Planning Board - Regular Meeting

all right I'd like to call this meeting of planning board of build bring to order um we only have one item on the agenda today um but would anyone like to add or modifi NOP uh we have Hillary joining us online number um okay so uh I guess first uh Bank officer Burke been assisting on keeping us um compliant with the fire code and otherwise safe um so why why are we here uh so um the village board had a public hearing uh on uh the dgis from um the for the F Trail um the hhft uh had a few public hearings why does the planning board care to have one is this entirely duplicative are we just here to say the same things to each other over and over again um I I say no the purpose of the planning board is different than the purpose of the village board and it's different than the purpose of the developer um and what this board in particular is deeply concerned with is the details of what is being done how it's being done and how those details in particular impact the village so uh that's really important because it should inform any comment that we hear from all of you today because that's help that helped us understand things we should be thinking about in terms of the details of implementation um what we should be worried about what we should be providing comment about what we should be providing feedback about and uh as a result providing only broad support or detraction is just is not that useful to this some something to keep in mind as you're thinking about your own comments um you can be excited about

this project as's whole and have concerns about the details of its execution you can be against the project as a whole but find some implementation choices more palatable than others these are the details that matter to us here and we will consider them when composing our comments on the DG ad so that's the first thing for everyone to keep in mind the second for the avoidance of doubt this planning board does not have any approval Authority here it's a bit unusual considering the impact um the project could have on the village but in this instance we are only tasked for providing comment and question to hhft and state partn so just understanding what the limit of our role and power is here um third um the document here this very large printout that's here on the on the table in front of us um is the only thing under consideration today and I everyone to think about what that what that means because for a project that is large with this much history it's easy to get out get pulled out of the literal text of what's here in front of us uh into years of marketing hearsay rumor past promise um so I want everyone to make sure that your comments relate very specifically to the content that's in the DG um because those those are the ones that are being relevant for our comment um state parks uh and finally um some process notes so we have a a signin sheet um for anyone who uh is here in the room and like to speak um and Abigail will be grabbing names of folks who are on Zoom who would like to speak as as a volunteer um we're going to try to have a hard limit of 9:30 pm. tonight so no one has to stay up too late um and we're going to um we're

going to have a priority order of speaker this is going to be something that is but um something that everyone should be aware of so we're going to prioritize villagers here in person uh then villagers online uh Village business owners here in person and Village business owners online and then non- villagers including those speaking on behalf of organizations in person and then online so um you're here uh speaking not as a private citizen but on behalf of an organization please let us know you have an affiliation um as a courtesy just let us know so that we we can um appropriately contextualize your remark um each speaker will be allocated a maximum of three minutes to speak I believe we should have a timer floating around somewhere please respect this um just because we're trying to get through everyone and here as much diversity of of comment as possible um when you speak um give your name and address and um uh as a reminder all comments are to be addressed to the board not to individuals in the room um and uh all written comment will will be considered um so if you don't feel like you had enough time in three minutes um or weren't able to speak tonight for whatever reason um you can always email us email to the Village Clerk or drop a physical copy it will get to us we will read it we will incorporate it into our thinking um and um finally we are here primary to listen um board is is not obligated to respond to any public comment unless it's procedural in nature um so um mostly we're just here to um to learn how everyone has been thinking about this this proposal so um with that would someone like to make a motion to open the public hearing I

make a motion to open the public hearing for discussion on the pure Trail D GIS in favor all right okay um our assign sheet um what any other members like to make com before we jump into did you comment on what we're generating out of all of this uh I alluded to it but I can be more explicit so the one of the artifacts that that this board is producing is um a written comment and a collection of questions for state parks and um hsf to respond to um uh and that I think they're um we're one of because we're listed as one of the um uh the actual term Jonathan Jonathan will remember but um we're an interested party or an involved party what is it interested agency interested agency yeah um that um that those those comments and questions would be engaged by um so this is in service of making sure that we're thinking through all the things that we should be thinking through when it comes to the detail um all right um we'll start making our way through um village residence here in the room um so uh Lynn Miller do you want me yeah you don't mind coming up sure hi I'm Lyn Miller um I'm a village resident I live at uh 30 Bank Street kind of on the very edge of the village

and our property also um AB buts property owned by and managed by Cena csin which The Foundry Brook goes down to the West Point behind our house goes down and um we often walk down in the West Point Foundry preserve and we love it we love it down there it's such an improvement over what it was when we first moved here over 20 years ago um I just want to say that I think we can trust Cena kudon and New York state parks to do a good job on this thing um the F I've seen development of Riverside trails in several other places I've lived one is Chapel Hill North Carolina where I grew up and also another town um about 10 miles away where my daughter lives called Hillsboro both of these have Riverwalk Greenways that were protested significantly before they were built and then once built absolutely loved by everyone who lives there um so what's important to me particularly in in regards to the environmental impact of of the F Trail it's not just the fish and the plants and the birds that live in the river which is a wonderful thing it's a it's an important thing that we need to preserve and I believe from what I've gathered in here that they're going to be particularly sensitive to that but the thing is we that we need to remember is that this space that we're discussing has always been an industrial space it was polluted monstrously for years and years

and years my father used to work for the EPA and was instrumental in helping to clean up rivers and forests and all kinds of places all over the country so I think it's a mistake to make a big deal over this very small stretch between Cold Spring and uh Dockside and um little Stony Point as far as it being dangerous to the natural habitat the river is recovering I just read an article today about how the skillet fish is coming back and the skillet fish only live where oysters live and so oysters are coming back to the Hudson River so are Skillet fish these things haven't been seen in 50 years so they're coming back and I believe from Reading I haven't read the entire thing but I from what I have read I believe that Cena Hudson and New York state parks and the other entities that are behind building the fure trail are being particularly sensitive to the environmental impacts and yes there will be some big environmental impacts during its construction and it'll have impact on us the environment for the residents of the village during its construction once it's construction it's constructed and we're at the very tail end of this which I'm disappointed to say once it's constructed I would say and venture to say that everyone in this room will be using it everybody will love it thank you for list thank is there anybody who's come in later that would like to sign up and speak you can say that just pass it around to anybody why don't you give Jesse the next name

