay, so, sure, sure. Okay. So
this was the original concept design, uh, has some,
uh, great features to it, but we wanted to make sure that what we were putting in was
permittable and also sustainable and being resilient. So
first, just looking at the concept design, there's a bulkhead that goes around the entire
site. This creates a hard surface at the edge. It will help with not adding
fill into the water, but because of the hard surface it could cause scour on the
outside of it and you could have future issues. It's also not,
um, environmentally conscious. It's
not helping when we're trying to, you know, create a, an area that
we wanna have birds or an area that we wanna have fish come in.
it's just not typically something that, um, a lot of the permitting
agencies would like us to put in as that hardscape. Um, another
aspect of this is all of the amenities that are being put in
the hardscape upland. Uh, these are features that the agencies typically
tr try to shy away from. So close to the water. We wanna keep our impervious
cover to a limited amount, which we'll talk about in a little bit, but that's something that
we notice right off the bat that there is a lot of hardscape upland and we wanna make sure we
wanna limit that impervious cover. And then the last one that I just
want to know is the pier or dock with the floating dock
for boat access. Um, it is considered fill
in the water, which is not permitable. Um, it also creates cover over
the water, not river. Also
for the roof. So safety.
so we started from the site as we,
so we, our in area,
um, and where, you know, best use possibly,
um, highlight, wanna share beginning
of those views. We still have up to them. And also just, you
know, this really beautiful view where people have gotten married there and we don't
wanna, uh, make a major impact on those memories either. So,
um, there's to consider with those views. And then,
uh, kind of layering in the circulation
around the space so you can see the same views are high or the same points
of interest are highlighted. And then the circulation patterns that we notice throughout
the space starts to inform what we would suggest
for design recommendations for how to actually use the space. Um,
and then these blue arrows that you see are the sort
of initial thoughts of grading and drainage throughout the site. So we
recognized that the previous concept design raised to the grade
in the site and that is something we will also be
recommending. Um, so gina will talk more, a little, little bit more about it when we get into the
shoreline and talking about that. But, um,
understanding the way the drainage comes off the parking lot also helps
us to understand how we need to handle the water off of the parking lot as well.
um, and then again, going back to, you know, we
understand that this is a space, um, with these sort of different
zones throughout and also significant activities that
happen. It's a really amazing community
space that already exist and we don't want to make any recommendations
that would alter that in any way. We want you to be able to kind
of still host concert series and maintain all of the things
that, that the village is able to do there. Uh, now,
so, um, just to pause
for a second, 'cause we've said a lot of things. We've taken all of that information
that we've gathered so far, the technical side of it, the understanding
of the space itself and have worked together to develop
these four overall project goals. Um,
but,
and then, you know, standing there, so new conscience
and being able to have that direct connection to the water is a high
priority. Um, and then again, I think I literally just said this on the
last slide, but being able to maintain and enhance those community amenities
that we saw on the last slide. You know, creating better spaces for
the concert venues and opportunities, you know, even more opportunities
for weddings or picnics or even just, you know, headed down
there for, uh, lunch on your lunch break. Um, and then
really encouraging community wellness through accessible pathways
and a variety of seating. Um, we don't want this to feel like
a park, we want it to feel like a park that anybody can come to and be
able to get around, um, and have the same experience as anybody else. So
in thinking about those amenities, um,
those are our overall goals in thinking about those amenities. They've
sort of evolved over the course of the project. Um, so the
existing ones out there today are obviously the playgrounds, the bench
locations along the river, that open flexible lawn and a sort
of temporary stage comes and goes as we need it for the concert series.
and then in the schematic design phase, those
same key four amenities were still proposed
along with the addition of walking paths and overlooks the
kayak storage, the wooden dock and the bulkhead.
now as we head into the next phase that we call the dd phase design
development, so this is where we're evolving the design a little bit more.
