[0:03] good evening I am John Van Tassel supervisor of the town of phillipstown

[0:07] and I would like to welcome everyone to this joint session of the village of

[0:11] Nelsonville Village of Cold Spring in the town of Phillips Town board the

[0:15] purpose of tonight's meeting is to provide information in response to

[0:19] questions regarding the proposed Hudson Highland Fjord Trail

[0:23] this is not a public hearing and the boards will conduct no actions or make

[0:28] any decisions as per our town attorney the only motion required is to adjourn

[0:33] the meeting which will happen with a hard stop at 9 30 PM I would like to

[0:39] thank my colleagues for all their effort this has been put into this elective

[0:43] exercise I would also like to thank the holiday essential school and Dr Phil

[0:47] benante

[0:53] thank you the Putnam County Sheriff's Office

[0:58] the culture

[1:03] the Cold Spring Police Department

[1:11] town of phillipstown code enforcement officer Greg Warner

[1:19] Cecile Roars for recording

[1:26] Damien McDonald for assisting with AV

[1:33] I would also like to welcome state parks as well as Hudson Highland

[1:37] pure Trail for assisting us and providing to our information to our

[1:42] constituents excuse me some ground rules for this evening there is obviously an

[1:47] abundance of Interest as well as a motion for this topic I am confident

[1:51] that the residents of our town will remain professional and respectful we

[1:57] will not tolerate outbursts or any personal attacks I suggest if you feel

[2:02] you are losing control of your emotions you step out of the room

[2:06] there there will be no warnings again this is not a mandatory exercise for any

[2:11] of the municipalities that are here and if we feel it's no longer a productive

[2:15] format we will adjourn I would now like to introduce the town

[2:20] Board of the town of phillipstown Deputy supervisor Robert Flaherty

[2:29] council person Judith Farrell

[2:35] council person Megan Cotter

[2:40] and councilperson Jason angel

[2:47] to my left I have mayor Kathleen Foley from the village of Cold Spring

[2:54] mayor Coley could you introduce your boards

[2:56] with us tonight is Deputy Mayor tweeps Phillips Woods

[3:03] trustee Catherine fatty

[3:08] trustee Laura Bosey

[3:12] and trustee Eliza Starbuck could be managing the timer

[3:17] also to my left is Mayor Chris Winward of the village of Nelsonville and she

[3:21] can introduce her board please

[3:26] from Nelsonville we have Deputy Mayor and trustee David moroney

[3:32] trustee Travis Bureau

[3:36] trustee Thomas Campanile

[3:40] and trustee Maria zionovich

[3:46] okay so the flow for the meeting tonight our first priority is to get through the

[3:51] priority questions which you have submitted

[3:53] um which with shared moderation by the Mayors and myself and and councilman

[3:58] Angel who I'd like to thank for putting together the entire program for

[4:02] submitting the questions as well as collating the answers and responses for

[4:07] the top questions uh we we do plan on having an open

[4:12] comment from 9 to 9 30 if time allows we will have a hard stop at 9 30 and

[4:18] again I request everybody beg everybody to be to remain respectful neighborly

[4:23] and productive okay so uh introductions we've been

[4:28] through town jbt we will go to my my presentation at this

[4:34] point

[4:38] just introduce our guests thank you very much oh yes I'm sorry

[4:43] um if you guys wouldn't mind please introducing yourself thank you very much

[4:46] for coming and speaking with us tonight um we have guests from the office of New

[4:52] York state parks recreation and historic preservation and the Hudson Highlands

[4:57] York Trail foreign

[5:03] good evening I'm Linda Cooper I'm the regional director for the Taconic region

[5:08] of New York state parks Taconic region is one of 11 regions in the state and

[5:13] that encompasses the parks historic sites and trails in Westchester Putnam

[5:17] Duchess and Columbia County pleasure to be here thank you for coming out to

[5:21] listen

[5:25] good evening my name is Matthew Davidson I'm a Deputy Commissioner with state

[5:30] parks and I'm the commissioners a designee overseeing this project and

[5:37] our efforts to support it and oversee it

[5:45] hi I'm Richard Shea a lifelong resident of Cold Spring in Phillips Town former

[5:50] Town supervisor former Town board member former caretaker at little Stony Point I

[5:55] have over 30 years of community service in this community so I'm glad to see

[5:59] everybody else it's going to be a great discussion

[6:01] [Applause] a board member of the Hudson Highlands

[6:07] Fiora Trail the newest member I I do ask everybody that they treat Richard with

[6:12] extra kindness because he's a little sensitive about being in front of a room

[6:19] and hello I'm Amy Kasam the executive director of Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail

[6:23] and thank you for the to the communities for organizing this we're really excited

[6:28] to be able to talk to all of you tonight and answer your questions and I did also

[6:32] just want to assure you I know we you know there was a prioritization exercise

[6:35] that took a lot of effort for the communities to organize and we'll be

[6:40] answering 15 questions tonight but we wanted to assure you uh at the start of

[6:44] the evening we'll be answering all 210 that were submitted well I guess minus

[6:49] the 15 will answer tonight so thank you

[6:52] [Applause] but I'm supposed to introduce but we

[7:01] have with us somewhere Lydia biscope who's the chief of operations for New

[7:04] York state senator Rob rollison oh way up there hi

[7:10] Victoria cafarelli who's the chief of staff for our assembly member Dana

[7:14] levenberg in the back

[7:19] the Putnam County Executive Kevin Byrne sends his regrets and he has asked

[7:23] Transportation director Vinnie tamanya to stand in his stead this evening so

[7:27] he's with us for the county um as is our district one legislator

[7:32] Nancy Montgomery [Applause]

[7:47] and lastly the MTA was actually able to send someone to join us may Patel is

[7:51] here she's the assistant director of the Metro North Railroad and is able to join

[7:54] us [Applause]

[8:01] so um myself and the two Mayors will just briefly go through our feelings uh

[8:07] where our jurisdictions begin and end in this project so I will start off if

[8:11] that's okay yep I'd like to take a moment to address the

[8:16] sections of the trail that will fall within the town of phillipstown outside

[8:19] the boundaries of the village of Cold Spring

[8:21] during my 40 Years of Emergency Services in the past 14 years on the town board

[8:26] there has been a consistent request that New York State provide more services to

[8:30] the 9d breaknet corridor we have continued to work with the Agents of New

[8:35] York state parks towards a safe way to handle the crowds we often experience as

[8:40] the supervisor I am often addressed by constituents to do something about the

[8:44] crads I nor the town have the capability of limiting the number of visitors that

[8:49] decide to come here and take in the amazing place we live since limiting is

[8:54] not an option we need to prepare and have resources and amenities to assist

[8:58] with safe enjoyment for tourists as well as our residents the town of

[9:02] phillipstown provides limited direct resources to that area of the township

[9:06] we are responsible for providing EMS and fire service as the budget officer of

[9:11] the town of phillipstown is my responsibility to address any increase

[9:15] if any in call volume that the proposed the proposed Trail would cause I have

[9:20] seen estimates that reflect a 20 percent increase in volume to that area which is

[9:24] just that an estimate no one has a crystal ball and can give

[9:28] accurate statistics of the future the demand would also be affected by the

[9:33] increase in the amenities in the region I look forward to a continued commitment

[9:37] by New York state parks hhft and the town of phillipstown to provide safe

[9:41] enjoyment to tourists as well as residents of the Hudson River and the

[9:45] trail system I also expect any additional Financial

[9:48] demand placed on the town to be addressed again this is my concern as

[9:53] the town is supervisor and I have a firm belief in home rule and expect that the

[9:57] sections that fall within the boundaries of the village of Cold Spring will be

[10:01] negotiated with the village of trust Village Board of Trustees and mayor

[10:04] Foley and I also encourage the village of nelsonville's concerns to be

[10:08] addressed with their board and mayor Windward thank you

[10:15] thank you

[10:20] thank you well the village of Nelsonville doesn't have any official

[10:25] jurisdiction um in the area we do have obviously some

[10:28] concerns on the potential impact of the Fjord Trail

[10:31] the first is the quality of life of our residents we are an important part of

[10:35] this community too our border is only a quarter mile from the one traffic light

[10:38] in Cold Spring and our quality of life suffers when we cannot access the

[10:42] cultural environmental and commercial hub that we moved here to enjoy and that

[10:46] we help to contribute to second financially the Nelsonville Woods

[10:51] trails linked directly to the state's under cliff and Washburn Trails within

[10:56] the Hudson Highland State Park we are concerned about the potential impact of

[11:00] an already overburdened trail system spilling into the Nelsonville Woods

[11:03] which we are financially responsible for including liability insurance

[11:08] similar to what is already successfully used in other New York state parks it

[11:12] would be great to see what visitor Management Systems could be smartly

[11:15] employed for the Fjord Trail and identify a maximum number of daily

[11:18] visitors we only have we also have two very small

[11:22] parking lots at the Nelsonville trailheads that could be impacted if

[11:26] there is a strong influx of additional hikers one of the locks being off a

[11:29] single Lane Private Road the last area is shared services

[11:35] nelsonville's residents are also served by contract with the Cold Spring fire

[11:39] department and most of our residents water is supplied by Cold Spring

[11:43] after last year's drought any potential additional burden on our community's

[11:46] water supply is concerning thank you

[11:51] [Applause] so I don't think there's any question

[12:02] that the village of Cold Spring is the community and the municipality most

[12:06] impacted by the proposed Fjord Trail particularly with the route through

[12:11] Dockside that has been described by senior Parks officials as the donor's

[12:14] preferred pathway The Dockside property belongs to New

[12:18] York state parks it's a state park within our Municipal boundary

[12:23] The Village manages Dockside under contract with no maintenance or

[12:27] programming funding from the state the current contract is due to expire in

[12:32] 2028 but can be extinguished with notice at any time

[12:36] twice the property was offered to the Village of Cold Spring and twice the

[12:42] village declined this is some years ago now it's not recently

[12:46] the choice is made were Pennywise and definitively pound foolish

[12:51] we'd be in a very different position right now if the village had said yes

[12:55] either time but we're not here we are

[12:59] The Village does have a status in the State Environmental review for the

[13:03] proposed Fjord Trail though it's limited the village is considered an interested

[13:08] agency in that review meaning that it lacks jurisdiction to fund approve or

[13:14] directly undertake the project but can participate in the review process

[13:19] our planning board is identified as having site plan approval

[13:24] and our Board of Trustees can comment on the master plan both boards need to

[13:29] engage and listen to the public New York state has in terms used by

[13:34] other senior Parks officials Superior sovereignty over the villages and the

[13:40] town that means that the state can declare

[13:43] itself immune from local land use requirements

[13:47] perhaps the state can declare itself immune but should it that's one of the

[13:53] questions that we need to ask in recognition a village residence in

[13:57] their quality of life I would say no with the fundamental impacts this

[14:02] development will have on our village good and bad I would say no

[14:07] in recognition of all the burdens and costs of State Park visitation already

[14:12] born solely by Cold Spring villagers I would say no

[14:17] in recognition of the self-determination that is enshrined in local government I

[14:22] would say no we are fully aware that the village

[14:27] cannot solve the challenges of visitation on our own

[14:31] we need New York State we need Putnam County and we need hhft to work with us

[14:37] as equal Partners on decisions impacting life within our Municipal boundaries

[14:43] villagers should have a real say in whether the trail begins within the

[14:48] village and how it's accessed via our streets

[14:52] there is no root through the village that keeps visitors off residential

[14:56] streets they're all residential and they all deserve the respect of having

[15:01] visitor impacts mitigated by New York State no matter where the Fjord Trail

[15:05] starts whatever final form the Fjord Trail

[15:09] takes after the multi-year public process that's about to come

[15:13] The Village deserves appropriate impact mitigations ones that we can all live

[15:18] with I hope that our Municipal Neighbors in

[15:22] Phillips town and Nelsonville will support decisions that will protect the

[15:26] village long term we want visitation managed there's no

[15:30] disagreement on that we all want visitation managed

[15:34] and we want to survive as a vibrant desirable residential community and a

[15:39] thriving local economy so we need to keep talking and that's why we're here

[15:45] [Applause] thank you

[15:58] so just a few words about the process um as as representatives of your

[16:04] municipalities as community members we all obviously know that the Hudson House

[16:08] Ford Trail is a issue that people feel very strongly about both um with

[16:13] concerns both those in support and both those that fall somewhere in between and

[16:19] so we wanted to organize a conversation that was as productive as possible that

[16:23] was Community Driven and that Focus this conversation on the top priority

[16:29] questions of the community uh and so just a report on the process we asked

[16:34] for any Resident of phillipstown to submit their priority questions related

[16:38] to Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail we received 217 questions so for all of you

[16:43] who read them out there congratulations thank you for doing that it was an

[16:47] educational experience uh we we removed seven of those questions because of

[16:52] non-residents or because no residents given that's all we did those 210

[16:57] questions were then included publicly without any other alteration

[17:01] 146 residents participated in the ranking process seven were removed from

[17:07] that ranking vote process because they were non-residents and so we came down

[17:11] to these top 15 questions we're going to discuss tonight I guess the only word I

[17:16] would say is that there's no such thing as a perfect process so we all know that

[17:23] um but the one thing I hope everybody here does realize is that we are trying

[17:27] to organize this meeting in a way that has a commitment to openness to

[17:33] transparency and to really the idea that the local community and community

[17:37] members should be a part of kind of driving the conversation in this process

[17:42] as it goes forward and so just a few notes

[17:47] um the guests from New York state parks and Hudson's Fjord Trail we're given 10

[17:52] minutes to respond to those 15 questions you do not have to take all the time if

[17:56] you don't want it but you have 10 minutes respond to those questions

[18:00] and to each question that's asked and then we will move on to the next

[18:04] question we'll get to as many of those top 15 as possible and then

[18:10] um every resident who submitted a question was asked to read it here

[18:13] tonight thank you for those of you who could make it if they could not make it

[18:16] then a moderator will be reading it on their behalf all right thank you and I

[18:21] will turn it over to Mayor Windward great thank you so let's kick off the

[18:25] questions um we're going to have kind of an on

[18:28] Deck Circle so I'll I'll call the first folks and then two if you don't mind

[18:33] being steady and ready to go um the first section is on

[18:37] accountability and transparency and the residents who submitted

[18:42] questions first coming up is Alice krakauer and then on Deck will be

[18:47] Cynthia Kling for her husband Phil Weiss and Stephanie Hawkins

[18:52] thank you

[19:00] hear me you just go like this it goes like this

[19:04] your ads claim that the Fjord Trail is Community Driven I'm sorry can we Alice

[19:11] can you just ask the question as you proposed it needed to set up I'm going

[19:14] right there so my question is will the Fjord Trail be built even if a

[19:19] majority of people in the community are against it

[19:23] thank you thank you so much

[19:29] thank you

[19:31] so that question feels like something that's a dialogue Ender not not the

[19:39] beginning of a conversation um I I understand the question I

[19:43] appreciate that but I think this is the continuation of a

[19:48] process that's been going on for many many years I mean since 2015 and prior