so we can get the next person uh Rebecca are you no not speaking okay ju just just just say you're here okay great thank you uh David Watson thank you um I'm here because I think this is a wonderful project and I just want to express my gratitude to cic Hudson and to the people working on it but few comment um I I have restored and my wife have restored William Campbell's house which is a national landmark from basically a ruin to a museum now we run a business out of that called the West Point foundary Bed and Breakfast which uh allows people to experience the world of William Campbell now appr propo of the last speaker William cble and his brother gner are largely responsible for the initial horrific pollution of the Hudson River not only did they have the West Point cry which was in the 1840s and 50s the largest Factory in the United States they also were with Samuel U SLO instrumental and bringing a railway line up to co spring and Beyond so I can't say that our house is a proud reflection of the uh wonderful project that is being uh maybe it will mitigate some of it however it will be very it'll be very wonderful for me because my 81y old legs who played far too much rugby are struggling to get up and down the uh Brak neck Bridges

particularly going down I don't you know going down it was and I would love to commute with the with a river uh biking or walking along a trail in which I can spare my knees somewhat so I am really enthusiastically any support of this but I do have a couple of other comments I would just like to make sure that there's enough is enough parking in our bathrooms and the other comment I have is that pushed this a few times to mitigate some of the crowding which I think will actually be less because I think people rather than coming into the village will go onto the trail because it looks from the projections that this is going to have a lot of space for people to ban out so what I'm going to what I'm suggesting and have suggested several times is that the village institutes a no vehicle a pedestrian only Zone on the weekends during the season from May through October and I think that together with the trail will make this a truly iconic national uh place for people to come so I'm going to I'm not going to say any more than I just love the idea of the project hopefully uh it finishes in time for me to enjoy it and thank you very much for the time to speak thank you thank you d um can I get the the next name off that list please who's the next name on the list thanks thank you so much uh yeah hi it's josi garison I have two quick sort of comments SL questions um I know you mentioned that so I I live actually on West Street which is right

along the water in the Lower Village I know that we said that that what comes out of this meeting is maybe just a letter or some recommendations or some comments sort of aggregated from the village I'm curious how the decision actually gets made and who makes it is it the is it the organ private organization is it the state like I I know that I I'm a little bit late to there's probably been so many of these meetings and in various forums and various feedback so I guess I'm curious like what how how does it actually move forward and what would the timeline be and and who has a decision making aity that would be my first one this second one would be um you know I in in principle I'm I'm in support of the trail um I think it's great I think talking about implementation like specifically how it connects from Little Stony to to the Village I don't know if it's still on the table that maybe there would be alternate routes as it is living in the Lower Village the you know dark side park I basically it's like my front yard so dark side part is kind like almost like a call the sack and we're talking about turning it right into into a thorough fair so to speak for pedestrians so I'm wondering if that is is still in in negotiation maybe I should have read read a little bit closer but uh yeah I in principle I I sort of support everything about it it's just connecting it from Doc side and turning that into it versus maybe potentially some other route to you know how the village itself connects to to little Stony I think that's a key thing and that's a kind of externality that that that definitely affects I mean every everyone's happy to have we need more parking and then should we have the parking lot in my backyard my neighbor's backyard I think this is like the thing that we're talking about you know so that would be my comment and questions thank you just I um I will answer those in detail they're they're very big blocks yeah are you would you be satisfied if you and I sat and had a coffee sure stream maybe tomorrow or any any day

next week is that next does that I just want to make sure that that's that's satisfying because they're really they're really great questions but they're they're big chunks and some of them are in there and some of them are not so we'd be getting we'd be getting off topic okay okay yeah so it was more like comment question so yeah that's my two cents anyway okay great great but a really good question thanks thank you all right um Peter uh is it Henderson great thanks for framing your in way you did really excellent Peter Henderson 11 marf and I will try and give you five reasons uh very specific uh reasons why it would have a significant adverse impact on on the village one is the impact on traffic which they acknowledge but I believe they're understating the impact because uh they based their analysis on a scoping document from 2017 the scope of the preferred route changed since then so they have not analyze the impact of traffic trying to make its way directly to the toil starting point at dark side know people try to do that uh and also I think you I consider the mitigation measures they offer for traffic quite unacceptable in terms of squeezing in a turn lanane at the light uh removing uh parking spaces uh forget what they what the other two were but they are just uh not acceptable right second noise impacts during construction now if construction was just a few weeks then we could understand that it's going to be six years uh of that five will be spent hammering piles between dark side and little storting point if you add up the numbers it is more it will be spread out but it cumulatively it will be more than a thousand hours of hammering they're understating the noise levels they say 90 DBS you check any authoritative Source on noise levels that you can expect from Impact hammering of Steel

piles and it's much more in the order of 110 vells the noise is going to be many times louder and it's going to uh interfere with many more people over a much larger area uh three L loss of access to doite for six years now it's not that we can't go there it's just that our access will be limited but who wants to go to a noisy construction site it's denying residents a space that we value for our mental health and well-being it's a place to to go and experience the Beauty and the Peace of the environment and to decompress it would be during construction it would nobody would want to go there uh once built it would be again transformed into a major thoroughfare for uh what they call now which brings me to my fourth point they have called this uh their goal is to make this a signature destination of national significance this would have a significant impact on a community character go back to the comprehensive plan with there's a statement in there that says we want to keep Cold Spring the way it is as much as possible turning uh Cold Spring into a signature destination of national significance is not keeping Cold Spring the way it is as much as possible and finally there's an impact on housing uh it does acknowledge the dgis acknowledges there would be an increased demand for shortterm and vacation rentals uh that takes residential units off the market we already have an affordable housing crisis here we young people who grew up here can no longer afford to live here and they're for so by point Thank You Paul