um, those same four elements are still,
are top of our list here. And then we are still continuing
to propose walking paths, overlooks kayak storage,
and we've made a slight tweak that I'll walk you through for the
dock and the bulkhead as we are starting to say. Um,
what we're proposing instead is a get down, um, it's a technical
term for it. It literally gets you down to the river, um,
for kayak access. So that would be essentially concrete ramp. It's a da
accessible, so there's increasing the access to the water
so that you actually can get, you know, um, a wheelchair or
a walker or anything like that. If you have any kind of, um,
of those tools. , you can still access the water just the way that
anybody else can and you have a little bit more of a direct connection. Also
a safer connection, um, as gina was alluding to, this location
puts you in a little bit more into the cove into the safer space. Um, and
then a stabilized shoreline created with rip wrap and
increasing the grade is, uh, a little bit
of a softer approach than the bulkhead. In addition, we've
talked about a few other opportunities that we noted throughout the site. Um,
you know, the potential for adding grilling areas or a
pavilion, um, even adding, incorporating in some
rotating art in the form of sculptures or, um,
I dunno, , uh, and then educational signage and also site
lighting was a major thing you noted when we were there. That doesn't exist today, but
we thought worthwhile to, um, get
feedback on. Um, so going through the site plan,
this is our recommended site plan. So, um,
this is sort of the point we're at now and why we're having this presentation
is to inform you guys of all of these conversations we've had and thoughts we've
had, and then take everybody's feedback like I was saying, from folks
who actually use the space, um, and being able to incorporate it into
it. So there's a few tweaks, um, to this site
plan compared to the last one. Like we were starting to say. Number one that's labeled
actually, if you can see the cursor here all along the shoreline here
would be a stabilized restored shoreline. Um,
that would also increase the grade of the site. I can get
into a little bit more in the next slide. Um, and
then the get down that I was mentioning for kayak access is over
in the corner over here, kind of connected to the parking area, so there's easy access
in and out from the parking. Um, there are walking paths
that continue all the way throughout the site in a continuous loop.
and that's really headed towards that goal of increasing community
wellness that we kind of did a little calculation and found that
six to seven laps on that loop lapse on that loop
would be about a mile. So that's the kind of thing where you can go out and walk
around the circle a couple times at lunch and get your steps set
. Um, and then again, number five here in the middle of preserving
that open lawn has been a high priority to us this whole time. So we
want fit these amenities in while we actually also
preserve that open space, um, and use it for events. Number
six here is, um, an
opportunity for a performance pavilion. Um, so there's
a lot of different ways that you can take that. It can be a permanent structure,
shade structure, it can be a temporary shade, uh, a temporary stage
structure similar to what we use today. Um,
number seven is actually you'll see a slight relocation to
the playground. So we proposed a new playground. Um, the one that's
out there today, sort of getting to the end of its life. I think it's about 20
ish years old, maybe more . Um,
and so we're proposing a new playground, um, and
in a slightly different location where it gets you a little bit closer to
what we're calling like this seating within trees. So picnic
tables in this shady cove. Um,
and there's a little bit more of a direct connection there between that seating area and
the playground. And then, um, sorry, a skip right over
overlooks. Those are the four number four marked out in this kind of pinkish
color, but those are really those key locations where you get the best views.
so creating some seeding in those spaces. Um, and then
really all throughout the space we would be incorporating that native vegetation
as well. So all along the the rip rap shoreline, we'd
be incorporating a natural looking, you know, grasses and I have some photos
that I'll show you in just one second of that. And then also to handle some
of that rainwater that was coming off of the parking lot, we're proposing a rain garden
right at the edge of the parking lot also.
um, so a few character images, uh, for
us to help to kind of start to envision what these spaces might look like.
um, in terms of the playgrounds, there is
a lot of opportunities now to incorporate natural, more natural playgrounds.