[19:53] to that in a more informal way um it was a Community Driven initiative

[19:59] and I know that because I was one of the founders of the idea so it was myself

[20:03] Julia femularo Mike McKee Hank Osborne a handful of other other community members

[20:09] so the idea the impetus for this was to solve existing problems

[20:16] everyone looks at the 90 Corridor and they wonder when is that accident going

[20:20] to happen when is somebody going to get injured there

[20:23] so taking that as the fundamental basis for

[20:28] solving the issues or that as a an approach saying what can we do to make

[20:33] sure people are safe when they visit the area along with residents who used to

[20:37] use the corridor and it's really a complicated quarter because you have so

[20:42] many authorities in there you have Parks you have D.O.T you have Metro North you

[20:47] have dep DEC so getting all these people together is to spend this colossal

[20:52] effort and over the years over a decade that has taken place brought everyone to

[20:58] the table open discussions there have been forums in the past where community

[21:02] members have attended those I don't know if people who here had attended the

[21:05] event at the Chalet but since its Inception it has been a Community Driven

[21:11] idea and something that I really support again the future doesn't exist today but

[21:17] the problems do and these problems aren't going to go away without a

[21:21] solution without people working on it and I think tonight is not the beginning

[21:25] of the process as I said it's a continuation we're in the middle of a

[21:28] process so to ask what will happen if no one wants this well

[21:34] it's sort of a loaded question um there are also numerous communities

[21:39] involved if you're looking at

[21:44] it there are numerous communities involved you have Cold Spring you have

[21:48] fish gill you have Beacon there are a lot more people involved a lot more

[21:52] communities involved and we are looking for input from everyone this has to be

[21:56] an open and honest discussion and Hudson House Fury Trail is interested in what

[22:01] people have to say and that input is taken seriously we need good ideas when

[22:05] I served on the town board any local initiative that came along you have a

[22:08] public hearing you hear from the public and then the outcome gets better because

[22:13] somebody comes up with a good idea so that's what I'm hoping is going to

[22:16] happen out of this process

[22:19] okay next okay let's be courteous everybody

[22:25] so I'll finish it a little so as Richard said this so we'll just skip

[22:30] ahead but just to keep in mind this groove from the locals and yes it feels

[22:34] like a big Coalition project now but it's really had a long story in the

[22:39] community and I think the answer is it should never be that you know what I

[22:44] mean it came from the community it's been refined by the community and the

[22:48] story I think the message I'd really like everyone to walk away with today is

[22:52] that we're going to keep refining so it's already refined several times over

[22:57] the past and we're we're continuing to refine today so if like just a you know

[23:02] not even going back as far as 2006 but in 2015 we had a safety focus at that

[23:08] time people really wanted to see more people come to Main Street you wouldn't

[23:11] say that today so we went and we changed it we got visitation was getting too

[23:16] high the covid pandemic Equity considerations hit more of in people's

[23:22] minds and we refined and we included accessibility and we really thought

[23:26] about visitation management versus encouraging people into the downtown and

[23:31] we really thought if if you have to have all these people coming by your door how

[23:36] did how can this place be retained for uses that you currently enjoy and create

[23:43] um Recreation assets I mean you're the

[23:46] daily users you're not the weekend people you this is really mostly going

[23:49] to be used by locals we wanted to make sure those needs were reflected in the

[23:54] design so

[24:02] okay can we please be polite and courteous so we can get through as many

[24:06] folks as we can tonight no you um

[24:11] so and so just to let you know where we are right now in our refinements we're

[24:15] looking at the environmental review is underway

[24:18] we're head Consultants look at Ada accessibility on the project and we have

[24:24] visitation management Consultants just starting with us to think about what are

[24:28] the tools we really need to have all of in our pockets and even think about

[24:32] what's on the ground so that we're making sure this really manages

[24:36] visitation and sustainability is always a focus for us too so we have the draft

[24:41] Master Plan before that is a final master plan we will have additional

[24:45] refinements and your input is going to help shape what that looks like

[24:49] or something thank you

[24:53] we have our next uh question asker um

[25:00] are you are you guys satisfied with your own response

[25:04] yeah sure okay thank you sorry I didn't want to cut you off so

[25:08] sorry go ahead

[25:12] um uh this is for my husband I like this

[25:15] plan when it was a Wooded Trail back in 1950 in 2015 it transformed into a

[25:21] concrete Extravaganza that will scar the landscape forever

[25:25] um because of the influence of a private donor Chris Davis even Parks deferred to

[25:29] him and his grandmother's Vision who elected him and how is he accountable

[25:34] for the millions of dollars [Applause]

[25:42] [Applause] question

[25:47] I I knew that'd get a good response you know there are a lot more than one

[25:55] person involved in this process and when you look around this room tonight

[25:59] everyone here is involved in this process it's not just about one person

[26:04] it never was about one person New York state parks did not defer to any one

[26:09] individual I've worked with New York state parks for 20 years I've never seen

[26:13] that happen to go back to the concept of the trail

[26:17] and you know my I am for public disclosure Phil Weiss is one of my best

[26:22] friends so um

[26:25] the concept of the trail has evolved over time but it is not a concrete

[26:30] extravaganza and again there are aspects of this

[26:34] trail that are still being designed with public input and that are bound to

[26:38] change based on community input that is my hope I'm hoping that people actually

[26:43] feel heard tonight and that their input has an impact on the process I wouldn't

[26:48] be up here if I didn't believe in this if I didn't believe it was an open and

[26:52] honest discussion so it was seen as a good idea

[26:56] fundamentally that's why it attracted this attention that's why it attracted

[27:01] funding because connecting the community of Cold Spring phillipstown

[27:06] excuse me with Beacon is fundamentally a good idea and it's a

[27:11] good idea because it gained it gains people access to the Hudson River

[27:15] it spreads people out it disperses people when you have everyone just

[27:20] concentrating in the village of Cold Spring it's overwhelming anyone who goes

[27:24] down Main Street in this Village on a weekend knows just that

[27:28] so the idea of spreading people over 7.2 miles developed saying how can we get

[27:33] people off the main street of Cold Spring and out onto a trail where they

[27:38] can go to another destination and vice versa so you have the railroad line

[27:42] there it's not a concrete Extravaganza I know

[27:46] these things like to be banned talk about Chris Davis in his 20 million that

[27:51] was the question

[27:54] now now

[27:57] Cynthia and you asked your question and I'm giving a response and I will get to

[28:01] that in order yes um so if it's okay with you I'll

[28:05] continue okay thank you yeah

[28:11] the majority of this Trail is envisioned as a gravel Trail

[28:15] as sort of the thing you would see at Hubbard Perkins the sort of thing you

[28:19] would see down at Dockside currently it'll be wider because it needs to

[28:23] accommodate more people it needs to accommodate people with disabilities

[28:26] people with different abilities

[28:33] it needs to provide a surface and access for everyone

[28:38] we love this area look I was born here my son is the fifth generation we born

[28:43] this community I have worked my entire life to preserve this community and if I

[28:48] thought this was going to destroy this community there's no way I would be up

[28:51] here tonight I do not think that do I think the ideas can get better I

[28:55] think it can get better with your input but I don't think it's going to get

[28:58] better if we set up camps I think that we need to be smart these are complex

[29:04] issues they require a lot of thought and there is a tremendous amount of

[29:09] expertise going into this to get these experts to do traffic

[29:15] studies to do the impact statements to talk about the environment to talk about

[29:20] water to talk about all the resources that we care about you need experts that

[29:26] costs money and the state of New York is firmly rooted in Partnerships so they

[29:33] have partnered with a group of individuals they have partnered with the

[29:36] Hudson Highland Fiora Trail Chris Davis is among those people Chris Davis is a

[29:42] 30-year resident of this community people seem to glaze that over

[29:48] so what so he has helped this community I'm I'm getting to that he has helped

[29:52] this community in innumerable ways he stopped development at the Garrison

[29:57] Golf Course a 300 Acre Site that could have been heavily developed under pasone

[30:04] I think people forget that he helped its Community with the

[30:07] rezoning to make sure we would protect all the resources that we that we

[30:12] treasure here the things that we want to see protected he helped with simple

[30:16] things like town-wide cleanups he would provide funding for that he's provided

[30:20] funding for any number of projects for this town

[30:24] but that doesn't mean that he's the only person driving the bus here it doesn't

[30:29] mean that New York state parks defers to Chris Davis they don't they are the

[30:34] authority in this they are the lead agency in this Chris Davis is a

[30:39] contributor he's a partner there are other large contributors to this there

[30:43] are over 20 entities involved in this there are several individuals who have

[30:48] committed large amounts of funds New York state has committed 20 million

[30:51] dollars to the Breakneck project so that may come as a surprise to some people so

[30:56] they should but New York state does not have endless resources New York State

[31:00] needs Partnerships to develop the programs that will save local

[31:04] environments so I think that in all fairness it's a it is a fair question

[31:10] and I know that perception is out there but we can't focus on one individual we

[31:15] can't villainize people we can't try to create a boogie we're trying to

[31:19] villainize anybody no one I'm just saying we need to avoid

[31:24] that I'm not saying I'm not accusing anyone of anything I'm just saying we

[31:28] need to have this be an open and continuing honest discussion these are

[31:33] Frank questions and these are Frank answers so I mean give your input but be

[31:39] smart and most of all be nice about it I know this is an emotional issue people

[31:43] are tied to this landscape like nothing else I mean I myself I feel that way

[31:49] but you need to be smart about this you need to consider all the options and you

[31:54] need to give good input so we get a good outcome

[31:58] thank you Richard you're welcome thank you

[32:02] thanks very much Stephanie Hawkins um Can can you hear me I'd like to I'm

[32:08] so sorry please please we've got three minutes go ahead

[32:11] um I'd just like to say one more thing thank you Richard that was very very

[32:14] well said I I would like you all to know that New York state parks is not

[32:20] dictated to by any individual New York state parks listens to communities we

[32:28] work very very well with the communities that surround our Parks we are there for

[32:34] all people I can also tell you that there is no way

[32:39] that state parks would be able to afford the studies and the analysis that's that

[32:46] is now going into the Fjord Trail in large part to answer your concerns and

[32:51] there's no way that we could afford to do that if we didn't have a partner like

[32:55] fjordtrail so please please don't think that Parks is being influenced

[33:02] by Chris thank you

[33:08] thank you for being here um

[33:11] I would have brought it to read but it's up here

[33:17] um it's understood there's a fine line in this so-called public-private

[33:20] partnership between New York State and Scenic Hudson slash Hudson Highlands

[33:24] Fjord Trail if this is truly a public project exempt from local planning board

[33:28] oversight then agenda and minutes for meetings under this partnership would be

[33:32] required under open meetings law if this is truly a private project then local

[33:36] board oversight is required by law and minutes can be hidden slashed withheld

[33:41] from the public in this case which is it ethically you shouldn't claim both

[33:45] wouldn't you agree and the question is there and there isn't it yes or no

[33:49] wouldn't you agree it's in this case which is it

[33:54] which was the last one Phil thank you um there there are very clear roles and

[34:00] responsibilities between your Trail and between state parks I'll get to that in

[34:06] just a second but first I'd like I'd like to talk about about how Parks uses

[34:13] and frankly needs Partnerships we have all sorts of Partnerships with all

[34:19] different kinds of organizations not-for-profits for-profits

[34:24] large small we really cannot do the we cannot carry

[34:31] out our mission of providing safe and enjoyable Recreation for 80 million

[34:37] people in the state of New York each year if we didn't have strong robust

[34:43] Partnerships we just mentioned our budget is such

[34:49] that we can we do a tolerable job maintaining our

[34:54] Parks but there is no way that we could provide the amenities that we do today

[34:58] without Partnerships in in most cases the partner brings much

[35:05] needed funds as well as expertise talents

[35:10] all sorts of other qualities to things that we can't do there's no way that the

[35:18] state would be able to operate a 20 different group camps for disadvantaged

[35:25] children from New York City with our staffing we can't do that

[35:30] in this case this is a complicated Richard mentioned all of the agency all

[35:35] of the state agencies there there is no way that we could we could

[35:43] manage we could conduct this project if we didn't have strong partners and it's

[35:48] not just with your Trail it's a partnership with your communities all

[35:53] along the trail that are so important to us

[35:57] so could you answer the question I'm getting could you answer the question

[36:00] please I got eight minutes

[36:06] um there are a couple of there are there as I said there are many partners that

[36:10] we work with the illana partnership and walkway over the Hudson are two of our

[36:16] our strongest Partners um and

[36:20] they

[36:23] okay um anyway those of you who know these

[36:27] Parks know how important the partners are to us I would like to get to though

[36:31] and I see the time I'd like to like you to understand the clear roles and

[36:36] responsibility roles and responsibilities between the two of us

[36:41] so state parks owns a significant amount of the trail

[36:46] property already we will also be the owner of the real estate interest

[36:51] through easements from Metro North in particular

[36:56] and we will hold those and the trail will then be built on Park land or

[37:03] parked control property for the most part there are also some private owners

[37:09] that a property that's Trail will will cross and that is not our purview

[37:15] um we we are collaborating in no way dictating the plans for the

[37:23] trail we have our own uh our own needs we

[37:29] would like to make sure that these that the trail is accessible to all

[37:34] and that particularly people from disadvantaged communities have the right

[37:38] to use it and and recreate here um

[37:48] [Applause] I don't think anybody here is going to

[37:52] argue against like these good good objectives that you're pointing out

[37:57] but I think the question the very simple question that's being asked is is this a

[38:03] public project no or is this a private project it is well it is neither it is a

[38:09] parts project wait a second this is a project of New

[38:14] York state parks it's a parts project it's like any of

[38:18] our other projects we go through our planning we go out to bid for

[38:24] construction this is a Parks project we are working closely with Partners great

[38:34] the issue that we run into here is not everything is open to the public right

[38:40] you're saying this is a public project but there are not minutes to meetings

[38:45] that are that go straight to the heart of decision making for this project and

[38:50] when people seek them out they are told oh no no that's this is a private

[38:55] situation okay we've got the question I really don't want to get into that but I

[39:00] can tell you that we we struggle no I'm sorry we are committed to being very

[39:07] transparent we we uh hold on hold on we can't be transparent when we're in the

[39:12] middle of negotiating uh various things we can come to you we

[39:19] we will make all of the documents available to anybody who wants to see

[39:23] them but not while they're while we're making so Matt if I made the existing

[39:29] contract the signed contract is available on the Village website

[39:33] um that describes the legal agreement the initial legal agreement between hhft

[39:37] and um parks and thank you to the person in

[39:42] the room who foiled it and provided it to the Village so you can see that

[39:46] relationship there um

[39:53] I really your question has not been answered but I think that's the answer

[39:55] that you're going to get and so to keep the flow moving this is a Parks project

[39:59] I I would like to just but the question was to parks and I thought they had time

[40:03] to respond I didn't realize it was just going to turn into it I would like to