Thompson okay Paul Thomson uh I live 8 New Street so just across the road from the boat club and just around the corner from uh from dock side park and I've been living in the village with my wife for the last four years and I've been closely following the development of this project I've not read all this thing yeah the 709 Pages we're all very busy I've glanced through bits and pieces so what I'm going to give you is some high level sort of comments in relation to that um I set up roundabouts of a year and a bit ago um after the shindig at howan school I think it was main 2024 with a couple of other Village residents we set up something called flip toown Advocates or trails and we got about 200 people on a mailing list and we keep ourselves informed of the development and uh we're possibly responsible for some of the signage that you can see around the village which is protrail generally speaking the 200 members are supportive of the trial I wouldn't say they're agreeable with are you speaking on behalf of these are personal comments I'm just saying that this group uh I generally supportive of the trail but I can't be speaking for all of them they may have in detail differences of opinion just as a guess with protect Highlands as well um terms of process I think what does concern me um is the fact that the main local user of this Trail are the young people of the village and some of these kids haven't even been born yet but the ones that are and the ones that at school I'm concerned that their views are not being

captured um sure their parents are telling them what they should be thinking about the trail but I think it would be nice to hear from the local students what they feel about this thing because they're going to be the primary win you know I'm just like David I'm not quite as old as David I'm just a few years behind you mate um but I'm going to be in that Cemetery you know 10 20 years from now but there's going to be people that are on the streets of this Village howan School at the moment they're going to be using this Trail for the next 5060 years and I can tell you I'm pretty certain that if you ask them um they would be for this Trail um they might also have other views on whether or not they can use Tik Tok and they perhap be more interested that conversation but I do feel I suspect strongly that they will be very supportive of this Trail we're not hearing them um a few you know I I'm like Lynn I think that the organization that is uh in charge of this project I have confidence that they'll they'll do a good job there's going to be some bumps on the road there's going to be some appeal there's going to be you know traffic Peak weekends that is you know we're not going to accommodate but I think ultimately we will we'll get through it and we'll have a great asset for all of us to use I just hope one day everybody in the room there was the same account as I do thank you very much thank all right uh Edward Kelli uh yes you get the last name right yes you did thank you Edward Kelly I live at One Market Street um in the Lower Village and um my comments are uh I have a couple of comments and uh and then one observation uh it really just centers around you

know it's like I've seen a number I'm a lifetime New Yorker you know from Manhattan Brooklyn you know it's iy live in every every burrow and I've seen a number of these projects you know like uh come up come up uh to for development and um they're all they're all met with skepticism and uh owed you know say and somehow they've all survived they've been created you know say and they've all grown to their own level of excellence and we are the better for it now you know like uh 30 40 years ago the Hudson River as someone mentioned was a d no one would swim in it stick their foot in it now people are crabbing people are fishing people are you know using it for recreation and and it's one um this project I believe is inevitable it is going to happen whether it happens now or whether it happens 20 years from now it is going to happen what um I'd like to you say is that Y what we need is uh Direction at y Direction with uh passage passage and uh you know like I have you received some information from um Rebecca LZ you know say on the wayf finding wayf finding and Direction and and markers and Trail markers and stuff like that that's what's going to guide people a lot of us are concerned about the flow the tremendous impact of the flow of people in the position where I am where I live on a on a Market Street between market and Maine it's right through the

tunnel ring above R yes above R and um and one of one thing that that I always find myself doing um on the weekends is people are running to the train they don't know where the train is they come through the tunnel rather than make the little right to the to the platform they run two two streets up you know like when people get off the train they're Milling around no one knows where to go you know say and so they they uh either go to The Darkside Park to Nowhere or they they go through the town when they go up Main Street once this project is underway you know we're going to need significant signage because people who come here to hike will hike they will with the prophet Sage they will find their way through docai par through the to the trails and those people come up to enjoy the the the the the the the town itself you know like the greatness of the Town they'll find their way to the main street you know like so we need direction we need Management in passage and flow so thank you so much thank you sir hello I'm John Ericson I live at 32 West Street in the Lower Village um thanks for taking the time to hold this public hearing tonight um I am concerned that the dgis understates the extent to which visitors will be incentivized to seek out metered parking in the village of Cold Spring and the effective discount rate this will provide visitors rather than to pay to park at parking lots operated by hhft the dgis assumes that cars uh

parked in hhst controlled Lots will turn over every four hours um that in table 3 chapter 3 L5 um coincidentally this is the same maximum this is the maximum amount of time allowed at parking meters operated by the village of Cold Spring um hhft anticipates that once the F Trails fully open in 2033 hhft will charge between $10 per car under their lowest price tier at non- peak hours and up to $35 per car under their highest price tier during peak hours at HH F controlled Lots that's from their request for proposals which is not included in the dgis but that they released last spring currently the village of Cold Spring charges $2 per hour or $8 for four hours the parking meter rate charge by the village is fixed and does not fluctuate based on demand these two pricing systems for parking will be a recipe for disaster the hhft or the dgis rather states that up to 75% of visitors at the F Trail are expected to arrive by car the dgis claims that the fure trail will employ visitor management strategies such as signage and a proprietary app to direct visitors to hhft controlled parking lots the success of this strategy hinges on voluntary compliance it assumes that visitors arriving to the F Trail by car will behave economically irrationally by willfully paying up to $35 to park instead of eight it assumes that travel blogs and social media travel influencer won't promote parking in the village and this is a potentially catastrophic assumption and I just ask you to consider it when you're um reading and reviewing the dgis thanks thank you um

Stephanie thank you for holding this um Stephanie skip Tunis and I am a resident of The Village at 88 Fair Street um and I am here just to bring up a couple of items that I think should be considered which is that Cold Spring really needs improved sidewalks we need better infrastructure in general not A New Path that's adjacent to the village that doesn't really address our current issues with tourism um sidewalks down 9d and fair street that that uh all the way down to little Stony Point would allow kids to walk from howan and uh and and get on the trail if it were to start and end at little Stony Point this seems like a really reasonable compromise to me so many people have an issue with the Dockside connector portion why can't we look for a new place to start and end the trail rather than than flood the town with all of the hikers that are coming into the town and we don't have the infrastructure in which to in which to accommodate them um so that's that's what I wanted to bring up I I think that we have to look toward no one no one talks about a compromise and I think that that is a good compromise the idea of starting and ending the trail at little Stony Point uh rather than going forward going forward with the dock side connector portion and thinking about improving the sidewalks so that the villagers can have a way to access the the the the trail rather than thinking about the best way to manage the tourists you know and we're trying to attract millions of tourists here but really let's think about what our villagers need and so thank