some with fun features, they look like animals, it's great. Um,
they're, uh, a little more connected materials to that natural
environment rather than metal and steel and
all that plastic. Um, and then for the sort of meandering
pathway you can see in this metal picture that would be surrounded by made of grasses
and, and new tree planting on either side as well as opportunities
for that concert space or that open lawn to flex into
the concert space. Um, and you can see some kind of ideas that we're
headed towards for the seating under trees. So really wanting to create that
shady spot that you can sit at a picnic table and enjoy in the middle of
summer. I know we're not there yet, but we will be soon. All very warm
. Um, do you wanna cover this grading
? So this is a little bit more on the technical side. Um, so first
off, for the shoreline, we're trying to create a stable shoreline. We don't wanna
see the erosion that you've been seeing. We wanna make sure that it's protected
for the future for sea level rise. So that was one of the reasons why we
consider raising grades in this area. We wanna make sure that the park is still
there for your children to be able to, you know, visit it or, or
at least in 20 years, if not underwater. So raising grades was a, you know,
a one of the big components that we wanted to take away from the original, um,
concepts. And then knowing how we were
seeing all of this erosion, we wanted to stabilize the top of our slope. The
large stones that are out there seem pretty stable. It's a rather shallow slope, which is wonderful
because that means that we can supplement to that slope and then also
help raise grades. It'll go a, a little sleep steeper slope at the top
to get us closer so we don't lose so much of the park. Um, but, and then also
try and keep our stones above mean high water so we're not adding fill into the water
as well. Um, so we have our raised grades, we have our,
um, our sustainable, uh,
waterfront structure, um, and then we also have our
permitting agencies that we have to be mindful of and what they will allow us to do on site.
so some of the things that they'll bring into play is what I talked about earlier, impervious
first pervious cover. So impervious, we wanna stay away from anything
like, uh, concrete or anything that's not gonna allow water to
infiltrate into the ground. So we've considered pervious pavers for the site,
which will allow us to have water infiltrated to the ground. You'll see less ponding
in areas, which will be great. Then you can use this site right after
a big rainstorm. Um, we've also considered that there's been a lot of
flooding on this site, so there's going to be, um, proper drainage.
we have slopes for the drainage, we're considering all of that as well. Um,
and then also for, uh, the
impervious versus pervious material we have considered. There
will be that get down, but we'll make sure that on the sides it's stone
that's also gonna be considered for part of the retaining structures. So this way
we can still retain soil up land while letting this park
flood and then be able to recover quickly.
okay, so, um,
a few realistic, uh, constraints that
we have to the, the grading, the increase of the grading. So there are
existing trees that you can see through the middle of the park. Um,
these are, you know, they're listed out here what, what they've been identified
as in color, um, as well. And, uh,
if you are down in the park, you might notice that there
are a lot of roots exposed for a lot of these trees. And,
um, they're definitely very large. They provide a lot of shade. We love that.
unfortunate that anytime we fill in
spaces, so we raise the grade a little bit, um, anytime
we add up even just a couple inches of grade of soil on top
of a tree root, eventually those trees will be choked out.
um, we don't want to have that happen here, like we've said. And longevity of this park
is key for us. So we are already
proposing and thinking ahead to replace those trees.
also, just to be clear, all the trees along the parking would remain,
so you still have that divide between the parking area and the park. This only applies
to the trees that are within the lawn area. Um,
sorry. So thinking ahead to
what kind of proposed trees and and vegetation we would want to
get into this space. Um, these are a couple examples
of some really great trees that thrive in wet, salty
conditions and, uh, kind of
bonuses. They exist all along the hudson river, so we know that they do
really well in in parks along the hudson. They also are
all fast growing and have great structure to provide trees
for us. So in the cost estimate as we had
in the direction of, uh, creating realistic proposal here,
we've already incorporated, um, the installation of
larger scale trees to replace trees that will need to come out
in order to make this design actually work altogether.
um, so these would be installed even up to like 18 to 20 feet
on the first day. Um, so they've already started off at that
nice large scale, so you still get to sit underneath their day
one right when the park opens, um, and be able to have a little picnic in the
shade. And then we improve the longevity and the
lifespan of all of the vegetation by kind making that
replacement for these native trees. Um, in addition, as you
can see in the pictures on the side, you get a little bit more of that idea
of incorporating those native plants into the shoreline.
so they're not really, you know, they're not two separate things, right?
we don't have a bunch of stone as the shore and then a separate area where
there's planting. It's really a natural setting, um,
you know, along the path here. And then there's a great opportunity
that we love, maybe I love the most as a landscape architect,
but this opportunity to be able to educate the public on,
you know, native trees and native plants and pollinators,
um, education signage while you're meandering through the park. I
think . Um,
and then there's a few other opportunities in, um,
this project for general kind of improvements. So
the existing state furnishings, uh, we noted while we were out there, you know, some
of them are, uh, getting eroded and floating away
a little bit with, with some of the shoreline issues. And there's a little
bit of mismatch. So there's a great opportunity here
to provide for updated site furnishings and
even introduce a little pop of color into the space. These are,
um, a sort of family. They go together, they match really nicely. You
can select between chairs or picnic tables or just benches
and, um, they've been well known to hold up really well in that
salty, harsh condition along the water.