[40:07] remind uh mayor Fuller can I make it just a reminder just because the Hope

[40:11] here was tonight uh that we could get to all top 15 questions and we're not going

[40:18] to be able to do that if we have back and forth between questioners and I'm

[40:22] sorry to say that and I know that we said that the question should just be

[40:26] read as submitted because that's what people voted on so just to remind us I

[40:30] mean and also I think over 30 30 people sign up for public comment so I if if we

[40:36] could just follow asking a question allowing for a response so we can get

[40:39] through them appreciate that I just I think people who submitted the questions

[40:43] and who are asking the questions myself included do you want the question to be

[40:47] answered and I appreciate it if you clap it takes up time

[40:54] um but I think that the in in pushing back here our interest is to try to keep

[40:59] the answer focused on answering the question not the sort of the

[41:05] the floor the Flora around it anyway um but I understand that you're what

[41:11] you're saying is that it's a you said this is a public project that's great I

[41:16] expect that all minutes and agenda for those meetings to be available to the

[41:22] public um

[41:25] I'm not at Liberty to say whether they can be I I I I can tell you that we will

[41:32] let you know what happens we will you know

[41:38] you know listen

[41:43] right I mean this this supposition that we're doing something devious behind

[41:49] your back is really detrimental I think we're not right we're not okay well

[41:55] first of all we want answers we need to be okay

[42:00] courageous and let them respond so so the important thing I would like to say

[42:05] is in terms of roles and responsibilities between

[42:09] the public New York state parks and our private partner here is essentially that

[42:15] New York State holds the real estate will hold the real estate for the trail

[42:18] and that the Fjord Trail will operate maintain repair and staff it

[42:25] right that's the basic

[42:29] that's the basic responsibilities of the two different parties okay and the

[42:34] decision making around the development and the ideation and that goes into

[42:39] creating this Trail where is that it who holds that so

[42:44] that's the next so so we are in the process of doing a a generic

[42:49] environmental impact statement along the whole Trail we are collecting ideas from

[42:56] experts from Park staff from many different people I think we've all of

[43:03] the input that you've put into the various meetings that the fjor trail has

[43:07] already have they're influencing that what you will have the opportunity to

[43:12] review to comment to bicker with to do whatever you want with that it doesn't

[43:17] move forward without public common

[43:23] and Stephanie also please thank you Andrew Hall is up we're moving on to the

[43:27] next category I just wanted to follow up with that I would say Richard as a

[43:32] member Richard we're moving on still still a minute and a half agreed

[43:39] upon the minute it still has time I really I appreciate that response I love

[43:43] that yeah yeah

[43:45] um there's a minute 27 left and believe me I'm only going to take about a minute

[43:49] okay if that's okay

[43:53] um yeah a lot of that time got taken up in the in back and forth but anyway

[43:57] My Hope Is that as a member of the Hudson Highlands Florida Trail board

[44:01] that it's a completely transparent process that everything that comes out

[44:05] in a minute said I that meetings that I attend is public

[44:08] it doesn't matter that you know we may be uncomfortable or something like that

[44:12] I don't know why there would be any discomfort these are all public

[44:15] transactions we want the input I am there as a community representative that

[44:20] was my role in getting on the future Trail board so I could be there in the

[44:25] room so it would be a public process I don't believe that it needs to be you

[44:30] know closed to the public but you can't have this sort of meeting

[44:34] every time you have a meeting you'd never get anything done but the minute

[44:37] should be public I agree with that and the process should be open

[44:42] people

[44:46] okay okay so we're moving on to trail design

[44:50] and scale of project um Andrew Hall is up first and then if

[44:53] we could have Ned Rausch on deck and Kathy Carnevale on Deck uh and yes

[44:59] so to the point of transparency and viable options

[45:03] it's understood there is a oh no that's your question what viable alternatives

[45:08] to the proposed sport trial have been proposed and evaluated including

[45:12] alternative alignments a no-build no action options why are earlier

[45:18] iterations much smaller in scope impact scale and cost to the taxpayer no longer

[45:25] under consideration what is the current status of any of these and just so you

[45:31] know where I'm coming from that question is pulled from the scoping document

[45:35] scoping document of which Parks is the lead agency thank you

[45:41] so so why don't we have after you've asked your question bunch of and let

[45:47] them respond to respond first please I'm sorry the parks department to respond

[45:50] first please what why we have so we have the

[45:55] information on the Alternatives analysis so this is done is was done as part of

[46:00] the 2015 plan and some of you may have participated in this and we looked at

[46:04] all of the different segments shown here in the rainbow kind of display and just

[46:10] segment for Segment what are the different ways that you could make that

[46:13] connection those were all evaluated they were taken out to the public the public

[46:18] weighed in on the preferences this shows the slide from an online survey which we

[46:24] had really as a culmination of multiple workshops that went into the design and

[46:28] we got input from respondents so 464 people in this specific point of

[46:34] interaction and really what that showed is that the

[46:37] preferred alignment that was in the 2015 plan which hasn't really changed very

[46:42] significantly was preferred strongly by the community the red is no and that's

[46:46] like two to three percent on any one segment so then the neutral is the pale

[46:51] and strongly like is is in the dark green so including the little Stony

[46:57] Point to Breakneck Ridge Shoreline Trail and the Metro North Whistle Stop at

[47:03] dungeon Duchess Junction Park was the part that

[47:07] went up the hill as you go past hartsook Lane and this was the least liked one

[47:12] back then because it was really just seen as functional but not desirable

[47:17] so when we went back to the 2020 plan which in part was asked by the community

[47:24] really strongly at the last the kickoff to the environmental review process

[47:28] people came out in force to say we live on Fair Street we feel this is too

[47:33] impactful to us to have all of these people marching down our houses we don't

[47:37] feel safe with our kids outside riding bikes people throw garbage on my front

[47:41] lawn please hold on not everybody so but

[47:47] a lot of people showed up and so we had the asked mate of us to look at other

[47:53] routes and then mayor mirandy went out and did some surveys of the communities

[47:58] to say along the Fair Street Route how are people feeling along you know in

[48:03] this area of the village how are people feeling about current traffic how would

[48:07] they feel about additional traffic and so that helped inform Alternatives

[48:11] analysis we looked at all of these roots so this is the preferred alignment we

[48:15] said what if we go this way what if we go behind the depot what if we go down

[48:19] fair and all the way up to 90. so all of those were looked at and evaluated for

[48:24] how they would allow for people to make this connection again Ada Can it have

[48:29] bikes is it going to overly impact Main Street how many residents are impacted

[48:34] there's a lot of factors that we looked at

[48:37] um and they're all listed here so accessibility so this was thoroughly

[48:41] analyzed that will be contained in the with the other Alternatives and the

[48:45] whole Alternatives analysis is part of the environmental review as you said so

[48:49] that'll all be in the G dgeis when it is made available for public comment but so

[48:54] short answer is yes most of which you've seen in great detail in Prior iterations

[48:59] of planning and additional content is going to be available for your review

[49:05] do we have Ned

[49:08] so sorry since we still have six minutes I can't see that void go unused

[49:14] no I

[49:17] I say just say you no final decisions have been made

[49:22] preferred routes proposed Trails just keep that in mind that this is still an

[49:27] ongoing process and you have input yeah okay now Ned

[49:42] good evening everybody thank you for uh for having this meeting it's nice to see

[49:48] everybody brought everybody together um

[49:51] so the trail between uh Beacon and Cold Spring and Beacon is a great idea but

[49:56] the add-ons and by which I mean things like the amphitheater and as far as Nets

[50:00] and things like that uh we'll change the character of the area The Fjord Trail

[50:04] claims to celebrate why must we accept the add-ons along with the trail thank

[50:10] you [Applause]

[50:17] so just so that everyone's on the same page let's just look at that so what

[50:20] happened between 2015 when it was just a trail

[50:24] and the 2020 master plan um so it's still a trail

[50:29] it's still for bikes and Peds it's still connecting Cold Spring and

[50:34] Beacon and connecting people to the hiking destinations that are already a

[50:38] draw on 90. we do have visitor orientation that was

[50:43] in the last iteration and wayfinding and signage was as well

[50:47] so what are these additions or add-ons well one is bathrooms and garbage bins

[50:54] as much as it might seem surprising that really wasn't thought through like how

[50:59] is that going to happen and who's going to manage and pay for all of them

[51:02] um so it does have now an entity hhft to staff and operate the trail maintain it

[51:08] um and that would be a non-profit funded thing knots coming from tax dollars and

[51:13] then that staff's also available to help manage people on the ground and help

[51:17] with rescues um will have managed parking including

[51:22] new parking at Duchess Manor which would serve as sort of a main entry of our

[51:27] Visitor Center and staff offices we have spots to rest and explore now

[51:33] before it was just a straight shot but now you do have little spots where you

[51:36] could stop and that helps as an accessibility piece because some people

[51:40] might not you know be in a wheelchair but they might need to stop and pause

[51:44] every set distance and so this is sort of

[51:48] something that helps augment that we also thought again about

[51:53] accommodating existing uses so we we had listening sessions focus groups and and

[51:59] saw what are the management challenges on a place like little Stony Point now

[52:02] so any of the red dots were challenges that Park staff are currently having

[52:07] managing things and a lot of that is here because it's swimming right

[52:10] swimming is illegal there's picnicking that's illegal there's garbage so how do

[52:14] we kind of manage the space and when we think about what happens there what

[52:18] needs to be done to make those safe those uses safer or to better control

[52:25] them and one idea there is that there could be an outdoor classroom it had

[52:30] been an Amphitheater in sort of discussion

[52:33] based on community input we've already scaled that down just to an outdoor

[52:37] classroom and so that's a good example of how this is still up for discussion

[52:42] and conversation and we want to we need to have the input

[52:46] um and then responding to local Recreation

[52:49] needs so plague spaces that aren't organized fields or taught lots for

[52:54] small children came up as a recreation need of the community so we thought

[52:58] about where we might put that in and this again was posters we had at maple

[53:02] syrup day not this year the year before and we got input from people all sorts

[53:07] of dots about what people wanted to see there as activity spaces and so that

[53:13] factored into what we put on the page right so this is always an iterative

[53:17] process so Stephanie you asked about meeting minutes sometimes that's hard

[53:20] because it's these sorts of things but we do put those posters out when we have

[53:25] public sessions like we've had in the last month those meeting summaries are

[53:29] made available on our website and so it has all of the input we receive plus

[53:33] sort of a digested summary and what our takeaways are from what we're hearing

[53:37] and then the next time we come out with something it should be showing that

[53:41] input on the ground

[53:44] um we're strategically drawing people away from Cold Spring and that's just

[53:48] part of that visitation management piece so having that major Gateway for this to

[53:53] be Duchess Manor having things like maybe Forest Nets we can talk about it

[53:59] um or it could be a canopy walk the idea there is that you're creating something

[54:03] in a completely defunct unused park space it was an old Duchess Junction

[54:08] Park that still has a driveway down to it and

[54:12] some old play equipment and could we put something there and since you're in the

[54:15] forest what would you put in the forest is like so the part of what we want to

[54:19] do with this is have it be sort of an immersive experience maybe an education

[54:23] experience to teach people about a forest ecosystem so that would be the

[54:27] idea it's not sort of a large trampoline but

[54:31] um again we're always looking for input so

[54:35] get involved stay involved we just started a new series of walk-in talks

[54:40] where we look at one little part of the project area and talk about what's

[54:43] playing there and get input so those will happen monthly on every second

[54:47] Saturday we have committees and working groups

[54:51] that will be formulating we'll have a community day on January 22nd

[54:56] we put out a monthly meeting and I'm going to start a new thing I think it

[55:00] seems that questions and answers and just being able to have dialogue and not

[55:04] Everyone likes to get up to the mic and so we always try to do different types

[55:07] of Engagement things small groups big groups

[55:11] um you know open houses where it's a little free form or major listening

[55:15] sessions like this we've kind of done all of this through the could you could

[55:18] you just 10 years that we've been going through quite annoying so if we have so

[55:24] if we're gonna you know keep doing all that but if people want to just come and

[55:28] ask questions in a smaller setting that feels a little more comfortable I want

[55:32] to offer that too so we're going to start a monthly open house hopefully at

[55:37] the watch and then we'll just you know be there and you can drop in spend as

[55:42] much time ask whatever questions that you have so we'll be publicizing that

[55:46] and how you'll be able to put that on your calendar and come talk with us

[55:52] okay have you finished answering the question

[55:56] um just just for clarity I think that when the question was being asked about

[55:59] minutes I think it was a reference to steering committee and other sessions I

[56:04] think Richards made a commitment tonight that

[56:07] um minutes of meetings like that will be available going forward

[56:14] okay uh do we have Kathy Carnevale in the room

[56:18] she's not here so I guess I'm reading for her

[56:21] okay it's a very cold spring question given the concerns about 600 000

[56:25] visitors using the Fjord Trail and potentially swamping the tiny Cold

[56:29] Spring Village on weekends is possible to have the duchess Manor site be

[56:33] promoted from the outset as the focal point slash centerpiece for hhft

[56:37] visitors particularly those coming by car the central point would have Trail

[56:42] info food tons of parking and be the designated starting point for trail

[56:46] access all Trail Guide brochures advertising

[56:49] and other marketing information would direct visitors to the central point

[56:52] noting that other Trail access points may be available

[56:56] surely some will still come by train to the Cold Spring Beacon and Breakneck

[57:00] stations and others drive and park at other areas along the trail but having

[57:04] the focus on this mid-trail site should cause less stress on Cold Spring Village

[57:08] resources and residents

[57:15] [Applause] agreed so

[57:19] we have six entries to the park um and in the in the plan right so one

[57:25] is Beacon train station and long dock Park

[57:27] Notch Trailhead which is that area that Duchess Junction Park area which has

[57:32] planned parking Duchess Manor and Visitor Center and Breakneck train

[57:36] station and the parking that would be there less parking than there is now but

[57:40] there would be parking there all of that's in Dutchess County when you get

[57:44] to Putnam County it's the Washburn Trailhead that's there and Cold Spring

[57:49] train station no we're never going to be saying go park in Cold Spring we didn't

[57:53] include it in our parking and shuttle study when we have directions for people

[57:57] it's not going to say go to Cold Spring to park right so

[58:02] that is the plan and so six entries and we certainly want to make sure when the

[58:07] first phase opens which is that those improvements at Breakneck we would like

[58:11] Duchess Manor to open at the same time so that's part of this phase one

[58:16] um so that that Visitor Center when that all opens we want people to get used to

[58:21] that behavior like go to Dutchess Manor if you couldn't find parking at

[58:25] Breakneck go up the hill and park at Duchess Manor and take the shuttle down

[58:29] so the shuttle would be up and running the visitor center would be there and

[58:33] then we start that whole behavior of people knowing this when I'm going to

[58:36] the space I'm hopping into the middle and I can go up to the duchess Manor and

[58:41] in the long term you know we've started to think about what we do there this is