you Andrew H stre um I don't really have anything profound to say tonight um just um a couple of points it's probably a typo but it's dgis that was that was my type of and um we're here to make substantive comments on the dgis right not whether you think it's a good idea or a bad idea yeah and those are what you're going to take into consideration not I'd like to ride my bike to Beacon right okay um you're welcome to you're welcome to comment that you would like to write your like that my um I think one thing that's salitary and that really needs to be taken into consideration is that the DG dgis only analyzes the impacts of the trail within the park that it's creating it doesn't actually take into consideration the village of Cold Spring so I think that's salar to bear in mind that this thing is happening but Cold Spring isn't really being considered in terms of its its overall impacts um think of that in terms of visitation I think around 2020 Amy Cala mentioned um a figure of 480 million it's ticked up to 600 million to 1.2 million I don't see it stopping there so I think people should really sit back and think what would in excess of two million people 1.2 million maybe going up to 1.5 maybe it could go up to two million based on like Steward counts at Trail heads and so forth I don't think the numbers we're receiving now and the estimates that we're receiving now are any way in any way refective of what the coming wave is going to be um other impacts on the village traffic um I there's parking being jammed in and squeezed in all all off Route nine um I think it would be chaos in the village um we're talking about roundabouts we're

talking about maybe going down Fair Street which is su's been doing some research it's not even as wide as Church Street or cross street those are wider streets so I think there are engineering problems there um think of the infrastructure impacts we have a a water main out right now when you're thinking of all these extra people coming to the Village drinking water flushing toilets drinking water what's that going to do to the infrastructure what strains is that going to put on the water plant um another note like there was there was the article recently in um the the current where it showed a picture of the trail or a r rendering of the trail that didn't look 10 to 12 feet wide to me even in terms of the the piling mechanisms and the piling vehicles that they're talking about using on the trail they barely fit on the width of the trail that they say they're going to construct so I think there are there are huge problems the other last thing is where's all the money coming from I think this Village if they really want to go ahead with this they should get the same deal that Parks is getting $75 million up front the Capital Improvements $5 million a year for the next 20 to 40 years for operational costs that the comes to the village for them to mitigate the impacts thank thank you Susan Peele um I'm coming up on we're coming up on 28 years living here in the village and 25 of them have been on Fair Street at two different places um I just want to say first of all I'm really glad that you all are taking this seriously even though you don't have authority over this it's very very important I don't think that there's been a project this big since the Clos

or an effect on the village this big since the closing of The Foundry and that is what we're dealing with and yet it isn't going before any of our boards and I am appalled by that um I just want I I'm going to give my comments to you in writing so I truly thought this was your speaking to us tonight not us speaking to you so but just a couple of things um I'm very concerned about the villages sovereignty and I've brought this up in different places what I'll I'll give you just an example here the F TR in the dgs dgis they say that oh if there's a problem with Maine and people can't turn or it the traffic is backing up because of turning well we're just going to take away the parking lanes and make them into turning Lanes now what gives them the authority to do that now that might be coming from the state but it's usurping our own authority over where we live we've just had a crisis CE with parking where we end up we have parking meters now and we're trying to find okay well where will people Park when they don't use the meters and they're going to take Lanes away from us and before you know it it'll be Lane on the on the Main Street being taken away from us when they talk about Fair Street they talk about it as part of the F Trail what they say that visitors coming from the train to get to wasburn Trail are on the F Trail when they cross Fair Street so what does that mean they're taking care of the operation but what happens to the F Trail or or to the street itself what

happens to Fair Street right now it's like torn up in various areas because of Plumbing issues over the years who's going to fix that when there are more trucks coming through why don't we have a say over that so those are just a few things just to give an idea but the sovereignty is really a major issue and then in terms of alternate roots this is what I would want if you have anything saying F Trail begins in Cold Spring you've got the promotion to Pro to be a problem coming at us you've also got the physicality of it we cannot have a trail going through Cold Spring what we need are various roots to get people to other parts of the North on the on the trail have it start somewhere else do not have it start here in Cold Spring thank you that Dan Williams no Dar sorry sorry Dar you know I've been hearing so many things I've written and amended so many things I I I I've heard so many so much feedback from uh fellow citizens how they thought that the report was a little overly sunny in its projections of traffic and I remember seeing Oh this is only going to delay us an extra 20 seconds here and 20 seconds there and I knew in my heart that that wasn't necessarily what was going to happen but I do have faith in the management of products projects and the management of change and the management I and I you know I I was studying um Moab Utah that gets 1.5 million people in a town of 8,000 coming through and somebody who's involved a sort of town planning he

said it's very tough but we manage change and in so far as I have had experiences with Scenic Hudson with Foundry park with New York Parks traveling on all our Trails here with scape um as as a very fastidious and thoughtful agent uh organ uh Corporation really um and and also just with the all the supporters of this project I have faith in their management I have faith that they're listening I and I have faith that that they are coming back and saying we get it that we really need to be more receptive to the input of people in this town and so in so far as dgis is and I'm sorry if I got that wrong you're right okay um I I I thought that they make it sound sort of Sunny they make this sound like it's just going to be kind of like everything's going to work out we know all the bumps in the road we live here I live in the village and I see this and and I hear about the the decb and the and you know of of all of the pounding and this is not necessarily related to the dgis I existentially I have an electric car and I charge it and I go into all sorts of big box stores and I just see a an a an abundance of of aggressive uh pushing of of a world of products and for all these people young and old all in comes of Shoppers and the only common denominator on all of these lights is that everyone looks pasty and there seems to be a sort of a low vibration of overwhelming all this consumption I see the Fior trail with all of its challenges of of do the dock side entrance and the um and and decisions about the entrance as as being part of what how we are going to manage these large questions of

how we are going to be as a town with so much culture history natural beauty and great Commerce because we have a a franchise restrict that means that we have independent businesses we have so much to offer I have faith that these leading organizations can bring this to the world as as a gift and something that really mitigates um and and and benefit and profit to us all um well I don't know how to finish that sentence now that I've heard that but but some of the existential things that we face in a society where there's so much that's bought and sold uh beyond our control thank you thank you do uh John that uh have you here any guesses on that Civic yeah um I don't have any comments right now okay I wanted to hear what you folks had to say about it thank you I have one question any folks serve on the plan board when Jack Goldstein was on did you know his concerns at all yes yeah significant generally I have a general idea of his consent that's all I want um with the proximity being to New York this whole project just suedes our capacities thank you thanks uh Francis yeah it is I got to say I am really tired of this whole um project and of meetings it seems to me I've grown old going to the meetings we have discussed everything except the deleterious effect of the mug wart along