so, um, getting a little bit more into some
of the details. We have started
with a preliminary cost assessment for the project. Um,
uh, at the this point, this, like I said, preliminary,
it includes escalation of costs over time because
we are talking about this now and construction will actually be in the future. It
also includes a little bit of wiggle room for any potential
changes to the design that we might make. Um, so
there's a little bit of flexibility in here, but the key thing that
we wanted to see with the cost assessment at this point in our design process is that
we have the sort shoreline stabilization covered and
access to the river as well as the elevating the grade of the park in
order, um, to create that stabilized shoreline
that's all covered. Um, it comes to about 1.2,
uh, million dollars and as mary beth was saying, our current funding
is at 3.5. There's a few additional items in here too
that we're working through with the village, um, that there's
potential opportunities to either phase those in the future or
to find other means of funding for them. Something
like a new playground, there's other opportunities for. So,
um, okay, so I think this is a really important
point. Um, I'm glad you guys are all here. This
is the point in the design now that we've sort of introduced you to it, where
your feedback from the community is really valuable to us. Um,
that's the stuff, you know, that we really rely on everyday people
who actually use the space every day. Um, and
we really appreciate that communication. So, um, I'm gonna encourage
you all to come talk to one of us and the,
any, any of us here , um, and
let us know your thoughts. Uh, there are also other opportunities
for feedback too. So, you know, if your friends and family couldn't make it here tonight
and you wanna spread the word, um, there is
a page on the town website where you can go on there and you can
press this, leave a comment way at the bottom and
write in your thoughts and it'll get to our folks
over here at the village and then they will share it with us. Also, the boards
that you see in the back are going to be posted in the library. Um,
so there'll be opportunities there to be able to still add comments to them and
we'll pick them back up. Um, and I believe this will be a
topic at future planning board meetings too. You can correct me if I'm
wrong on that, . Um, and um,
yeah, so I'm going to pause on our site plan here
and open the floor if there's any questions that you wanna ask out loud in
the open forum here, you can come up to the microphone.
I, I just have, we may have to drive off, have one question, uh, before we go, um,
to open the microphone. Sure. One of the areas that you had cited earlier
was also kayak storage. Where would you foresee that on this map?
yeah. Um, so one of the places we were looking at opportunities for storage
would actually be kind of in the area, um, as you come in so
that there's some space there, um, to be
able to potentially fit some storage. Um, otherwise would have
to continue working through some spots for it where it's easy access down to
the get down. Yeah, I mean, they've already made
themselves available for us mingling as well, but if anybody wants to
ask a question, it's for the benefit of everyone in the room if we all hear the question and the answer.
so that would be great. Thank you. Adam . Thanks. Thanks adam.
my name's adam hart. I, I live here in hastings for many years and
first of all, this is one of the most exciting things that could be happening
to our new, um, I have a couple questions. Okay.
uh, I, I'm involved in with, uh, putting musical,
uh, festivals and things together. And so I think about those kind of
logistics and a couple of things that popped out at me design-wise
were the fact that, um, the, the playground and the pavilion are
near the, uh, the catch basin, which could potentially
be a wetter zone of mosquitoes, et cetera, et cetera. So
I was thinking about the children, mosquitoes, those kind of things, uh, for that.
and the other thing I was, uh, I wanted to point out was that when
people are seeing a, um, uh, an event, they
wanna watch the main, what's happening at the event and gaze out of the
river. So by putting the pavilion against the parking lot, which I understand
for sight lines, you know, that looks, that's nice mm-hmm . But
for, uh, for the events and for the use of the town and the people who are in the
town, I think that if the stage was flipped the other way around, like
where it is now is I think brilliant barb was, uh,
was fabulous because years ago we put it, uh, where number four
is mm-hmm . Which was okay, it was that other way, but it locks the view from
harvest. So, um, okay,
there was that, that, and I think that's helpful
and to cover the mosquitoes and the drainage. The number 11 here
is going to be a rain garden. So that will capture
all of that water and uh, oh
and we'll carry it away before there's an opportunity for
any mosquito breeding or anything like that. So, um, yeah,
we were thinking the same thing. , we noted when we were out
there that there were a couple low spots in that back area where, um, that were
definitely still ponding after a few days after some rain. So we'd
wanna handle that.