[58:45] the site it's pretty big it was a big facility

[58:48] and so we're thinking this is going to be our offices for staff so we're really

[58:52] local and we have a presence here we'll have connections down this very sleep

[58:57] Steep Hill to the the main trail that will run down behind it um we'll have

[59:03] the shuttle stop there parking there and then in the future a visitor center with

[59:08] potentially a cafe so then if you're at Breakneck you want to get something to

[59:12] eat this is another option so again changing the options and the behavior on

[59:16] the ground with these little moves that we could do

[59:20] um and just just to show I like this is my favorite diagram so the the building

[59:24] was added onto over the ages just to just to demonstrate we've started to

[59:28] think about this building the age of the building and what we might do as a

[59:31] restoration of the um historic structure

[59:35] and that'll be coming along soon because that has to catch up

[59:42] are you finished

[59:45] thank you

[59:48] all right our next section is data studies

[59:52] data studies reporting and project process

[59:56] David Duffy is not here to give the question so I will read it the Fjord

[1:00:01] Trail will have a big impact but we have no idea no data on what this impact

[1:00:06] social environmental economic will look like

[1:00:10] where are the studies that typically accompany projects of this large scale

[1:00:13] can we expect to see such analyzes so we can have a fact-based debate

[1:00:20] so I'm going to answer that one and that is exactly what all of the Consultants

[1:00:26] have been hired to do so we are in the process of gathering or we collectively

[1:00:32] the project is in the process of of gathering a lot of environmental review

[1:00:36] data and that is what is studied in the draft generic environmental impact

[1:00:41] statement and when it was set out in 2015 with the scope initial scoping

[1:00:48] document these things are in the scoping the full scoping document is online both

[1:00:53] on Park's website and on Hudson Highlands if your trail website so you

[1:00:57] can you can read it but just generally it goes into what how what are impacts

[1:01:02] of the land what what land use exists what land you should propose what's

[1:01:07] there what kind of geology what is the topography what what what kind of soil

[1:01:11] so whatever you're going to do what is the impact for that kind of soil if you

[1:01:16] what watershed is it in how does storm water react where do we have washouts

[1:01:20] what happens when there are storms what happens with Wastewater and and sanitary

[1:01:25] water and well water or public water should you need it what are the

[1:01:30] biological resources in the area what kind of floor what kind of fauna where

[1:01:34] do you you know what are the birds how do we look at them and especially what

[1:01:39] are the rare and threatened endangered species we look at the historic and

[1:01:43] archaeological resources and when I say we again we have we Hudson Highlands

[1:01:49] Fjord has using private dollars hired outside

[1:01:54] Consultants that are putting together a generic environmental impact statement

[1:01:58] there has been hudsonia has been brought on to do Baseline studies on a lot of

[1:02:03] the Hudson River material there have been many many different uh

[1:02:08] Consultants that have been involved Creighton Manning and Stedman Consulting

[1:02:11] are in doing Transit they're all of these people are extraordinarily well

[1:02:15] regarded in their fields so they are helping to to bring that data back to us

[1:02:21] to be in the analysis that will be part of the environmental statement

[1:02:25] in any Eis the environmental impact statement you look at Community

[1:02:29] attributes and I know that's a tremendous concern you wouldn't be in

[1:02:33] this room if that didn't concern you the most what is the recreational open space

[1:02:38] for the area what is the growth and impact on community character and I

[1:02:43] think that is really what drives a lot of the emotional

[1:02:47] response to the project what are the socioeconomic factors that that are that

[1:02:53] either Drive the project or that the project will drive and traffic and

[1:02:57] transportation of course near and dear in any Community these days especially

[1:03:02] with small single single Road systems where 301 Main Street 90 Define

[1:03:09] everything that happens Fair Street Define what happens in this community so

[1:03:14] there's a look with both a Transit consultant a parking consultant somebody

[1:03:18] that actually really knows and focuses about how do you make a shuttle system

[1:03:22] viable what did you do how would you make a parking system viable can you can

[1:03:26] you charge for it can you make reservations how do you do that and that

[1:03:31] coupled with the Villages of Cold Springs parking study and the move

[1:03:35] towards some form of pay and display or some form of of time to parking within

[1:03:40] the village probably probably identifies a solution to some of the parking issues

[1:03:46] just over the years just a small aside from the Eis over the years we've state

[1:03:51] parks has been working with the dot that therefore you see a lot of no parking

[1:03:56] signs that never used to be there and many others

[1:04:00] there was a while where people were parking diagonally and we put in

[1:04:05] parallel parking only and people would get tickets and they'd go why did I get

[1:04:09] a ticket and we'd say because it was parallel parking only and they say but

[1:04:11] I'm parallel to the car next to me no it's you know you need to we're trying

[1:04:16] to teach new habits so we want to get traffic calming we want to be able to

[1:04:21] get so that you know you've got a 40 mile below the tunnel we want 40 miles

[1:04:25] above the tunnel we want to be able to do that and we can't do that without

[1:04:29] traffic calming so some of those are under study and as we look at that we're

[1:04:34] going to also look at visitor management that was on the slide before it before

[1:04:38] it before okay visitor management visitor projections what is the impact

[1:04:44] of construction how does some of this happen to some of it come from the water

[1:04:47] does it come from the roadway what happens what are the impacts if there

[1:04:51] when and if there is construction all of those things are are looked at tonight

[1:04:56] when I was driving down 90 Saturday was when I was in the village and I'm

[1:05:00] driving 90 and there was there was a young a young mom and her kid exhausted

[1:05:06] having hiked and just basically just stopped on the side of the road and

[1:05:10] you're just you're worried that somebody's going to hit them between

[1:05:13] between Stony Point and the tunnel we're hoping to address some of those safety

[1:05:18] issues and get people off of 90. that is a very much a Thrust of what we are

[1:05:22] trying to do here

[1:05:27] Linda Linda next one infrastructure infrastructure infrastructure

[1:05:33] infrastructure the water supply the electricity the lighting the roads and

[1:05:36] bridges we heard you we did already ask the village a number of years ago when

[1:05:40] memorandi was in office um whether or not we could Connect into

[1:05:43] public water in public so we're in this is even predates uh a lot of the fewer

[1:05:48] discussion and we were told even at that time the sanitary sewer was probably

[1:05:52] fine that the water might be a a well situation and not a public water

[1:05:56] situation that's what that's what fact-finding does you start to

[1:06:00] understand what it what is possible and what isn't possible emergency and public

[1:06:04] services we've talked with supervisor Van Tassel over many many times over how

[1:06:09] can we support the local fire departments how can we make sure that we

[1:06:13] can can do a good job and I will tell you over the

[1:06:16] um 12 or so years that I've been involved in state parks the number of

[1:06:19] rescues has gone down we have done better blazing our park manager Evan

[1:06:24] Thompson is in the audience though he really doesn't want anybody to know it

[1:06:34] and Evan On Any Given night or weekend could be out climbing with staff doing

[1:06:39] rescues he more than you wants to reduce the number of people who are lost and

[1:06:45] who who lose their way on the Trails um and so we we spend we have tremendous

[1:06:51] respect for the police and fire and ambulance and emergency rescue and want

[1:06:56] to ensure both our Patron safety and any Rescuers safe we we really don't what

[1:07:01] happens by the way most of our rescues you should know are not because people

[1:07:05] they're people who for the most part who go out late

[1:07:09] don't realize how long it takes and then decide to cut straight down the mountain

[1:07:13] instead of following a trail so then what happens when you go straight down

[1:07:17] one of our one of our mountains around here you hit a cliff and when you hit a

[1:07:22] cliff you go holy moly I can't get down and so then you call for help nobody

[1:07:28] wants to be out rescuing somebody who's in a place where they can't get out of

[1:07:32] and you can't get into so the ninham trail was built to help address that so

[1:07:38] people can get down easier people we can talk people on their GPS's out onto

[1:07:42] Trails we're doing that now we'll continue to do that but that is being

[1:07:46] assessed in the deis can you move on for a second so the dgis was will be will

[1:07:52] not be ready now this has been a point that people have had a difficulty

[1:07:55] understanding this document started in 2015.

[1:08:00] it's been updated as the project has changed so the project has changed it

[1:08:05] has to get more information it will not be ready by current projections till

[1:08:09] January 2024. I haven't read it you haven't read it the Mayors haven't read

[1:08:15] it we will all have an opportunity to read it we will probably we will have a

[1:08:19] public hearing probably in if it's out in January probably in February could be

[1:08:23] March depending on the Snows of this year who knows but you would you would

[1:08:27] then have an opportunity to see what's in the document and then there are

[1:08:32] months of getting your comments and going back

[1:08:36] and figuring out what what what doesn't work what does work how does this work

[1:08:40] it's weighing it and then it answers to those questions that come in the final

[1:08:44] environmental impact statement it's an iterative process it is not a one and

[1:08:48] done process it's a process that is very publicly engaged and we want your input

[1:08:54] but we also need your patience because it's not here today so what we're doing

[1:08:59] today is information gathering and getting your ideas because it is my com

[1:09:05] My Hope and and and my passion that we all collectively that the many bright

[1:09:12] people in this in these Villages and town can come up with a way to take our

[1:09:18] Park and this community these communities and make an amazing

[1:09:26] publicly accessible trail that works for all both the visitors and and the

[1:09:32] communities

[1:09:39] and I'll and I'll just add there's a lot of questions on traffic and when are we

[1:09:44] taking traffic counts and that's actually one of the things that's going

[1:09:46] to take a while right because we can't count things that aren't there so we

[1:09:50] have to wait until we go through the season find different points through the

[1:09:54] season to take those counts so we did take counts last fall but we wanted to

[1:09:58] get a whole year of data to be able to inform the updates on those traffic

[1:10:02] projections

[1:10:06] oh in the meantime though so am I out of time sorry

[1:10:14] uh the next group of questions are involve increase in visitors the first

[1:10:19] question is from Dave mirandy and I I believe I'll read it Dave

[1:10:24] how can hhft in New York State Office of Parks and Recreation claim they are

[1:10:29] solving the village of Cold Springs tourist

[1:10:32] problems when they are creating a major tourist attraction that will bring

[1:10:36] thousands more visitors to the Village of Cold Spring

[1:10:40] [Applause]

[1:10:48] how did I get this question is this thing is this on still no there we go

[1:10:54] um yeah how did I get this question um

[1:10:57] the Peoria Trail's not built yet and there are issues in the village

[1:11:03] um that can't be ignored so there's a cost to doing nothing there's a price to

[1:11:08] doing nothing the issues need to be addressed in some

[1:11:11] form and that's what these forums are about you know that's what this process

[1:11:16] is about how will this project take shape will

[1:11:20] the project take shape because I you hear from a lot of people well this

[1:11:24] seems like a fate accomplishing nobody's listening to us that's not true

[1:11:27] this project isn't done as you can see by the studies that are happening or the

[1:11:32] death of commitment from New York state from all the involved agencies people

[1:11:36] realize that this is bound to bring more people

[1:11:40] the goal would be to disperse people to disperse more people than actually come

[1:11:44] to get them out on the trail and it is understood that this is bound

[1:11:49] to be a popular attraction these things tend to have a peak when the walkway of

[1:11:55] the Hudson first opened the first year there was huge visitorship since then it

[1:12:00] has steadily declined and leveled off I'm there every weekend John is there

[1:12:04] every weekend Saturdays you can ride across that

[1:12:07] bridge and you may see 100 200 people when they have events there's more but

[1:12:12] that is also at the discretion of the communities that these events will you

[1:12:16] know impact so if Cole spring doesn't want to have events they don't have to

[1:12:21] have events we've heard a lot about concessions and things like that well

[1:12:24] this is going to be like Bryant Park or Prospect Park that's up to the Village

[1:12:28] of Cold Spring nothing is going to happen without a decision from the

[1:12:32] village of Cold Spring nothing's going to be foisted upon the village the

[1:12:36] village is in control of the village so it's not as if state parks or Hudson

[1:12:40] Highland Fjord Trail is going to come in and say hey we decide to have a concert

[1:12:43] down at Dockside this weekend that's not going to happen nothing's going to

[1:12:46] happen without discussions with the village because the village is the

[1:12:50] authority so people should be more comfortable

[1:12:53] with knowing that these things that are being thrown about as if they were

[1:12:57] afraid of complete they're not they're not at all and I'm not denying the fact

[1:13:01] that this may cause more people to build to visit the area but the idea of doing

[1:13:06] nothing the cost of doing nothing when you look at the things that happen to

[1:13:10] bull hill before the new trails went in before they started wayfinding before

[1:13:15] they had directing people to keep them on hardened paths you had a path that

[1:13:19] was 100 feet wide the mountain was being destroyed the same thing with Breakneck

[1:13:23] the front of the mount was being eroded the degradation was happening all over

[1:13:26] because it was just a free-for-all that's not tolerable and you have people

[1:13:30] going around tagging when you have people spray painting they were

[1:13:33] spray-painted rocks you could see from across the river you need management at

[1:13:37] these places people need to be directed and people need to take a sense of

[1:13:41] ownership when they're out there and just saying if you see something like

[1:13:44] this and look this is not appropriate this is crazy you can't go around spray

[1:13:48] painting rocks the size of cars it's ridiculous

[1:13:52] um so I mean this sense of ownership is what needs to happen and I again I

[1:13:57] understand there is bound to be a spike in

[1:14:00] visitorship getting people out on a 7.2 Mile Trail is the goal of that and you

[1:14:06] talk about okay 600 000 people there's already 480 000 people a year visiting

[1:14:11] this corridor so that's a baseline number they're

[1:14:14] talking about 120 000 additional visitors over the course of a year not

[1:14:19] over the course of a day or a month is over the course of a year if you can

[1:14:22] spread these visitors out from Cold Spring to Beacon

[1:14:26] the hope is and the studies will hopefully bear this out that you will

[1:14:31] have a much more positive experience that the village will see fewer people

[1:14:35] clogging the streets or clogging the sidewalks that you can spread them out

[1:14:40] sorry

[1:14:44] sorry so we understand the anxiety of even hearing it it's just a hundred and

[1:14:50] you know more it's it's it's it's a big number but the number is not six new

[1:14:55] though I think that's important for people to understand it's you already

[1:14:58] have 480 so it would there be some more um and we are saying we're going to

[1:15:04] spread those out some of those people are arriving from Beacon or from the

[1:15:07] north right it's not all coming through Cold Spring which I think is commonly

[1:15:11] thought of because that's kind of the existing Behavior now right

[1:15:15] um so what we're starting now and this is the slide I'll go back to we start

[1:15:20] we're starting a visitation management Consultants work on this so that's one

[1:15:24] of the refinements I talked about earlier on the master plan we want to be

[1:15:28] able to have some experts who've been doing this for 30 years each come in and

[1:15:32] say okay sounds nice on paper Amy but is it really going to work when you start

[1:15:36] to look at a model build it into a model see how this is going to work with the

[1:15:41] expectations of the projections put them across the six entries and then we talk