9d uh so I I think uh the that uh his the project managers have shown a willingness to amend to make this palatable uh I think it's extremely important project for the future of children who are right now sort of nailed to screens inside that they should be given the kind of access to the out ofd doors that I had when I was a teenager using Harman Park and all its trails and no one ever told me don't come up to New York and go to materils uh Park there's too many of you don't come here um but uh in general I'd like to support the board walk first of all because like one other gentleman said I'm in my 80s I'm arthritic I can no longer run up Breakneck Ridge even though was a great pleasure to do so uh I would like a level walkway I would like a walkway that not not only allows people who are handicapped uh to walk on it but also uh mothers pushing strollers and top uh I think that the uh the route over the water will be beautiful and attractive and I can't see it being more uh objectionable than the uh boardwalk at uh the Bon Marsh or any other Nature Center the sanctuary that I've gone to despite the fact that marshes are very vulnerable they usually manage to build boardwalks that allow people to walk onto the water um also Peak Skill to walk over the water and I don't see that as that uh too obtrusive uh people who want to modify this scheme to make it as modest as possible I think can work on this Boardwalk it doesn't have to have high sides just railings and it doesn't have to be a terrible it could be a a permeable material possibly uh but I when we talk about the Hudson River it

so damaged it's not primeval Wilderness uh everything along it uh its length has been uh altered at one time or another and yet the fish come back the frogs come back I really think it will withstand the depredations of the boardwalk if it takes place uh also thank you oh can I say okay um we have David um no no I mean you can continue speaking the the timer just it wasn't it wasn't completely on if you'd like to finish your last few sentences please I okay I'll just say one more thing that uh I don't think people here understand the meaning of public part this area belongs to New York state it should serve the people of New York State it's not the private playground of us cbers as much as we love it thank you um David uh denh herder sure hi yeah David Den hurter I'm a resident of Cold Spring at 18 Garden Street um I've been a New York state resident for something like a Dozen Years both as a student and as a person in the real world um most of that time in the city actually um I I just want to speak to the Riverwalk aspect of this um I grew up in a little town called Grand Haven Michigan which is couple hours Northeast of Chicago which is relevant only in so far as it is on the mouth of the Grand River which is the largest river in the state of Michigan um I was born in 79 in the 80s the city undertook this project with the Army Corps of Engineers and

local philanthropists to to build this Riverside linear Park from um the mouth of the Grand River from the the lighthouse couple miles Upstream past the downtown um it was called lighthous connector Park but we called it the boardwalk um and I just want to say that it was um the single best thing that that probably ever happened to any kid that grew up in Grand Haven Michigan it is the source of my most enchanting and enduring memories um and when when I heard about this project I was just um so excited about it and and um so you know I read the dgis you know most of it and certainly the executive summary it makes reference to the comprehensive plan which I thought I should go take a look at um and you know obviously um you know reading through that it it occurred to me that that the people who who generated that comprehensive plan in 2014 are probably the reason that my wife and I first fell in love with this Village when we first stayed overnight at Hudson house in like 2016 um and started coming up here on the weekends and then we eventually had a kid in the city and we moved up here um you know a little over a year ago um and so I just um I'll actually just quote from page 72 of this comprehensive plan because I thought it was um pretty poignant it says uh this current plan is a call to action if it is adopted and not implemented it will have failed as surely as if it were never adopted at all and the years this community has devoted to making it will have been wasted um Martin John Martin 6 Street down by mayor's Park I just had you know two comments uh you know having looked through the

document and one it it deals with uh impact on viewshed so that's ggis and uh what is not in there so I can't really comment on it is what the in what what the structure will look like the walkway if you're standing in mayor's park or up by a little Stony Point or just before the rise going the dut's manner what the structure will look like they give you know specifications they've ranged from 5T above the rail line to uh you know that begins the walkway and then from there up 8 feet to 11 feet uh for the train uh for the fencing which MTA requires which there are other boardwalks that have been mentioned here today that don't necessarily Butch us up against a train line that requires these higher fencing and so what we haven't seen although there was a quick photograph shown at Dutchess Manor that was then quickly taken down of an artist rendition of what it would look at at sea level or 30 feet or 50 feet up now that'll go the entire length and you know for those who were at sea level or under 70 ft in height they won't see the river except for through a structure so uh absent theart rendition I can't really say more than that except for the specs they give now there's other alternative specs they put in there that were different from what was said two years ago when they said 5et minimum for D and that is now one to four feet that's in the dgis but where does that range go where does that really leave you so uh if you look at the basketball court down in uh mayor's Park you take 4 and a half ft is where the rail line hits the the staion for the basket You Take 5 ft above that you're getting up to near 9 ft 8 and A2 ft and then you take 8T above fencing above there and that's what you're going

to see so that that's purely on The View shed issue so I think it that's important and and yet you can't really comment it because it's not in there there's no artist rendition so you don't know what it's going to look like and the last thing I was going to Simply say is the trail goes from Cold Spring to beacon beacon and Cold Spring are completely different Beacon's a City Beacon has so many inroads out roads to uh the train station the trail will be ending down at uh on the river side of the train station and then it's a half a mile or more walk to the closest part of Main Street and to all the little residences that go in and around butress Main Street for probably a length of two miles you know going north south so uh here in Cold Spring topographically we're restricted we have two rows 9d 301 301 is Main Street on a busy summer weekend day everybody knows how hard it is to cross Main Street how the cars are just driving around looking for spots that's already happening now if you bring in and for people coming up from New York or New City uh uh New Jersey they're going to probably stop by Cold Spring first because it's closest rather than go to Beacon so what I'm saying is these things have to be taken consideration there's a big difference between Beacon and Cold Spring all right thank you just come into that for one second because I've read chapter 4 G and H about four or five times I know pretty well um what John said is absolutely accurate does John live um sorry you're absolutely right so