. Good evening. Jim metzker. I live at 4 27 wall burton been
in the village for 26 years. Um, I've also been part of
many, many, many groups that have been looking at the waterfront in particular looking
at the village. Um, so I have some, some questions, some
comments. Um, the kayak access, we looked at doing
kayak access probably 20 years ago. And one of the issues
was when you have a solid ramp going down to the waterfront,
as you get water up and down that ramp, whether it's concrete or wood, tends to grow,
algae becomes incredibly slippery. So it's something I wanna make sure if we're gonna
be doing something like this, that it's not something we're gonna have to maintain
on a, you know, on a monthly basis to prevent any sort of issues
from that. Um, you had mentioned doing lighting.
I'm a photographer. I'm gonna have a few spots in the village where you can go photograph
anything where you don't have a huge amount of light pollution. And if we do
do lighting there, I'm hoping it will be not only dark sky compliant, but
literally as minimal as possible is one of the few areas in the village
where we can actually have a great view of the river and not be worried about
having light, uh, light pollution issues. Um,
not part of your project, but something to the village to consider access
to the park involves if you're walking and we try be a walkable
community walking down, what is it, about a half a mile parking lot and it's
really a horrible way to enter the one really nice green space
we have in the village. And I'm hoping the village would start looking at ways
to beautify that, that walkway down
by the tennis courts and down by canal cove so that you're not walking down
an asphalt placing this, oh, now all of a sudden we're in the park. Which
brings up also the issue of how we access the park currently.
it's kind of almost hidden that you come in at the far end of the parking lot
by harvest, you come in the other side. It would be nice if we could do something
that had a a, a more grand gesture as an entrance
into the park. Um,
we have a boat yard and again, this is not part of your issue. It would be nice
if the village could enter into discussion with the people that own that boat yard.
um, it's really not a great looking place as I think we
could all agree. It'd be nice if we could figure out some way to either screen it
or to encourage them to, to improve.
uh, the, the look of that. One of the issues
I have with the design, and I understand the concept, I was part of a whole series
of, of, uh, of issues we had after hurricane sandy.
um, we were looking at the entire hudson river basin and all of
the issues going on. Um, I understand the need for all the rip wrap,
but the farther we push people away from the river, the less connected to the river we
feel. I also understand them, I know about your impervious surfaces.
I'm wondering if we couldn't develop some sort of viewpoint with a,
an open steel grid where you could actually build that up over the rip wrap
slightly elevated to allow people to get out over the river or
at least above the river. Something to think about. Um,
if we can't get, if you ever go down to any of our festivals, people are
just gravitating, they're scrambling on those rocks. They want to be next to the water.
it's a dangerous situation, but we can control that with proper design.
so I'd like to do that also. The farther back you push people into the park
with the way the roof wrap was set up, the more you reduce the sight lines up
and down the river to the bridge and to the city and to the water,
the , the water tower that I'm hoping we're gonna keep, um,
you showed a variety of topography and I understand the need to raise the,
the topography for sea level rise. One of the big issues
we had during sandy is whenever there was an obstruction
in either level of ground or with an actual retaining wall, as
happened in irvington, water comes in and it has no way to drain
back and you create this bathtub effect and the restaurants
in irvington got hammered. We had water.