[1:15:46] about controls right so right now anyone can hike Breakneck anytime do we think

[1:15:51] about things like reservation systems or things that can limit the numbers so

[1:15:56] you're getting a limitation above what you have right now so it's not just a

[1:16:00] free-for-all like let's see as many people as we can get here what you want

[1:16:04] to do is manage for a desired condition so I want more people over here because

[1:16:09] it's quiet and Beacon is okay with more people they want less people like how do

[1:16:13] we make that happen with attractions with demand pricing whatever these guys

[1:16:18] list like so many tools and we haven't even really started working yet but

[1:16:21] that's going to be a big important Community conversation to have is to

[1:16:25] think about what do you want your experience to be in the downtown what do

[1:16:29] you want experience to be at Little Stony Point is there too much program

[1:16:34] there do we have to think about scaling things down maybe something needs to

[1:16:37] move to another location this is where we get to kind of move all of those

[1:16:41] levers to see if that's going to perform the way we're saying it's not like we're

[1:16:45] just walking in here saying trust us we got this right like we do want to kick

[1:16:49] the tires on this and we want you to help us kick those tires so that's going

[1:16:53] to be a process there'll be a local committee we want to really look at the

[1:16:57] projection assumptions to look at the traffic counts we're going to allow like

[1:17:02] when we form from that committee we're going to give them a stipend to hire

[1:17:05] their own consultant so that they can have them review the traffic study or

[1:17:10] you know methodology and everything so that you guys have full confidence when

[1:17:13] the data comes back that it's not something like I understand

[1:17:18] that people are thinking like we're paying our Consultants to say what we

[1:17:22] want them to say so we're not but I understand you feel that

[1:17:28] you that's a possibility or risk to you so we're willing to put that extra layer

[1:17:33] of um insulation or whatever insurance on it for you and then more public

[1:17:38] meetings that we hope people engage in and so that's you know we really need to

[1:17:42] get into those tools and um infrastructures so that we can get to

[1:17:47] the right point and I think

[1:17:51] I think that the point needs to be stressed the

[1:17:55] local committee people from this room with the authority

[1:18:00] and then also a stipend for their own consultant who will independently verify

[1:18:05] the results of the studies even though it goes through the Seeker process which

[1:18:10] is you know State and quality Environmental Quality review act that is

[1:18:13] a law that the state has to adhere to and that

[1:18:16] this whole project has to adhere to so on top of that a local committee with

[1:18:21] resources to hire an independent monitor for that

[1:18:26] um could I say thank you to that this is

[1:18:30] something that the village has been asking for and we're very pleased to

[1:18:33] hear that it's the first that we're hearing it tonight so thank you for that

[1:18:37] um it would be good to have clarification on how those how that

[1:18:40] committee is selected at some point next up uh Michael Bowman

[1:18:47] go back two or three slides because there was a an important point up there

[1:18:50] that you're Gathering is it your question can you address your question

[1:18:53] Michael just real quick though you're gathering information this year but you

[1:18:56] have the Breakneck Trail closed so how is that information accurate

[1:19:00] Breakneck will Breakneck will be reopening in July 1.

[1:19:05] all right so all these studies will be done after the after the trail reopens

[1:19:09] okay thank you uh what is the projected increase in visitation to Hudson

[1:19:14] Highlands State Park the Breakneck Trailhead the village of Cold Spring and

[1:19:18] what methodology was used to arrive at these projections specifically what time

[1:19:22] of year was the traffic data gathered and what other projects parks and

[1:19:26] attractions were used as comparables

[1:19:35] so I think we've covered a lot of this um

[1:19:41] I'm just starting the we've we've covered a lot of this in

[1:19:47] different pieces but let's go through it again so projected increases in

[1:19:52] visitation um so this is current this is without

[1:19:56] fjord and this is what Richard says when he

[1:19:59] says there's a cost to not doing nothing there's not you know a no action

[1:20:03] alternative is not meaning that this projected growth is not going right so

[1:20:08] this has been the trend line with real data that's been coming in and then this

[1:20:13] is you know where the future based on that trend

[1:20:16] line what the future would mean in terms of it going up up up up

[1:20:21] so that's sort of the the crisis moment

[1:20:25] that we're looking at trying to get ahead of and this infrastructure

[1:20:28] projects are very slow to move um but you know this trend has been

[1:20:34] going up I started and I'll just say in 2016 is when I had that public

[1:20:40] hearing for the start of the environmental review and it was at that

[1:20:44] meeting that everyone said in the last year from 2015 to 2016.

[1:20:49] it's gotten too much we feel like we hit a Tipping Point with what I was hearing

[1:20:52] and that was that's here down here versus where we are today right so it's

[1:20:58] going up and that's part of the so that's the answer to the projected

[1:21:03] growth to Hudson Holland State Park preserve Breakneck we have similar data

[1:21:08] about which we've shared at different times I didn't bring that graph with us

[1:21:13] today but it's been going up it went down a little bit because of bad weather

[1:21:16] one year you know it's starting to moderate a little bit post-covered

[1:21:21] because people are back to not you know doing other things they don't always

[1:21:25] have to be outside um

[1:21:28] and so this has been off-cited but what we have is you know some additional

[1:21:34] visitation on top of what's already coming

[1:21:37] to the Hudson Highland state park preserve that would result we expect as

[1:21:41] as a result of the project and again some of that's in Beacon it's never

[1:21:45] coming this way right but there would be some extra visitation on top of your

[1:21:51] already growth however I think it's interesting to think about how we might

[1:21:55] be able to reduce or control some of those Peaks and valleys of through the

[1:22:00] year you get these mat weekends where you get people hiking Breakneck it's

[1:22:04] over you know around 2000 it can max out at so if we had a reservation system

[1:22:09] that could control that number down it might actually helps move that out a

[1:22:13] little bit and reduce a total number from a hiking perspective so a care so

[1:22:18] we've looked at that that's all data now so I hate saying that because it's like

[1:22:22] it's old data and I really want I've been pressing a caref to really review

[1:22:27] the projection so they're updating that projection right now and that's what

[1:22:31] that committee is going to review and make sure they agree with the

[1:22:34] methodology and they'll kick the tires on the number before we take it back out

[1:22:39] to the public so it's worth talking about but it's being updated so it kind

[1:22:43] of makes me squirm um

[1:22:46] and then the visitation management Consultants like I said will take that

[1:22:49] and apply that across and do this whole model so we'll look at that as part of

[1:22:54] the projections in terms of where we expect those people to go so there's a

[1:22:58] whole number but it's not expected that all of those people are coming through

[1:23:02] Cold Spring so where are they going and what are the assumptions that make us

[1:23:07] think they're going to go to Beacon instead right so we want to we want to

[1:23:10] be able to talk that through

[1:23:15] you good okay

[1:23:20] well we already talked about the traffic data that we're Gathering through the

[1:23:25] air and parks and comps that's going to

[1:23:28] matter more for the visitation management techniques we might try then

[1:23:34] I think the projections right so it can New York state parks talk about your

[1:23:39] Park because you're gonna

[1:23:44] is this

[1:23:47] one what Amy said is correct I don't think it's on

[1:23:52] because I don't hear it do you hit it in the back

[1:23:56] no huh

[1:24:00] it's green go closer

[1:24:04] anyway it just went on I have no idea what

[1:24:09] happened anyway what Amy said is accurate and if you're just looking for

[1:24:13] some comparables just because walkway was up there as as a comparable walkway

[1:24:17] when the walkway opened that everybody sees the iconic picture of the first day

[1:24:21] when Pete Seeger was up there and they opened the walkway in I don't know 5 000

[1:24:25] people came out and they jammed full of people you never saw that ever again we

[1:24:29] have averaged between 500 and the max we've ever had is 700 000 we're really

[1:24:34] around 500 to 600 000 a year they're two fairly small parking lots flanking it

[1:24:40] and there's always a space it's never crowded the City of

[1:24:45] Poughkeepsie has benefited restaurants stores places to be and Tom Hyland town

[1:24:52] of Lloyd's a village of Highlands it just has not been the the monster

[1:24:58] that that this is portrayed to so same thing with the Empire State trail

[1:25:03] 750 miles of Trail going from New York City to Buffalo and going up to the

[1:25:08] through the Northway the rail trails are going and connecting and they're

[1:25:11] connecting all over and I don't know about you but I love to get on a rail

[1:25:15] trail point a stop and have lunch in point B then ride back do something and

[1:25:21] it's and you don't usually see crowds and crowds of people what you see are

[1:25:25] lots of people if you look at the statistics it's going to be in the

[1:25:28] millions but they're spread out all over the length of the trails and that's in

[1:25:34] all of the years when I've gone through many hearings over putting in new

[1:25:38] large-scale projects especially rail Trails all the a lot of the people would

[1:25:43] say no no we don't want them we don't want

[1:25:47] those people on that trail we don't want other people coming and those people is

[1:25:52] anybody that wasn't in their Community you know we don't want anybody I'm just

[1:25:57] saying I've been through a lot of hearings and and inevitably when those

[1:26:02] trails are built and some get built and some don't but when those trails are

[1:26:07] built you do find because I heard some laughter earlier when the statement you

[1:26:11] do find local people use them through people use them visitors from out of

[1:26:15] state and visitors from out of the country just as if you're walking them

[1:26:18] out Taurus you will find people of every nationality because people do take the

[1:26:23] train up here when they go to the city to visit and they come up and they walk

[1:26:26] through and go and walk but so do locals so do I so do you so do people from the

[1:26:31] from the local catchment area and and I think that that's just what I urge you

[1:26:35] to to think about in terms of comparables we would not be proposing a

[1:26:40] project that we thought would be damaging to the communities in which we

[1:26:46] exist what we hope is that we can all as I said earlier put our minds to figuring

[1:26:52] out what do we need to have as safeguards what do we need to do in the

[1:26:57] planning process and how do we appropriately assess the information

[1:27:01] that comes in to be able to make a reasonable decision and that's that's

[1:27:07] where we are yeah and I think also this we had it up earlier but the phasing

[1:27:12] this project isn't going to be built in a year even right just break net

[1:27:18] improvements at Breakneck are going to take two years to build and then there

[1:27:22] will be another phase so it's not like a walkway where it all opened one day it

[1:27:26] was not open and then it's open this is going to be improvements here and then a

[1:27:31] couple years later some more improvements so you get this kind of

[1:27:35] incremental so there shouldn't be that big opening day moment that for 7.5

[1:27:40] miles and all the attraction that might get it'll sort of become like oh we're

[1:27:45] opening a new Wing you know it's just a different type sort of pacing and we

[1:27:49] have some control and discretion I think that's an important conversation to have

[1:27:52] too is sort of what's the strategy on the phasing what should we open first to

[1:27:58] kind of Olay concerns or trying to test things out in a way to make sure that

[1:28:03] again it's behaving the way we want it to

[1:28:08] okay Mr May is uh coming up and the topic is parking transportation and

[1:28:14] pedestrian safety I guess one of the comments begged my

[1:28:18] question because she talked about the Poughkeepsie Bridge and there's there's

[1:28:22] access from all different directions and all different sides to the Poughkeepsie

[1:28:26] Bridge and and these other these other kind of trails

[1:28:30] the Hudson Highland Fjord uh Trail trust predicts an increase of hundreds

[1:28:36] of thousands of visitors annually with upwards of 66 percent arriving by

[1:28:41] vehicle that's at the firehouse

[1:28:43] all vehicles arriving from the south and the East must pass through the traffic

[1:28:49] light at the intersection of routes 9d and 301 in the village

[1:28:55] this does include cars heading to parking lots between Cold Spring and

[1:28:58] Beacon will the

[1:29:01] dgeis address this increase in traffic

[1:29:06] specifically how will the obviously adverse impacts impacts be mitigated

[1:29:11] pursuant to section 617.9 of New York codes rules and

[1:29:16] regulations governing the State Environmental Quality review

[1:29:22] between a rock and a hard place in Cold Spring

[1:29:27] I got it so part 617 is the regulations that implement the Seeker regulations

[1:29:33] the State Environmental Quality review act that is what the draft generic

[1:29:36] environmental impact statement is doing so that those that will be addressed in

[1:29:41] that document we are very lucky our sister agency the New York State

[1:29:45] Department of Transportation has just amazing talent in its Engineers

[1:29:50] designers traffic control people traffic access people they have already been out

[1:29:55] working with us and with your Trail on you know how do we look at safety in

[1:30:02] that Corridor I personally have not been part of conversations and on the on the

[1:30:07] intersection of Route 301 on D and 90 because it's not part of the park but I

[1:30:12] believe such conversations have happened there are conversations with the D.O.T

[1:30:17] as to whether or not somewhere along this Corridor should a roundabout go in

[1:30:21] that becomes a traffic calming device there are there are discussions of

[1:30:25] should there are discussions of good speed go down there are discussions of

[1:30:30] how do you narrow a road how do you make it how do you make it so that people are

[1:30:34] forced to go slower all of those things go on the table I'm not saying any of

[1:30:39] them happen but they are all the regular traffic calming tools that we have to

[1:30:46] consider when you start to look at how do you make intersections and junctures

[1:30:51] safer so I think that we are lucky that we have a sister agency and we have

[1:30:57] conversation there will be a lot of data collected in the course of the

[1:31:04] um draft generic environmental impact statement and then that will then inform

[1:31:11] what what the what Solutions are proposed

[1:31:14] yeah but we're not sitting waiting for someone to tell us we have to do

[1:31:20] something we want to be helping these conditions so we've already been meeting

[1:31:24] with the mayor and trustee starbook and have agreed that we're going to work

[1:31:29] together with DOT to evaluate solutions to the 90 301 intersection because it's

[1:31:35] already failing right now and so I think dot has some ideas for what could be

[1:31:40] done there and we want to be able to it kind of work those through with them a

[1:31:44] bit and for clarity

[1:31:48] these are initial conversations with Dot and they come back to public session

[1:31:52] where minutes are taken and the public can comment

[1:31:55] um these are their Village discussions that'll happen at Village Hall

[1:32:00] um oh I am I continuing for you I am good okay okay you're all finished with

[1:32:05] answering Mr May's question so we're moving on to

[1:32:09] um environmental impact and climate change

[1:32:15] um Grace Kennedy is first and on Deck should be Lauren Martin Adam osterfeld

[1:32:20] and Susan peel please hi Grace

[1:32:25] uh Metro North has requested a 25-foot buffer between tracks and Trail

[1:32:30] between little Stony Point and Breakneck meaning that every tree along the river

[1:32:36] would have to be removed to accommodate a 14-foot wide Boardwalk

[1:32:41] cantilevered shading the shoreline and preventing regrowth how does this

[1:32:45] protect against flooding

[1:32:51] [Applause]

[1:32:56] okay so yes we did have to meet setbacks with

[1:33:01] Metro North yes they are holding us to a 25 foot setback that's 25 feet from

[1:33:07] Center not the edge of tie so it's maybe a little narrower than what you thought