some parts in those chapters comment on the fence so this is 4et of the trail right so they're giving maximum Heights the the the the trail Rising above the M&R tracks the railroad tracks up to 4T above the M&R tracks plus plus 12T of fencing to 17 feet at I think it's 117 fed it's the yellow house in the end forgive me if I got the the the number of the house wrong it's the end house 17 ft not affect says no not affecting the view shed it'll have no effect on The View shed right it then says that and it won't specify where the fence is going to be and how high high things is going to be but it says the range is going to be 4et up to 4 feet and then up to 12et all the way along right we think so then it's then another section of of those parts of chapter 4 G and H it's saying talking about me park going there's going to be no effect and in fact in their in their renderings have one here this is looking this is from Little sty Point looking back across the Lagoon at you can't see it's too far away for you but looking back at at the trail it's got the trail here going but there's no fence drawn in there's no on the ggis it's like there's no fence oops no fence so I'm just agreeing with you that it's very very confusing and I found the much of the DJI that I read which was uh g h j incomplete I it's just it's not complete they didn't they didn't finish it just one second you don't mind one second if you look at the photographs then the projections of them they're from high up on mountains looking down to trying to make everything

look that's what's offered not run any view along the Hudson River uh from the East Bank looking towards brid thanks um we should get to the folks online so we don't so we make sure we give everyone time here um all right so we're gonna um uh We've hit everyone who's uh Village in the room we're going to go to Village residents online if you're a village resident on that's that's joining us online and would like to make comment uh go ahead and um raise the use the raiseed hand uh button on your Zoom or you can't find it you can just uh literally raise your hand and we'll try to figure it out all right um looks like Irene is first hi hi can you hear me yeah yes okay hi everyone thank you so much for having this uh dis this public discussion is a lot of concern and um thank you also for acknowledging that it's um a practice and discussion public discussion as opposed to being able to to maybe make strict recommendations or or however you phrase that um so my question to the planning board is also was also brought up by the parking meters um we were charging $4 an hour that got handicapped by outrage of the village so unable the villag is seeming unable to agree to some type of problem solving that would create the sidewalks that would go down Fair Street extend on 90 and then yes this Boardwalk that would go along the river the

without the fure trail involvement there has been no problem solving from the village and there's been no fever of problem solving from the residents of the village I live at six palding I think I was supposed to announce that I sorry uh so this Village can create a sidewalk can raise money to do that through parking meters through raising taxes through advocating for our town with carmel and the state I know they all hate us so KR spring is either a victim in every situation or the bully so I would like the planning board I'm asking you maybe you can propose as a planning board understanding the rules and regulations as a planning board what you can design what worldclass architect environmental Architects are you going to employ to come up with your own research that's not our role Baron I know I know our role here is to figure out something some kind of compromise a problem solving compromise I read parts of that report I will not say if I read that whole report and I want to acknowledge everybody in that room I live above the village a little bit right I'm across from uh like food town area I'm over by there so my concerns are very very different than someone who lives on Fair Street and someone who lives below um you know on the side of the river and everyone's concerns are are valid and I think it's fantastic that it's every public meeting it should be

discussed I don't care how many meetings we have about it okay because no one should feel shut out or bullied by whatever the prevailing idea is so if the planning board doesn't have any sway in this area but is willing to take the comments are you hoping to create some kind of problemsolving agenda or um if you're going to analyze the report and rightfully criticize the report accurately criticize the report um that was apparently good enough for New York state to accept uh what is it that you want to do with the report then what is it that you want to do with the comments other than just hear us I I I can clarify a little on on um just like the role the role of our comment in the D dgis so um uh when when uh a proposal gets put forth right it's a let's forget this current one any any any new developments being proposed right it goes in front of um a variety of of um effective Municipal boards that provide feedback is this you know do we like do we like what we see here are there things that should be done differently should you be considering things you didn't think about um developers even those that have the best interests and the most those altruistic motivations um you know they can only do so much to anticipate the needs of the people that they might be impacting and so usually um village government is there to to represent the villagers and say hey you didn't think about this you didn't think about y about z uh and if you think about those things it will it will make it will make the the project

even better right and so the the role that we have here we're digesting this report we're taking feedback from the public um although unlike our usual position where we are a gate to a project proceed ing here in the village we're not a gate to this project proceeding but the state has told um Hudson Highlands G trail that they need to listen to us at least in so far as um we're impacted uh we're one we're Cold Spring is an impacted municipality and we're one of the boards that uh I in the best of circumstances is being able to represent the needs of the village of Cold Spring back and saying hey here are some things that maybe you didn't think about or things you missed or things that you might consider um that might help make this better um and so that's that's our role I mean with any with any um proposal that comes before our board our our goal and our job is to help make it better for the village and and for the developer and and that's what we're trying to do here thank you and again I don't envy any of you this is a a difficult position regardless of this project as it is so again thank you very much and thank you for everyone listening to me and I'll be quiet now thanks AR thanks AR Jesse I have a quick question so after um comment is taken online if someone has additional comment in the room we will we'll get we'll get back to second round comments if we have time after everyone's had a chance to speak okay right Sor here we have next

um I see uh let's see here if you have any comment online please raise your hand please I see I see Patricia damato the function uh Patricia I think you need to unmute there you go hi I'm Patty damato I live at 13 stone Street which is the corner from Railroad Avenue and uh Stone Street and I'd like to speak anecdotally I'm happy that the planning board is looking into this because I think that we can get wrapped up in the beauty of this idea but the reality needs to be considered I spoke to a girl in the Proto section of food toown who lives in Beacon on a Saturday afternoon it takes her 30 minutes to get from Food Town to the tunnel when I read the dgis it spoke about an increase in traffic maybe 24 minutes 24 seconds 50 seconds but that's on top of what's already here last October I was walking to the pharmacy the traffic extended all the way to Downey oil through the traffic light past halane and Beyond in the dgis I read that we're a village of 2,000 people but they're looking at an increase of 1700 people per Saturday or Sunday in peak season as we all discussed most of them will come by car I meet lots of people I love