I was down at the waterfront about, um, I don't know, an hour or two after the storm
stopped. The water was literally up to the sliding glass doors into
harvest. So we know that this area floods. We need to make sure
as we create, and I love the idea of creating a change in topography, you get different
elevations, just a much more natural landscape. We have to
make sure that we're not gonna create a situation where we're going to create
flooding and then retain all of that water. Um,
I'm almost done, I promise. Um, in terms of benches, one of the
issues we have, and this happens a lot during the, the festivals we have
down here. Some people want to face the river, have the music to the back. Some
people wanna be able to sit there face music, they have benches at the high line
where the bench actually flips over from one side to the other. And that's a
type of, of furniture I think would be very beneficial to have on the edge of the river.
um, what adam talks about is critically important.
the thing that makes hastings hastings, aside from the people that live here
is the palisades. The palisades is a unique
geologic formation on earth that exists nowhere else. You
can go nowhere else and see that if we don't promote that,
if we don't celebrate that with everything that we do. And I think adam had a
great point. When people are watching the performers, they're watching the performers
and they're also watching the sunset on on the palade,
it's a huge deal. We want to make sure that we're celebrating that as much as possible.
um, last thing. Are we gonna have, and this may be more for
the village, there gonna be more public meetings like this. I'm very disappointed
at the turnout at this meeting, quite honestly. I was hoping it would be much larger.
this is adam said, we've been waiting for this for decades
now and I love the fact that you guys are really bringing this home. I'm hoping
this is the one that catches, it would be nice if we had another opportunity
for people in the village to show up. And even if
it's just to be informed. 'cause at a certain point I understand you can't just keep making changes.
so, but we wanna make sure that the village is informed as we go ahead
and a year and a half from now, we don't look at the thing, oh wait, when, when did
we have a chance to take a look at this? I'd like to make sure the village knows. We would
like to be more informed. Thank you for coming tonight.
can't really expect to come to a meeting and have people show up. Not having spent
half of their life working on the waterfront . So I
spent quite a few hours in new paltz at the dec when we did our whole
waterfront plan for the anaconda site and
south. And um, and one of the things that was
made very clear in the feedback we got from them is
that mitigate, they were looking for mitigation everywhere. And uh,
there was a lot of creative thinking that went into how that might happen on that side.
um, so I assume that's an issue
also with this plan with dec to get them to, or
are they not insisting on mitigation? I'm gonna talk to that if that's
okay. So, um, I work with dec all the time at army corps
for every project that I have. Um, we know
that we're in an adjacent area here. We're doing everything that we can to not add any
fill within the water. So we won't need mitigation. If there is a
possibility that we do have to add fill below mean high water, then
we will look for areas to pull back. One of the areas could be where
the get down is where we could pull it back and it would be a little bit harder of a surface or
a, or a steeper slope to get us down to mud line.
um, but in this case right now we are not going to ign mission and we're trying to avoid
it at all. So the addition of the rip wrap is really back up
into the space and that's correct. So it is the existing slope that's there now. Yeah,
we are going to replenish it where needed. But again, trying to say it above
being high water, it shouldn't be considered fill. And then everything
that we're going to build up is gonna be a much steeper slope at the top, replenish
in below it. And we're not going to be pushing back
the land further because we're doing a steeper slope to raise this
two feet. Okay. So you're not losing any land of land and you
are also having a more sustainable waterfront structure.
so yes, no fill below the high water. So, um, another
question has to do with the trees. Um, it's a shame to have to
take those trees out. I I am guessing that probably with the rise in
sea level, they've got, uh, their number anyway is
coming up right because of the exposing of the roots and more
water. Um, so this is just comments related to kind of
the necessity of doing that and what the timing would be. Um, but also
the points have already been made by the previous two speakers and very predictable.
'cause when we're sitting there watching those concerts, it's really nice to be able to just kind of look
over at the sunset or nobody's mentioned the fish jumping out in
the river, you know, huge fish jumping out there all the time. . Um, so,
you know, one, one possibility if, if the trees
have to be changed, uh, replaced
would be to put that pavilion kind of where we've been setting it up temporarily
and put more trees back up where you've got the pavilion so that you
still get the trees. But, but I think you're gonna find, uh, that
the three of us are not the only ones that will have, you know, feelings about
that because of the way we sort of interact with that, the palisades and the river
and the music. And so it's, it's a thought.
um, and I guess just to confirm
what your, the plan would be to just do
all, take the trees out and go right back in and replant. So it wouldn't
be any kind of sort of staging of that over time. It would just be done
all at the same time. I mean within the same project. In
other words, not over a period of years or, yeah. Okay. Thank
you. Yeah, thank you meredith. I just, um, the slide
you showed of the different topography and the different heights,
I am hoping people will watch this on tv for that here . And um, I just
think that could be clarified a little bit because it's all different numbers all over it
and I think that people may not understand that because unless
this is their thing, right? So if you could explain that a little better, if you could go back to that slide.