[1:33:12] um it's also not 14 feet wide in this area because it's such a highly

[1:33:16] constrained area so we are as wide as 14 feet in areas like Breakneck connector

[1:33:23] where there's going to be a reasonable expectation of a lot of traffic with the

[1:33:27] train arrivals Etc we need more width to make that accommodated here we will have

[1:33:33] more width where we can given the constraints of the corridor but we're

[1:33:37] not playing to a 40 14 feet straight shot sort of concept here because it is

[1:33:43] a complicated area so we've had a study this was the alignment we worked on with

[1:33:48] a committee that was basically half Metro North interest and half River

[1:33:53] focused interests and we really hammered through you know what the those

[1:33:58] competing interests it was literally threading a needle here so I gold is

[1:34:03] golden means we can meet all of the regulatory requirements of Metro North

[1:34:08] in terms of setbacks and all of the protective kind of measures for the

[1:34:14] river so like mean high high top of bank there's different regulatory levels that

[1:34:20] are used as sort of if you're in that that might be problematic for us we have

[1:34:24] to talk have a serious conversation if you're out of that you're out of the

[1:34:27] regulatory Zone it's an easier conversation so where it's gold it's

[1:34:31] golden and as you can see that's most of the way so it's 84.5 percent of the way

[1:34:37] where it's blue at the time we did this it meant we knew we had to go around a

[1:34:42] culvert there's a six foot buffer we need to go around for things with Metro

[1:34:46] North so we did have to go into the water for a little bit there how we go

[1:34:50] into the water is important though and where it's pink that's where because we

[1:34:54] didn't get a smaller setback where it's pink we're going to have to go into the

[1:34:58] water in some way does that mean it's heavily in the water no we still have to

[1:35:03] engineer that out and see how much we go into the water as it cantilevered is it

[1:35:08] Center pile there's a lot of engineering conversations to still take place

[1:35:13] however we have interviewed we have done a natural resource inventory on the

[1:35:17] whole Shoreline Trail place we have done a tree inventory on this whole stretch

[1:35:23] and please know that this includes these trees right because that was part of the

[1:35:27] thought process there but 674 trees greater than six inches of caliper

[1:35:33] between little Stony Point and Ray connect connect Breakneck Ridge

[1:35:39] and only some of them if you see in this Zoom are actually near the pink line of

[1:35:44] the trail and we also had to think about sea level

[1:35:48] rise right sea level rise is hitting this area and here's that little Stony

[1:35:53] Point that really has some inundation and then in this area just south of the

[1:35:58] tunnel at Breakneck also being heavily impacted so what does that mean and if

[1:36:03] you remember this is where this is here so we looked at that and then scape

[1:36:10] who's our landscape architect they have expertise and sea level rise they do a

[1:36:14] lot of work in shorelines including New Orleans kind of areas

[1:36:18] and what the the trees that were growing there as those sea levels rise go

[1:36:23] rise then you have a salinity right so you're getting more salty water it's

[1:36:28] slowly killing the trees so they went and looked at these trees and said with

[1:36:32] the sea level rise projections which ones are already sort of being

[1:36:36] compromised which ones as the levels go and the red is compromised by 20 50 and

[1:36:43] the yellow is by 2080 and green is 2010. so the where there are ones that are

[1:36:50] going to stay healthier longer we really want a tree to keep those on the site

[1:36:54] but the other ones that are already dead and dying they're kind of they're going

[1:36:58] so we we factored that into our design process and thought okay well this is

[1:37:03] the tricky spot where we actually have to go into the water a little bit but

[1:37:05] those tree trees might need to be cleared for that but

[1:37:10] they're also on their way out whereas here is a fairly healthy spot of trees

[1:37:15] and we do have a little bit more room to literally wiggle with so here we put in

[1:37:20] Wiggles to try to avoid the trees as much as possible and now it is a

[1:37:26] structure I think there's been a lot of conversation about this as a structure

[1:37:29] but the structure in the case of the trees I mean it's a structure because

[1:37:33] you have to stay out of sea level rise it has to be able to handle water in a

[1:37:38] storm event and then you have um

[1:37:42] the ability to keep more trees because if you were doing more site grading or

[1:37:46] even if you thought you're going to pile up a lot of fill you'll bury the roots

[1:37:49] too deep on the tree and kill the tree anyway so actually doing the pile driven

[1:37:53] is going to help us retain more of the trees

[1:37:56] and where we do have to go into the water we've given some special thought

[1:38:00] and attention to that to say if we are going in can we do something like down

[1:38:05] here where you put in a planted shelf and help build out some Shoreline

[1:38:10] resilience so you can have some planted shelves with submerged aquatic

[1:38:14] vegetation and as the sea level rise come up and over this Boulder you'll

[1:38:19] have some migration routes for those Sav Beds which are important habitat areas

[1:38:24] so when we do an intervention in the water we're also going to be doing a

[1:38:29] habitat and resilience protection underneath

[1:38:33] is Lauren Martin in the room are we finished with your response one more oh

[1:38:37] sorry and this this just shows other places where we have that where we might

[1:38:42] have to go around infrastructure of um Metro North and we could also do a

[1:38:47] planted shelf piece there so um we're still in early design we just

[1:38:53] brought in a new structural engineer so that's just started this week actually

[1:38:57] on the 15th they put their pencils to paper in Earnest and they'll start

[1:39:01] design and we'll bring out those ideas as they evolve

[1:39:06] thank you I'm having a I'm having a terrible time

[1:39:12] reading Andy's cues sorry about that for cutting you off is

[1:39:16] Lauren Martin here no okay so I'll read her question if the environmental review

[1:39:20] reveals that there will be significant impacts to species such as the New

[1:39:24] England Cottontail Cerulean warblers and submerged vegetation will the project be

[1:39:29] canceled

[1:39:33] [Applause] so we are state parks

[1:39:40] we care deeply about our the habitats we have several biologists in our own

[1:39:49] staff right within the region and certainly Statewide

[1:39:53] and we first we have a process so you inventory

[1:39:57] you look at your Baseline you look at what's out there and we have in fact

[1:40:01] this picture is a natural resource inventory of little Stony Point and that

[1:40:06] led to sort of changing things around as the design team was looking at what

[1:40:10] might go there and what might not go there and how it would be placed on the

[1:40:13] site so you then the first step that you do when you're looking at any of these

[1:40:19] particular endangered threatened special concern natural resources to seek to

[1:40:23] avoid their habitats and seek to avoid any impacts built into many of our our

[1:40:29] project permits are you can't tree cut between you know in November you can

[1:40:35] only treat cut after October 31st and and until March 31st because of the

[1:40:40] long-eared back northern long-eared bat because they're dead stick and doing

[1:40:44] things so unless it's a hazardous tree or other things and same thing we have

[1:40:48] we we seek to avoid and in cases where you can't avoid

[1:40:55] you mitigate and that that determination of mitigation really won't come until

[1:41:01] the very end when you determine that whatever your projects is and you have

[1:41:06] to do something in an area that may have an impact and how would you offset that

[1:41:09] impact but always first is a void

[1:41:13] plan around it see what you can do minimize

[1:41:17] and then mitigate this is the the steps that we would go as we look for how do

[1:41:23] we deal with any of the various animals and plants that are that are that are

[1:41:29] not invasive that are that are threatened and and uh special in the

[1:41:33] area

[1:41:35] um seem finished with that one

[1:41:38] okay Adam osterfeld

[1:41:45] I

[1:41:48] um I worked at Duchess art camp for seven years every summer while the long

[1:41:54] dock was being created so I watched the Waterfront front development at Beacon

[1:41:59] station for seven years from the start and we know that much of the river

[1:42:03] Shoreline has been Disturbed for over a hundred years

[1:42:07] the restoration at long dock brought back wildlife and habitat including

[1:42:13] the pollinators and the native plants what kind of plants are there to restore

[1:42:18] the natural habitat that existed pre-industrial Revolution and how will

[1:42:23] the restoration help mitigate the rising water levels caused by climate change I

[1:42:28] think some of my question was answered with those last few

[1:42:33] um okay but that's it thanks Adam

[1:42:37] [Applause] so hopefully you can see this I know

[1:42:44] there's a little bit of a glare this is a historic map that scape pulled that

[1:42:49] shows in the dotted line and this is Breakneck I believe the dotted line

[1:42:56] shows the original Shoreline so you can see how much fill was put in to the

[1:43:01] river when the railroad was put in so that's so this would be the Breakneck

[1:43:06] connector project area right so this is a significant amount of fill which is

[1:43:11] just to say it's a highly Disturbed Shoreline on top of the railroad you

[1:43:15] also had other um

[1:43:17] activities this is the coring I love this image the quarrying activity and

[1:43:22] this is a little Stony Point see so all of this area was fill and and if you

[1:43:26] remember the sea level rise projections this C is going to take it right back so

[1:43:31] that's where the sea level rise comes up is where there was this fill put in so

[1:43:36] that also had impacts and north of that and there's a lot of Brickyard activity

[1:43:39] so there's different um kind of impacts on the landscape from

[1:43:43] that prior activity um when you have a lot of disturbance

[1:43:47] and especially if you're by a highway court or a railroad cord or you get a

[1:43:51] lot of invasives then established in that Disturbed area so between the train

[1:43:55] and Highway and the brake neck connector and Adam I just used Breakneck connector

[1:43:59] since that's the most um

[1:44:02] designed at this point in time just but see treat it as a case study for what we

[1:44:06] would do other than other places as well so right now mostly settled in with

[1:44:11] invasives as we do the restoration when the improvements are made it will be

[1:44:18] using a native plant palette improving the soils which are fairly poor right

[1:44:24] there and adding new plants that are sourced from local nurseries so this is

[1:44:29] a bit of the plant palette that would be in

[1:44:32] put into the Breakneck connector area and this just shows you the planting

[1:44:38] extends in those locations so it's basically 5.4 Acres of native planting

[1:44:43] Restoration in this whole area kind of in this case not all cases we're really

[1:44:48] planting the whole area because it was so highly Disturbed that includes 430

[1:44:54] native trees being added to this part of the project area as well as over 2 000

[1:45:00] shrubs that are native and that doesn't get to the other little perennials

[1:45:06] um and then just tune to note that we're including where this culverts or where

[1:45:11] we might want somebody to be able to crawl underneath the trail we are

[1:45:14] putting in different little Wildlife Crossings into this and in the fencing

[1:45:18] that's in there right now there are Wildlife Crossings in that too

[1:45:23] additionally we have water managing water in this area is important

[1:45:28] um Metro North we'll say keep the water off my tracks so what we want to do is

[1:45:33] improve the storm water drainage off of that very steep slope above you know

[1:45:39] better than what it is right now in terms of storm water management here so

[1:45:43] and try to create it into a sort of a wet Garden that would be seasonally wet

[1:45:49] or when there's a storm event it's wet but then it'll dry out but we'll have

[1:45:53] plants that can handle that in that location and then maybe through the

[1:45:57] culverts some water will be pushing in at times and similarly this planting

[1:46:01] palette will be able to handle that

[1:46:07] okay

[1:46:13] hi Jason you were going to help me with

[1:46:17] this with them with the explanation a quick explanation of a positive

[1:46:24] declaration and a secret finding this is just from the New York State DEC website

[1:46:28] for some context to your question Susan a positive declaration is issued if an

[1:46:33] action is determined to have potentially a significant environmental impacts and

[1:46:38] in environmental impact statement is required an applicant must submit a

[1:46:42] draft environmental impact statement in that finding thank you and that triggers

[1:46:47] a public comment period so seven significant ecological

[1:46:52] communities identified by the New York natural heritage program as well as

[1:46:57] endangered and threatened species exist in the trail corridor

[1:47:04] a far more modest floor Trail proposal was given a positive declaration

[1:47:10] which is a negative in 2015. what has changed to make these habitats and

[1:47:17] species less vulnerable now than they were then

[1:47:21] [Applause]

[1:47:27] so if you understand Seeker that positive positive declaration that was

[1:47:34] just um described is the trigger that allows us to do an

[1:47:38] environmental impact statement so if you get what would be called a neg deck we

[1:47:43] might have turned around and just said okay you have a neck deck you can go

[1:47:46] ahead do do your Trail so a pause deck is always used where there is the where

[1:47:51] you want to do those studies you want to engage in the public comment you want to

[1:47:55] have this process and the analysis that we're going through the pos positive

[1:47:59] declaration that was issued in 2015 is the same positive declaration in which

[1:48:04] we are operating under right now it is carried through this is still a an

[1:48:11] environmental impact process that is going on and that declaration basically

[1:48:17] and I have it here talks about the trail that runs from City Beacon train station

[1:48:22] down to the Village of Coldspring train station along the Main Street

[1:48:26] um you know in Putnam County that's the wording in the in in

[1:48:31] in this it's the type one action under Seeker under the regulations that

[1:48:35] Implement Seeker so it nothing has changed this this really complicated and

[1:48:40] funny looking slide if you look to the very left

[1:48:43] step one and you can't read it but I'll just explained that dark box says is the

[1:48:47] action subject to Seeker the answer is yes anything almost anything is subject

[1:48:53] to Seeker these days if you go to the yellow box that's where we are and if

[1:48:57] you go to the far right that's where we end up so all you need to know is this

[1:49:01] is a process and it's a process that has sort of UPS downs and sideways depending

[1:49:06] on what comes out of the of the different information that's collected

[1:49:09] you can move to the next slide because if you so we're in a process the process

[1:49:15] is the draft environmental impact statement nothing has changed in terms

[1:49:18] of the X7 ecological communities at an ecological Community says what do you

[1:49:23] have in plant life and an animal life that impacts sort of what uses a common

[1:49:29] environment and these are just identified by the state to help you

[1:49:33] understand sort of what might be in a particular

[1:49:38] ecological community so if you go to the next site so we have and many of you

[1:49:43] will recognize this from your own neighborhoods or your own backyards we

[1:49:47] have Oak tulip tree forests in this area that's one of our ecological communities

[1:49:52] and certain plants grow in Oak and certain animals live in Oak tulip tree

[1:49:57] Forest because we have Summits on our Highlands we have red cedar Rocky

[1:50:01] Summits we have Chestnut Oak Summit forests we have Appalachian Oak Hickory

[1:50:06] Forest those are four of the sort of plant communities that we have that are

[1:50:10] considered E coli logical communities out of the seven

[1:50:13] because we're on the river we have brackish in our title mud flats and we

[1:50:18] have brackish tidal Marsh and then again to the very top of the hills we have

[1:50:22] that Pitch Pine Oak Heath Rocky Summit where you see the the wind more wind

[1:50:27] swept lower lower scrubby growth those are the seven identified ecological

[1:50:32] habitats that we have that we plan around look to see what see what's there

[1:50:38] and what is impacted by any of the trail the trail doesn't necessarily

[1:50:44] go through all of those or any of those but it is in this catchment area

[1:50:49] go to the next slide so again as I said earlier with the

[1:50:54] question that Lauren asked we evaluate an inventory and study the area

[1:50:59] the first thing that happened when the discussion was for the causeway was came