the vibrancy of the visitors to our village I've met many nice people but the people who are coming and I see their cars from New Jersey Rockland County Westchester County and Connecticut can't get here by mass transit I know that there are six places six means of entrance to the Trail but for all those people who want to get on with their strollers and their bicycles they're going to come to Doc side to go from Duchess Manor when we had family events there and posst for pictures behind Duchess Manor that's a hike down to where the trail is going to be when we talk about people having road rage or anger we had someone pull up on our sidewalk to pass another car who wasn't getting out of the way fast enough since Co we have multiple deliveries there are trucks seven days a week and we're only going to increase this I've seen tour buses stopping on Main Street to pick people up we had a party van of about 30 people parked on side of our house letting the people out there to get out to walk around and then the um party van stay Stayed there just idling I think there is a lot more practically speaking that needs to be considered and I thank you for hearing our comments thank you thanks Betty all right see uh AJ

k21 uh say your name and address please Alice CRA hour I live on East Mountain Road North in philipstown um just regarding I'm sorry one second we're gonna we're going through Village residence first we'll come back I promise okay no problem any any other Village residents online please use the function the raise hand function not physically I don't see it but okay would you like to ask one more time uh sure um not everybody is visible at once well not everyone has the cameras so we can't all right well um we can always we'll have time we'll come back um we've got uh we'll come back to non-residents in the room um hi Heidi Wendell thanks so much for hearing me I live uh pretty close to krey in Nelsonville at 29 seor street right across from the trail head and um I have uh many concerns about the project and I uh I found um that the this board's comments at the January 27th uh hearing that's on the that's on YouTube to be very compelling uh many of many of uh the comments that you all made about the fuse shed about the fence um and other uh and and especially about the noise um I don't want to take your time to repeat but I I adopt those comments um I'm my biggest concern about the project is the effects on the environment and I thought

River Keeper uh in its um comment the comments it's submitted thus far to the public hearing that was held in January um really nicely uh described the problems with the project that it's I mean piles in the Hudson are obviously terrible to the environment it's it's amazing to me that any Environmental Group would think that it's okay to put piles in the Hudson you know that issue was addressed at the Westway in like decades ago I remember those the Westway discussions piles in the Huts I thought that was over um it the as River Keeper said the piles in the Hudson will disturb the uh thei communities of Fish and Wildlife some of them protected I also think um as a River Keeper noted just the influx of of tons more visitors will badly affect Wildlife here I personally uh about 10 years ago saw a northern fence lizard in on bullhill I'm I've been hiking here for decades and I have noted that the in the heavy use of the tra has greatly reduced Wildlife on bull hill I think as a community we should be protecting Wildlife here in addition to uh Parks should be protecting Wildlife I I I went hiking with my daughter this weekend in uh past weekend in Sam's Point there are limitations on visitation to protect the wildlife and and and make sure it's actually a park and not just trampled area they they restrict um visitor use of the park from April 15th through November 15th and so you have to make a reservation and I think that that kind of system would protect our Wildlife here and and the fact that Parks refuses to do it and instead is going to expand parking lots uh is very disturbing we don't need another parking lot we don't need more paved area for the reasons River Keeper expressed the Washburn parking lot is already a a blot on our uh environment

here and to tear up you know have even more impermeable parking lot surface at Washburn instead of as River Keeper notes Northern Fence lizards is just wrong and and and I would note it's wrong to the students I worked with the environmental Club at the school their other name is the habitat Revival club they're very that that that's 40 kids that want to develop want to protect habitat for wildlife that's what they care about not about having you know paved Pathways and parking lots thank you and thank you for watching the video I didn't it was actually the first part Parts always a little difficult to hear but um you if you force yourself to listen over the new venue we got uh we got pushed up to to the Butterfield Library normally we're in this room okay um all right back online um I think was Alice Alice you're up hard to make you wait on okay um a gentleman whose name I don't you didn't catch uh was talking about the visual impact of the trail of the my name's Ben sorry oh John in the room what's his name John Martin John Martin um was talking about the visual impact of the boardwalk which will as he said be between 1 and four feet above the track the trail the train level with another with a fence on top of that between 8 and 12 feet high believe the dgis says and he referenced slides that was shown at Duchess Manor at the meeting on I believe it was

March 11th uh which was the alternative Roots meeting um I dug up those pictures and anyone can find them they're on the HH ft's website you go into the uh the trail um videos and it's not on that video page but it says are you interested in the videos of presentations and when you go to that link they have all the slides on the side of where you know the videos on on the right and all the slides that were shown are on the left there are four slides that show um they better show the effect on the viewshed than what's in the dgis there's one from Fair Street at mayor Park there's one from Little Stony Point there are four of them and you know they're like slides 107 to 8 9 10 something like that but they're all down the left you can just scroll down that's all I wanted to say thank you thank you it's PR useful do we have any um non um non-residents or anyone else who would like to make comment um one from Kathy G give me one second Kathy oh hi Kathy all right we missed you g I'm GNA ask you to unmute okay ABY can you unmute we should be able to hear

you you're muted Kathy click that or all right Kathy well um if if we can figure out how to get you unmuted you um please submit your comments and writing um we'll make sure to incorporate them into our thinking um but also if you are able to unmute you can just say hey um okay uh so it sounds like we are mostly done with um people giving comment um do would you like to make another to um Irene had mentioned that uh Fair Street and as of last night the village board had a meeting and they're starting a project that is going to address those sidewalks and they'll be putting them in so the village is on top of that I thought she'd want to know yeah a very sad loss of some trees I think unfortunately but you know it is what it is why are they going to I think they're just re resurfacing them right resurfacing there's a storm water issue yeah um okay um Kathy any lock back all right cavy welcome back any any luck about unmuting unmute H there we go Hi how are you it's Jennifer how's everybody hey