I think it would just be instructive. Um, so people have a sense of what's, what it's gonna
look like. 'cause that is the number one thing, right? To be sure this part is sustainable
and we do have to raise it. So that is the most important. Yeah. Yeah.
this, um, does have a lot of numbers on it. Um,
and I noticed on the screen up there it's a little washed out.
um, but the idea here, so all of the different numbers that
you see, um, the, the 6.9, the 6.5
with the feet after them, right? That's the existing elevation
of those, uh, spots. So harvest on hudson, it's
at 6.9, the parking area just outside of, of harvest
on hudson, it's at 6.5. Um, the access
to the access walkway, uh, is at
seven and thank you
. Um, the whole middle kind of area of the park
is at about four to five feet, so it's a little higher in
the back towards harvest sun hudson. It's a little lower in the front, uh, towards
the shoreline. And so what we're proposing in the rest of these elevations
is this kind of middle call out here that you see where we're saying raise,
raising the elevation one oh oh shoot, sorry, uh,
raising the, the park elevation about one and a half to two feet.
um, so the whole open lawn area, for example, it's at roughly
four and we're saying let's raise that up to roughly five
and a half to six. Um, that allows harvest on
hudson to keep all of their beautiful views. It doesn't block their views
and it allows for us to do the stabilized shoreline that
gina was describing before. Um, so
this whole kind of central area, let's say within the whole continuous
walking path loop, um, would raise about one
and a half to two feet. That varies a little bit throughout
the space, right? Some areas are already a little higher. We don't need to go full two feet,
that's why, uh, there's a variety of different numbers throughout there
too. Um, and then we'd create a couple low points in the back
that you see and those would be connected to the rain garden to pick
up, um, in drainage structures and then, uh, get that water
out of there so that we don't have standing water and we don't cause a mosquito problem
or anything. Um, so that's the sort of overall
gist to to describe that a little bit. I'm just gonna add to that. So
this park is going to flood. We're not telling you that it's not going to flood, it will continue
to flood, but we wanna make it so that it recovers much faster when it does flood.
so we are doing studies to understand the contours that we would need to put in
to be able to get the car to drain as quickly as possible and
also avoiding it from having any erosion from this drainage. So
as meredith was talking about, we wanna high point, so that's why it does drain
very quickly and we are being very mindful that we're not draining back
into an area like where harvest on the hudson is located
or in an area like where the playground is that we're not flooding areas
of that nature and that it can flood even towards the river, which is really where we want
it to go. So this way goes off site as quickly as possible.
oh,
one clarification meredith. Sure. So the, the, the numbers that
are lower on that, so the 4.5, the six points, no at the bottom part mm-hmm
. Down here. Yes. Is that, is that what it's gonna be finally? Or is that what
yeah, what it we're done and that's what I just wanted to clarify because I think it's a little unclear.
yes. Yeah, so we think roughly that the areas, um,
would end up at these elevations. So 4.5, this is a little bit of a lower spot
where we wanna kind of intentionally bring you down again
a little bit closer to the water so you feel that connection, um, at
that overlook that's there. And you get a nice view up
to the bridge from that spot and across the palade, um, the
six on the other side, you actually kind of want to be up a little bit
to get the view of manhattan. Um, so that's the
reasoning for it. But yeah. Thank you.
hi, um, I'm allison mueller and my husband and I moved to hastings this past summer
and I'm actually brandon's granddaughter, um, .
um, and so obviously very excited to see the park being cared for.
um, we currently have, there's a stone bench in her honor that the family placed
there, so I just wanted to make sure that that was gonna be cared for and
yeah. Yeah. Thank you. I'm, I'm glad you mentioned that there's the stone bench and
there's actually also a memorial art piece, um, that's
in the park and those we've discussed already, kind of at length, um, that
we would want to find someplace through the, the new
layout where we can bring those back and honor them and give them a little bit
more, um, ability than they have
today. So thank you. Thanks for coming up.
okay.
um, I just have one question that I did ask before.