[1:51:04] for and linking little Stony Point to Dockside was hudsonia was called in to

[1:51:08] do a baseline evaluation of what was again along the shoreline and what was

[1:51:12] around little Stony Point and there are just a a a well-known

[1:51:18] scientifically based organization we assess the impact

[1:51:24] what happened so for instance we are in an eagle catchment area so we always

[1:51:28] have to know where are nesting Eagles what is the impact of of construction

[1:51:32] how does it do it interestingly enough most of the Eagles don't seem to mind

[1:51:36] most of the construction but we have a lot of noise tables and you see the

[1:51:39] nests right above the highways all the time but we have um and and Eagles you

[1:51:44] know are are no longer on the endangered uh uh list but the peregrine falcon is

[1:51:50] and the bat is so we have a bunch of different things that we have they're

[1:51:53] different levels whether you're endangered or threatened or a special

[1:51:55] concern we avoid the impact to this extent you can you shift you shift the

[1:52:02] what might be on a site plan or you can have restrictions for when you do your

[1:52:05] construction or you have monitors and you mitigate if there's anything that

[1:52:10] you can't remove so it's the same answer really as as before

[1:52:22] we've arrived at the last question of the evening which is coming from Teresa

[1:52:26] lagerman and then we'll roll into the comment period

[1:52:30] good evening hi what how will hhft or the state

[1:52:36] anybody's welcome support the village of Cold Spring to handle the increased

[1:52:41] strain in its infrastructure that the fuel Trail will bring this is very much

[1:52:46] not a bathroom question the village as it is can barely keep up with sidewalk

[1:52:51] repairs garbage pickup payments of the water treatment plant Etc thank you

[1:53:01] thank you so as I mentioned we're already at the

[1:53:05] table with the village on this the next meeting we have planned we're going to

[1:53:09] have a map in on the table in front of us and

[1:53:13] really map out issue areas that the village has or needs that the village

[1:53:16] has and then we're going to talk about which of those maybe Fjord helps with or

[1:53:21] which ones we might be able to help the village identify resources for so that

[1:53:26] includes like we mentioned working on the dot 90 intersection function

[1:53:31] sidewalk improvements from the train station would be part of what we would

[1:53:35] think about doing if we went to Dockside sidewalk extension on Fair Street I

[1:53:40] think in any event foreign

[1:53:49] I'll take it evaluate other pedestrian Improvement

[1:53:53] needs is something that the village has been asking for we're going to that's

[1:53:57] part of the study realm that happens over this year

[1:54:01] um possible garbage emptying on the

[1:54:04] waterfront if we go through the Dockside route we know that's a high volume area

[1:54:07] it's a little separated from the rest of Main Street so it's a sort of

[1:54:11] a time probably time consuming thing for staff to go that extra way just for

[1:54:15] those um

[1:54:17] retaining Village events at like fireworks and movie Nights at Dockside

[1:54:22] we've always committed that if we go to The Dockside route we would be working

[1:54:26] with the village about how that happens the plant there would be a special

[1:54:31] community-based planning process to identify what occurs on that site and we

[1:54:35] wanted to always make the commitment that if the retaining of those events

[1:54:39] that happen there now should always be on the table is sort of a given so that

[1:54:45] would be a process that would move forward with all of us at the table

[1:54:48] right now it's just a very swirly site plan

[1:54:53] um and then helping the village like I said identify potential funding

[1:54:56] opportunities and we could maybe even help with grant writing for those since

[1:54:59] Seth can be a big lift especially with state grants

[1:55:03] um and then we've essentially evolved you know and we are continuing to hone

[1:55:08] ourselves as a visitation management strategy

[1:55:12] and so that means you know looking at infrastructure

[1:55:16] providing the infrastructure through the project to help manage visitation

[1:55:20] offering the Staffing at our cost to maintain the Park area and to help

[1:55:27] manage visitors including implementing different tools like reservations

[1:55:31] systems and then emergency response assistance

[1:55:36] offering those services like garbage and bathrooms like putting them in and then

[1:55:40] maintaining them technology and tools to help manage

[1:55:44] visitation and that includes demand management like pricing reservations Etc

[1:55:49] so the project has it baked in to help do

[1:55:53] that and we'll continue to refine that with your input

[1:55:59] that's I don't know I don't read slides but yes

[1:56:04] so that's it [Applause]

[1:56:17] okay okay you guys are all set so so we have a sign in

[1:56:22] yes so we uh we do have the sign-in sheet which was available from 6 30 to 7

[1:56:27] P.M sorry did you hear me

[1:56:30] can you hear me now okay thank you so there was a sign-in

[1:56:35] sheet that was posted between 6 30 and 7 PM we will try to get through as many of

[1:56:40] these um speakers as possible on between now

[1:56:44] and 9 30. so uh the first one is three minute limit yes there's a three minute

[1:56:50] limit on speaking so first up is Gretchen Dykstra

[1:56:57] good evening so just for just to give Gretchen space the more we applaud the

[1:57:04] fewer questions we get to so let's just keep moving through questions

[1:57:08] I oppose the fewer Trails current design for the many environmental and

[1:57:13] logistical reasons that others have cited how did a Community Driven modest

[1:57:18] and realistic scheme morph into grandiose attraction on public land

[1:57:22] already receiving millions of taxpayers dollars I choose to focus on the money

[1:57:29] there is no overall construction budget at least that the public has seen but be

[1:57:36] but before final approvals final drawings and value engineering

[1:57:41] responsible developers including large not-for-profit organizations always

[1:57:47] estimate construction costs Scenic Hudson and its subsidiary should be held

[1:57:53] to that same standard and most importantly Albany should demand it I

[1:57:59] have equally deep concerns about the lack of long-term operating budget and

[1:58:04] the total lack of any public discussion on that essential issue staff say

[1:58:10] parking and fundraising will support the project but more than two years ago the

[1:58:15] New York state parks gave the tiny Fjord Trail project the right to sell

[1:58:20] sponsorships encourage paid promotions and establish concessions along the

[1:58:26] trail staff never mentioned that the day they take possession of Dockside and

[1:58:31] little Stony Point budget realities will hit liability and Insurance alone will

[1:58:38] be astronomical and the higher their costs the greater the incentive to

[1:58:43] monetize public space I am opposed to privatizing public land and if they

[1:58:49] cannot raise money to maintain 7.5 miles of Trail guess who will pay the

[1:58:56] taxpayers so New York state parks signed a

[1:59:01] contract with a new small not-for-profit organization with no guarantees from its

[1:59:07] parents Cena cutson that shows raw political power on the part of Cena

[1:59:12] cutson and poor judgment on the part of our elected and appointed officials I

[1:59:18] worked for I worked for several high-profile public-private Partnerships

[1:59:23] in the city one was driven by ethical public servants and experienced

[1:59:28] volunteers who cared about transparency and true Community participation and had

[1:59:34] no Financial conflicts the Times Square bid was a model of openness and

[1:59:40] efficiency another was messy and wasteful the public was told that the

[1:59:45] private donors would pay for the 350 million dollar project but when it

[1:59:52] ultimately cost 1.3 billion guess who paid the difference the taxpayers our

[1:59:59] elected officials are way behind the eight ball all across the nation under

[2:00:04] growing pressure state and local governments are developing better

[2:00:09] policies and procedures to guarantee that local communities

[2:00:15] thank you foreign

[2:00:22] [Applause]

[2:00:38] is not written down and or my comment is not written down so I may stumble my

[2:00:43] original question was if the whole Community is against this is there any

[2:00:48] legal way anymore that we could stop this if we wanted to but that seems like

[2:00:52] that's been answered because this is state land

[2:00:55] and at the end of all the studies when it's all done and here's the final plan

[2:01:00] this is the plan this is it we don't want it the stake as you say

[2:01:04] This Is Our Land go ahead and do whatever they want we can't stop this

[2:01:10] um

[2:01:12] you know that being the case I was wondering because you folks have spoken

[2:01:16] about this being not only a partnership but public-private partnership but also

[2:01:21] with the community meaning phillipstown Cold Spring Nelsonville I guess Garrison

[2:01:25] or all of the philipstown villages um would the state be willing to submit

[2:01:31] at the end when the final plan here it is this is the plan guys would the state

[2:01:36] be willing to submit to a binding referendum for all the citizens of

[2:01:39] philipstown to vote you just yes or no no comments vote Yes or no and if the

[2:01:44] nose rule that's the end of the project and maybe it would go back to the

[2:01:48] original small trail that was proposed [Applause]

[2:02:01] sorry

[2:02:04] Sheila Roush

[2:02:12] I'm really very quick the problem for me is that you guys understandably talk

[2:02:17] about a world-class linear Park and you know proudly and then you also say it's

[2:02:24] not going to bother you you know it's just going to be locals that use it and

[2:02:29] we're worried about traffic you haven't done a traffic study I understand you're

[2:02:34] doing it but

[2:02:37] to have us in this state of anxiety about traffic and you have nothing to

[2:02:42] say about it and when you do I'm really thankful we're going to have a traffic

[2:02:46] monitor ourselves I'm really thankful about that but when you do

[2:02:51] deliver the dgeis apparently they're only 30 days to

[2:02:57] review it not so well that's good

[2:03:01] but you've already begun the Breakneck

[2:03:06] connector at least your literature says so

[2:03:08] yes Laguna you got a pause deck a neg deck

[2:03:14] what's the good one the negative you got a neg deck

[2:03:18] and and and you can understand that that causes a lot of anxiety we're very

[2:03:24] worried about traffic and

[2:03:28] just complete swarming of Cold Spring so you know there are these two things

[2:03:38] [Applause] Rick Franco

[2:03:48] ah hi Rick thanks a question

[2:03:54] um so

[2:03:58] I don't know I guess it was about four years ago

[2:04:02] when I got one of your glossy magazines and it said that

[2:04:11] you were going to reimagine the trail

[2:04:18] and that scared the heck out because that means that meant

[2:04:24] you were starting from scratch so starting from scratch

[2:04:32] oh Anything Could Happen um

[2:04:37] and anything did happen um

[2:04:42] we went from I've been following I've been going to

[2:04:47] all of the the meetings um

[2:05:04] I um

[2:05:12] the

[2:05:15] at this point here uh

[2:05:19] the trail was and I think somebody mentioned that it was pretty much

[2:05:25] graveled with a little bit of pebbles in between

[2:05:33] and then all of a sudden it became apparent that there was going to be uh

[2:05:41] a concrete walkway and and that that was a lot different

[2:05:48] so um

[2:05:52] at that point I I gave up on the project and

[2:06:00] there was no way to

[2:06:03] now that the project got to that point there was no way to deal with it so I

[2:06:13] just you know stood back and all I'm doing at this point

[2:06:19] is is hoping somebody can you know put their

[2:06:24] their foot out and and trip it [Applause]

[2:06:34] thank you

[2:06:40] so we're struggling with handwriting it looks like maybe Jack Robbins Jeff

[2:06:44] Robbins or maybe

[2:06:53] so it's clearly the problems of over visitation and traffic and safety have

[2:06:59] been core that was in the original proposal and yet we have a new proposal

[2:07:05] now that is greatly expanded with many amenities with a Riverfront Boardwalk

[2:07:13] those are all things that are going to increase visitation perhaps

[2:07:18] exponentially and these are the very problems that the proposal was

[2:07:23] originally slated to address so

[2:07:29] this is something that many are concerned with because I see in the

[2:07:32] questions that were submitted my question is how can this project be

[2:07:37] restored to its original scope which can protect the quality of life

[2:07:43] here and the environment so if it is a question and you'd like an

[2:07:48] answer we will allow them to provide an answer would you guys be interested in

[2:07:52] answering that

[2:07:55] we okay but we had decided if there was a

[2:08:00] question we would respond to a question is that a question that you'd like

[2:08:05] but John others have asked questions no they've made statements

[2:08:16] write up some answers to these questions since we're not doing equal treatment on

[2:08:20] all of them right now but the the I think there's a lot of misinformation

[2:08:24] about what the plan used to be and how simple and it was and there's just

[2:08:30] certain realities of building something on the Metro North right-of-way for

[2:08:34] example right where you're going to have to have fencing or you have sea level

[2:08:37] rise and it's going to have to be elevated so I think there's a a

[2:08:41] perception of Simplicity in terms of the main trail let's forget about the

[2:08:45] add-ons that Ned asked about but in terms of the main trail there's a sense

[2:08:50] of Simplicity out there that I don't think ever really was on paper so I just

[2:08:55] want to add there is a an alternative we've talked

[2:09:00] about Fair Street 9d a simpler alternative would be less costly less of

[2:09:07] an attraction actually for visitation

[2:09:11] that could connect to Cornish and why is that you know not not being

[2:09:17] considered it's in the alternative so we have the preferred alignment and then

[2:09:21] that's going to get run through all the paces on the environmental review and

[2:09:25] we'll see and we'll keep talking about this but I do think we should be seeing

[2:09:30] how this works like does it work the way we think I always think about it like a

[2:09:33] water balloon if you want to get people out of town as quickly as possible maybe

[2:09:37] you need three holes in that water balloon instead of just fair streak

[2:09:40] right so do we have more than one route that people can take and then you sort

[2:09:44] of Distributing that impact someplace so I'd like you know the answer is there's

[2:09:49] still time to talk about this but I think we need to really look at each of

[2:09:53] these from all sides thank you thank you miss me thank you very much

[2:09:59] [Applause]

[2:10:03] Derek Derek Graham 32 West Street

[2:10:09] hi Derek

[2:10:14] um thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak prepared a uh a

[2:10:19] brief statement for you and I'll read from it the idea of the trailhead at our

[2:10:24] dock side is antithetical and counter-intuitive to the present

[2:10:28] challenges our village Endeavors to remediate to this very day it will

[2:10:33] exacerbate what is already epic levels of traffic compression and visitor

[2:10:38] saturation while at the same time the developers boasted the addition of the

[2:10:42] Dockside Trailhead will in fact somehow solve or mitigate these problems not

[2:10:47] only along its Seven Mile Corridor but specifically our village in other words

[2:10:52] more is less however there is not a single document

[2:10:57] published that bears out this fantasy and I fear no document will ever support

[2:11:01] this Fiasco this we call conjecture the developer team understands these

[2:11:06] challenges has been gracious in providing opportunities for the public

[2:11:10] to comment the team includes Stellar designers professionals professionals

[2:11:14] and they're good at most of what they do however Pro Form and feasibility studies

[2:11:19] are not their strong suit there are no such studies for our village this week

[2:11:23] we're putting the horse before the car the developer promises amenities to

[2:11:28] Dockside Trailhead that purportedly fall under the category of enhanced

[2:11:32] infrastructure such as restrooms and refuse collection these amenities are

[2:11:36] chiefly in service of enhanced tourism The Village would only need these

[2:11:40] services to support these additional tourist loads although the developers in

[2:11:46] our village offices have scheduled local studies I can't think of anything they