hi um it's very um it's all very interesting discussion um I was thinking you know uh I've had the fortune to travel to some great places like K May New Jersey provin toown Massachusetts tell you ride Colorado I think one of the points that nobody's making is that um these are all great points about the environment and access to Recreation as I sit here and the more I hear about this Trail the thing that I believe we need to think about is what we're losing the most is any illusion or delusion that we will remain a small town in the Hudson Valley K May New Jersey is run like a corporation tell youde Colorado is a corporation ation um we will be losing that we all love Central Park it's one of my favorite places in the world but they do not delude themselves that they're a small town and if we're going to add 20,000 people to this town every weekend we have to give up the illusion that we're a small town and how are we going to plan how we're going to run this town going forward because we're not going to be able to run this town on a Sho string budget with the low taxes that we enjoy either this town is going to be subsidized by the state the Hudson Highlands F Trail or us the taxpayers we live right on Fair Street on five Fair Street we could make movies on Sunday about cars driving the wrong way we're going to explain to people you can't drive down fair street with a plastic saw horse with a sign that says Road closed when people can clearly see

the road is not closed they see a double yellow line they see traffic that is a conversation we need to have maybe a side of the D meeting but it does dove tail into this is how are we going to govern ourselves as a town once this F Trail does come here and that's all I have to say about that so for your consideration thank you you're welcome any other comments online or in the room I'd just like to ask about that 12 foot fence why is the fence not going on alongside the train track why would it have to be on the boardwalk I mean clearly there are many unfenced boardwalks uh in existence uh why is this is seems like an obnoxious part of that plan but absolutely necessary my my my understanding is that it's a requirement from Metron North to protect people from jumping onto the tracks well can't that be on the side of their tracks and not in the middle of the river it's it's probably materially going to be be the same thing but um but I I don't understand I'm not going to speak to it because I don't understand what what the Symetra wants 25 ft from the center of the track as a RightWay so that puts it over the water so that's where they want the fence is 25 ft away from the track and um it's over the water just because they want it does that mean they have to have it well they are the train people yeah president Trump has a lot of ideas about things that he wants to have too but they are the trained people yeah the're trained

people they own a corridor yeah this is Jennifer if I may I'm I'll speak as The Unofficial train person um this section of track from Cole Spring Station to Beacon is the fastest section of train track in the United States outside of the Boston the Washington Corridor wow the speed is 80 miles per hour stuff flying off these trains or things that we hit in the RightWay whether they be deer or geese it is a very dangerous environment for people to come in when we operate the trains out there whether it's down in the Bronx or up in bipy and New Hamburg we're constantly reporting trespassers walking along the RightWay not because we don't want people on our property but it is a dangerous environment for people to be within x amount of feed of trains doing this speed thank you we have another um hand raised um OIC M Jackson hello can you hear me yes yes okay how's everybody doing your name and and address I'm getting there my name is Matthew Jackson I'm the officer in charge in the village of Cold Spring um I do not live in the village but I do work there um my job as officer in charge is to ensure the safety and well-being of not only the residents of Cold Spring but also to visitors as well um after reviewing the DJ presentation I noticed a common Trend with all Emergency Services located within the southern section of the proposed Trail and that trend is the strain on those responding agencies police fire and EMS have will Express

concerns that the implementation of uh this proposed Trail will not only put a strain on these departments but also impact the residents of Cold Spring by depriving them of these Emergency Services should a situation arise on the trail um there is a lack of information provided to Emergency Services by hhft um a meeting of the lead agencies and officials from hhft would be greatly appreciated um there's a lot of things to note in there the response time of outside agencies the closest agency to an emergency would be the village of Coldspring Police Department I'm going to say our maximum response time is similar to the fire department in about 10 minutes um but realistically we are the closest responding police agency to be the first to respond to an emergency um you know we we would be impacted the most uh currently there's no formal structure to an emergency response plan you know I am definitely willing to sit down with everybody along with other local agencies that will be affected by the construction of this Trail in order to draft some sort of emergency plan um you know we're working with limited resources as it is and uh increasing the number of visitors already puts a strain on US during the busy season which is like April and extends through November um I just I I think that these uh these things have been overlooked and uh they need to be addressed all the agencies in the area have indicated that there will be a strain on these resources but uh I haven't heard anything on how uh how how

it's going to be mitigated um with the add additional strain of not only traffic and people and uh that's all I have thank you jackon I've got a question for you so so yes sir falls under Ambit does has hhft all state parks reached out to you um about an offer of resources or a questioning um ABS absolutely not nothing thank you you're welcome thank you any other questions or comments online Okay um like to make a motion to close the public comment I will make a motion to close the public comment Eis can I say one more thing I know I talking too much but um it seems to be there's a fallacy here that the when the trail is built many many many more people will come here you don't seem to realize there are other places in New York to go to uh there's Harman Park there's the uh there's news uh there's the the adex uh there's well you know it's there's a huge number of places to go to and not everyone in the world wants to hide most people will traffic ghosts maybe to a museum or a ballpark uh the idea that the whole world will be descending here seems to be a fallacy it's very possible that when this project first opens a great many people will come because they want to be the the first person there but uh you know New York handles the Highline which is much more uh limited space without people falling off the edge uh I don't see that this would be such a a draw

that it would utterly destroy our village thank you if if you close the public comment we can still write in comments sure yes welcome that we welcome we welcome F the comment thank you um you know sooner the better um thank you everyone this is amazing like this is really really productive and it's great to hear everyone's thoughts on this um I'm going to make a motion to close the public comment on the uh the public hearing on the for trail t d d GIS um for February 6 second um I'd like to make one comment maybe before um before people leave in session here guys um so I want to make one comment before before we go just as a as a a little bit of partying something for everyone to think about regardless of how you feel about um the project a lot of people today have cited various projects that they experienced Public Works projects that they felt like resulted in great benefit I've also I I was a part of a Rivertown growing up that that had a magnificent Riverwalk put in um I want to point out that all I would guess that the vast majority if not all of those projects were done in close cooperation with the municipalities that they impacted and that that the the result is not is not just a function of what was what came in not just the developer initial Vision but it was the result of an invested public uh an invested set of Municipal boards working in concert with the developers to make something that was going to work for everyone in that Community something to think about thank you

[Music] yeah it's coming thought you were asking have a great night you're funding the the party