is there any, um, amenity to have, um, electricity
where the pavilion is or its stage? Yeah, so that was
one of our thoughts actually with the location of the stage that we're showing right now
is that that, um, you know, we had a similar kind of back and forth
of where to put that. Uh, we went through a number of different kind of alternative
layouts and uh, one of the things that did come up is
that connection to electricity. So the best places
to connect to the larger power would be out beyond the parking lot.
so one of the things we were kind of trying to keep in mind with the location
where we have it is that use of access for
electric. So we did note that it
does change the backdrop, so
yeah. Okay, well I think let's open the, you know,
get up and stretch our legs and walk around and, um, if you want to, you
know, put your face kind of a little closer and see those, the boards are a little easier
to see than the screen. Um, so there's a couple boards that are
back there, there, the, there's two copies actually of the site plan. So you
can leave, um, a sticky note with some comments. There's also
a couple character images on one of the boards and we have
little dot stickers that, you know, are sort of a voting mechanism.
if you like something on a character image, you stick a dot on it. Um,
if you don't like something, you have to tell us that with your words and we'll write a comment about why.
um, and we'll stick that on there. And then there is also,
um, a board about our project goals. So those overall goals that I talked about
at the beginning, um, are reiterated on a board
so you can kind of take a little bit more time to digest them and let us
know if you have any thoughts. There's some sticky notes and docs back there. And there's
also, we will also also have some with us. And feel free to come.
hi. Can I make a comment? Ask a question. Okay. I don't have much of a voice.
I called outta in my sick bed to come to this meeting for a few minutes. So I'm wearing
a, uh, a mask. So I don't believe the microphone. Um, a couple
of things I just curious, can I see the picture? Is that, where does that show where the stage
is gonna be? Yeah. Or there's been many public comments on
that location already. What's that? There have been, there have been many public comments on
that location. Yeah, I've, I've heard, I've been listening on facebook, so I heard some, most of them.
um, uh, I just wanna make sure I see the trees behind the
stage. I just wanna point out that when we produce a concert,
the trucks come in on the back road and they pull up behind the stage
to unload equipment and that's where the band usually pulls in as well. It's how often to
coming with a lot of equipment, the sound company, that other entrance tends to
get very muddy. Um, just my harvest. Yeah. And we've
also been asked to keep cars off that spot, so, and also that's where the public
would be setting up. So would it be possible with the trees
that are look, looks like are there to pull in behind the stage?
um, we can definitely look it up. Okay. So yeah,
I would appreciate that. And then also the sound company sets up, I guess they could to
the right or the left of the state. They end up putting tables and attend on the side for
the sound board, et cetera. I heard what was just said on my way about the
electricity from the parking lot. We usually use a generator from the fire department. It'd be terrific if
it was, it had electricity of course. Um, and then where's the playground
gonna be? Which number is that? So number seven right here is the playground.
okay. So that's gonna be pretty close to the backstage of the production area, but
I guess just keep that in mind. The other thing is the performers might be facing the
sunset, so the sun might be in their eyes, well they're playing, which might be
a consideration. I think adam mentioned the audience preferring to
look out at the river where this way their back will be for the river. Uh, I
mean they can walk over and look at it on the side, but it's not quite the same as sitting there
watching the sunset. We call it the sunset concert series. Um, so
I don't know if it's too late to think about putting it where it was, but, but then obviously
the figure would have to move a little back where it was so cars could drive in behind the
stage. So those are my only thoughts about it, so. Okay. Okay.
I appreciate them. Yeah. Yeah. And definitely no matter what not to put the stage blocking harvest
'cause that would be a big issue for them. That would be, yeah. , even though it was nice when it was
in that corner, it didn't work with the, with the restaurant. Okay. Thank you so much. Awesome.
thank you. Hi. Um, I just
wanted to add one thing that we will be putting this presentation on our website
and we do have a, a dedicated comment, uh,
area there as well. So, um, if you think of something else after you
go home that you forgot to share, uh, the opportunity still
exists and, uh, on that, uh, same, uh, location on the
website, we've, uh, put previous, um, uh,
uh, powerpoints and things as, as we've gone through this, this iterative process.
so, uh, yeah, let's all get up and stretch your legs as you suggested, and take
a closer look at what you've got. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you.