[2:11:49] would draw out that which we don't already know such as

[2:11:53] the Lower Village master plan was developed well before the Civil War and

[2:11:57] was never intended to be a mega volume tourist destination the physical space

[2:12:01] simply isn't there until 19 2016 the trail plan made at least some sense when

[2:12:08] it did not involve a fourth and redundant Boardwalk to little Stony

[2:12:12] Point like is not these access Thor Affairs including 90 and Fair Street

[2:12:17] will continue to be used by tourists to access the trail system for the reasons

[2:12:22] that they are the shortest routes and The Dockside is generally inaccessible

[2:12:27] access to a Dockside Trailhead would be limited by the scarcity of parketing and

[2:12:31] even walking space for a potential tsunami of tourists most Village

[2:12:35] residents understand these realities and see Dockside is one of the last natural

[2:12:40] refuges of our within our boundaries

[2:12:45] [Applause] well Landing a Trailhead at Dockside

[2:12:50] would be an existential threat tantamount to dropping a nuclear warhead

[2:12:53] on Hackensack

[2:12:57] it's simply too big and the benefits are equally as small as a constituency who

[2:13:02] Advocates such following as I have said the Dockside Trailhead represents a

[2:13:06] Superfluous burden and compromised the smallville's way of life our ability to

[2:13:11] peaceably enjoy our own backyard without having to compete with them thank you

[2:13:15] sir next up

[2:13:18] thank you sir thank you time is up thank you very much sit down thanks

[2:13:23] thank you

[2:13:28] Paul Cotman

[2:13:32] what hi Paul

[2:13:36] don't worry I'll continue where Derek left off

[2:13:41] um so from what I understand I'm really

[2:13:45] addressing this to the trip to my neighbors so I'll turn this way my

[2:13:50] understanding is that we we don't have the authority to cancel the the project

[2:13:54] what we do have is the chance to influence the final form it will take

[2:14:00] so for those of us with deep concerns about the potential impact of the park

[2:14:04] on our village we should collectively think about how we can effectively exert

[2:14:08] the influence we have in the short time available to us

[2:14:12] as a resident of fair street I'm aware of the dangers of too much foot traffic

[2:14:18] in the village and initially I was intrigued by the possibility that some

[2:14:22] of that traffic would be diverted for safety reasons above all but it's

[2:14:26] becoming clear to me and here I agree with Derek that the plan to start and

[2:14:31] end the Fjord Trail at Dockside would be I like the image of a nuclear weapon I

[2:14:36] think that's about right would be extremely disruptive as what I had

[2:14:40] written to the village and perhaps do little or nothing to improve the

[2:14:43] situation on Fair Street or Garden Street

[2:14:45] moreover Dockside Park is the nicest public park in New York state seems to

[2:14:52] putting the Fjord Trail there would ruin it create a traffic snarl in the village

[2:14:58] worse than all the problems it allegedly was there to address and forever turn

[2:15:02] Cold Spring into a very different and from my point of view less desirable

[2:15:06] place to live so I would urge that we in the room who care about this get behind

[2:15:12] the plan to push the start of the trail at least to little Stony Point

[2:15:18] and at the same time that we push for the changes that were put on the slide

[2:15:22] to be made to Fair Street to make the foot traffic there less dangerous

[2:15:26] I believe little Stony Point had been the original or one of the original

[2:15:30] starting places for the park and it may be one of the better options available

[2:15:33] to us I'm happy to push it back further if we can let's get behind in any case

[2:15:38] let's get behind our elected officials and bolster the influence they still

[2:15:42] have over the next year or two to make sure the new park starts further north

[2:15:46] than darks than than dark side thank you

[2:15:53] thank you

[2:15:58] Patty D'Amato

[2:16:04] my Patty

[2:16:07] good evening I live on Stone Street in the village

[2:16:12] one block north of Main Street one block west not east of The Depot

[2:16:19] restaurant it was my husband's childhood home

[2:16:24] we decided to leave our quiet street in Nelsonville after living there for 40

[2:16:29] years to move into his parents home because it was a good house in which to

[2:16:34] grow old as much knowledge as we had of the

[2:16:40] difficulties in Cold Spring prior to 2020

[2:16:44] nothing could have prepared us for what has happened

[2:16:49] we welcome Taurus Phil and I are out on our porch all the time

[2:16:55] we give directions we give restaurant recommendations

[2:17:01] we suggest places for people to visit one couple came from Long Island with

[2:17:07] their toddler and they said to us

[2:17:11] is your town like this all the time I said it's become like that

[2:17:19] I said ask let me ask you something how did you find Cold Spring

[2:17:25] well we googled nice places to visit then there are the people who ask for

[2:17:31] directions and I'll make conversation and I'll say what do you think of our

[2:17:36] Waterfront what you have a waterfront

[2:17:40] people don't do research before they come

[2:17:45] they're coming here to have a lovely day

[2:17:50] I tell them about the beauties of this community

[2:17:55] but we're losing the beauty of this community

[2:17:58] we can't walk on Main Street during the week

[2:18:02] on the weekends and now during the week as well

[2:18:07] I was driving down Main Street the week after Easter a beautiful day

[2:18:12] somebody was parallel parking in front of the coffee house

[2:18:15] I waited for that person and the cars behind me started laying on their horns

[2:18:22] because they didn't have the patience to wait

[2:18:25] you're also assuming that people are going to go and take the shuttle

[2:18:30] that's not going to happen they're going to drive down Main Street

[2:18:34] even they're going to drive down Main Street

[2:18:39] go past Susie's dance dialogue over to the street that goes to mumus and

[2:18:47] they're going to drop off their families there

[2:18:51] if I want to bring my parents in their 80s I am not going to go to Duchess

[2:18:57] Manor which only has 200 parking spaces and I'm not going to make them get on a

[2:19:04] shuttle that on some days is going to run from eight in the morning till 8 at

[2:19:09] night I'm coming to Cold Spring thank you

[2:19:13] [Applause]

[2:19:25] Peter Henderson

[2:19:33] good evening first of all I'd like to say that I share my fellow residence

[2:19:37] concerns that this project will overwhelm this community

[2:19:42] especially if it starts the dark side but I did want to ask

[2:19:48] Parks who is in fact a project sponsor as well as the lead Agency for this

[2:19:55] project to provide some clarification on the

[2:19:59] town's role in this process so Parks has told us tonight that this is a Parks

[2:20:05] process project and we are in the process of conducting the environmental

[2:20:10] impact study additionally supervisor Van Tassel has said on multiple occasions

[2:20:15] including at last month's board meeting that this is not a town project

[2:20:21] but the record says differently I've looked closely at all the

[2:20:26] documentation related to the environmental review process so I'm

[2:20:30] familiar with everything that's part of the public record for this project

[2:20:33] including the 2015 draft master plan the scoping documents outlining exactly

[2:20:40] what will be covered in the Eis and the towns application for local

[2:20:44] Waterfront revitalization program grant money for the design work for the

[2:20:49] shoreline portion of the trail and the town's contract with akrf for

[2:20:55] all the work related to the environmental impact study

[2:21:00] so regarding the grant money back in 2016 the town was awarded four hundred

[2:21:06] thousand dollars from the Department of state's lwrp program

[2:21:10] and receive matching funds of four hundred thousand from the Hudson

[2:21:14] Highlands Land Trust Finance design and Engineering work for the trail and to

[2:21:20] complete the environmental impact statement which isn't yet finished

[2:21:24] then in 2017 the town of philipstown signed the contract with akrf and became

[2:21:30] the designated contract administrator for the Eis work

[2:21:35] the new 2020 plan represents

[2:21:39] the grandiose vision for the trail as a linear Park and a major tourist

[2:21:44] attraction starting from dark side with a two plus Mile Stretch a 14 foot wide

[2:21:50] elevated Boardwalk and it also turns little Stony Point

[2:21:54] into an amusement park none of which was part of the 2015

[2:21:59] draft master plan which was supposed to be the Central Study point or the Eis

[2:22:09] there's nothing in the public record to indicate what took place between the end

[2:22:12] of 2017 and 2020 when a new and completely different master plan was

[2:22:17] published I don't think many people knew if this

[2:22:21] plan's existence before hhft started promoting it in 2021

[2:22:27] yet it was at that time that the town adopted in its new 2030 comprehensive

[2:22:32] plan and action item to support the Hudson Highlands field Trail thank you

[2:22:37] Paul

[2:22:40] [Applause]

[2:22:50] foreign would you like a response to that

[2:22:54] yes yes

[2:23:02] Richard would you like to respond yeah I would I think it's unfair to John to be

[2:23:07] saddled with this you know supposition that he has control over the Fjord Trail

[2:23:13] um that was during my tenure

[2:23:17] those grants were given to the town for studies when we were the grant

[2:23:22] administrator at that time so the town was acting essentially as a

[2:23:26] Clearinghouse with akrf to do the studies about the original master plan

[2:23:32] now since then this is this process has gone on and there have

[2:23:37] been other studies and as was alluded to there are several other studies pending

[2:23:41] in the secret process so when you're saying the town has control over the

[2:23:47] project that's not true the town was an administrator for a grant so that's the

[2:23:54] fundamental truth there and the town was fully reimbursed for every dollar that

[2:23:59] was spent was no Pub No public money spent

[2:24:04] no absolutely not thank you

[2:24:10] yes next person on the list John zubik

[2:24:29] John I'm surprised

[2:24:36] you want to start the clock I'll tell you when ready go

[2:24:43] but we're ready we're ready let's go we're running out of time here

[2:24:52] everybody can hear

[2:24:56] that okay um

[2:24:59] when do I still don't know where to start I've written about a half a dozen

[2:25:03] different uh statements uh

[2:25:09] since before Thanksgiving I've had meetings almost every day on this after

[2:25:12] March Madness it's been meetings with people or groups

[2:25:16] every day being conflicted is to put it mildly

[2:25:22] someone in this room was in this room right now asked me which which uh which

[2:25:27] side it was on and I'm a team player I don't profess to be

[2:25:31] on sides I'm trying to move this forward so I'm not on a side I'm very conflicted

[2:25:39] um I'm seeing a therapist for the second time in my life every two weeks

[2:25:43] [Applause]

[2:25:48] um the first time I had to see the

[2:25:52] therapist was when I got married to my wonderful wife the second time

[2:25:56] well can you decide this is a serious impact statement in endangerment

[2:26:00] endangerment across the spectrum of Life as we know it around here is in many

[2:26:04] ways of positive declaration translation not good for the neighborhood

[2:26:09] somewhat like the last hurricane that came through that killed a lot of deer

[2:26:13] and introduced more weeds for us to go through

[2:26:16] to cut to the chase right now I urge parks to truly be the lead agency and

[2:26:22] issue a work stop order on this somewhat ill-conceived project

[2:26:25] I'm upset that uh Breakneck was segmented and the whole project should

[2:26:31] have been considered and they should not proceed on uh with breaking as far as as

[2:26:35] far as I believe so I urge parks to put a stop recorder on this if they can

[2:26:40] oprhp the office of parks recreation and historic preservation some parks please

[2:26:45] put some emphasis on the preservation piece that's surely in their our mission

[2:26:50] statement around around here

[2:26:54] I'm not sure how many times the well-meaning designers have been

[2:26:58] back at the get-go on the drawing board but it's time to again to

[2:27:02] re-visit that and go back to square one um I know for a fact

[2:27:09] this is a fact that some of the partners that have been listed by hhft claim to

[2:27:15] have had input from on this project through a steering committee has been a

[2:27:21] name only I've been involved with those 20 point for since this Inception about

[2:27:25] 40 years now and I was waiting and looking for the invitation to uh hit my

[2:27:32] two cents in and it never never came we had Representatives but was never going

[2:27:37] that way always came this way what this sketchy proposed plan was going to be so

[2:27:42] now recently thank you John to be continued thank you

[2:27:48] we're going to take one more [Applause]

[2:27:52] okay we have two minutes left John schinemann

[2:28:00] facing all of us um

[2:28:03] I do not live in the village I live up on Jake Hawks in phillipstown so my

[2:28:09] perspective is a little bit different but

[2:28:13] all the concerns I share we are overloaded already and I think one of

[2:28:18] the things which they've said which hasn't resonated is that the problem is

[2:28:22] here now whether this gets approved or not we have a huge over visitation

[2:28:27] problem now

[2:28:30] The Fjord Trail is an attempt to deflect some of that

[2:28:35] traffic off of Fair Street 90 and all the rest of the things give another

[2:28:39] option for people who are already coming they're already here

[2:28:44] to get to the trails now I have some specific concerns one without a traffic

[2:28:51] study to have even this level of discussion is sort of stupid honestly

[2:28:55] because we're talking Spanish if we don't know what proposals are out there

[2:28:59] or even know what they're going to be saying are the criteria

[2:29:03] but let's talk about the trail itself I'm a cyclist I've stopped cycling in

[2:29:08] this area because it's just too bloody dangerous

[2:29:11] it's overloaded the drivers are texting there are no shoulders on roads so I am

[2:29:16] delighted that there's a rail trail somewhere that I don't have to drive 45

[2:29:20] minutes to get to however if you are constructing this thing to

[2:29:26] accommodate everybody I don't see how a 12 foot 10 foot or 14 foot wide Trail is

[2:29:34] going to accommodate cyclists pedestrians who are walking to hiking

[2:29:39] trails or walking to some of the other venues people with disabilities now I

[2:29:44] worked in Mass tourism over at West Point I ran the public tourism program

[2:29:47] over there I am very familiar with ADA requirements even though they don't have

[2:29:51] to follow them but I don't see how that limited space

[2:29:56] is going to accommodate all these different

[2:29:59] uh audiences that you have that you're projecting are going to use it cyclists

[2:30:05] alone on a two-way 10 foot wide that is very narrow that's like one cycle going

[2:30:12] one way one cycle the other where are all the rest of the people going to be

[2:30:16] and I'd also like to put another comment out there what are you going to do about

[2:30:20] electronic bicycles because if you allow things to go 30 miles an hour on that

[2:30:26] there will be bloodshed enjoy thank you

[2:30:30] [Applause]

[2:30:40] that'll be it for the public comment we are now going to get a closing statement

[2:30:45] Chris and

[2:30:48] just like to say on behalf of all the all the words we greatly appreciate

[2:30:52] everybody coming out tonight to tell us your opinions your views your thoughts

[2:30:57] and your concerns we greatly appreciate Hudson Islands

[2:31:01] viewer Trail and the parks near state parks for coming I know that this is

[2:31:06] very difficult we really appreciate you being willing to do so

[2:31:16] can I get a motion to adjourn for the town board please

[2:31:21] second all in favor and for the village of Cold Spring a motion to adjourn

[2:31:27] please second tweets all in favor

[2:31:33] aye and for the village

[2:31:36] for the village of Nelsonville can I get a motion to adjourn the meeting

[2:31:42] promotion Maria second Dave thank you [Music]

[2:31:55] foreign

Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail Joint Public Session Monday, May 8, 2023

Transcript