Also, warehouse proposed for Route 9 golf course
The Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail last week briefed the Fishkill Planning Board on its plans for transforming a former grand home on Route 9D into a visitor’s center for the proposed 7.5-mile linear park between Cold Spring and Beacon.
The board also heard from a developer who hopes to construct a 388,000-square-foot warehouse on the site of the Fishkill Golf Course on Route 9 behind the former Dutchess Mall.
During the HHFT presentation on July 11, Executive Director Amy Kacala said one goal is to restore some original features to the historic Dutchess Manor, which was built in 1868 as a home for merchant James Wade and his wife, Louisa. Frank Timoney, an Irish immigrant who grew wealthy operating three brickyards at Dennings Point, bought the property in 1889. George Coris, a furrier from New York City, bought the property at a tax sale in 1944, according to the Beacon Historical Society, and operated it as a hotel, restaurant and bar until the early 1970s.
The 1,979-square-foot former home is encircled by additions erected in 1947, 1989 and 2007. HHFT purchased the estate, which covers 12 acres on two parcels and is on the National Register of Historic Places, for $3.4 million in 2020 from the Coris family. The two parcels will be merged, Kacala said.
Exterior renovations include reviving the original structure’s slate roof and rear patio, removing paint to expose the brickwork and rebuilding trim, according to Kacala. Inside, HHFT would create first-floor spaces for a welcome desk and interpretive exhibits, upper-floor offices and meeting space, and install an elevator.
A parking area for up to 200 cars would be carved from the grounds, along with public restrooms, lawn space and a drop-off area for buses and shuttles ferrying visitors to the Fjord Trail.
Plantings at the property’s entrance and parking lot would replicate the “palette” of the mountain across Route 9D from the property, Kacala said, with red oak and tulip trees mixed with columbine, witch hazel and low-brush blueberry. Construction would take about a year, she said.
HHFT plans to submit a formal application before the board’s August meeting.
Route 9 warehouse
Following the HHFT presentation, developer Scannell Properties introduced its application to construct a 388,000-square-foot warehouse that would replace the Fishkill Golf Course, a 12-hole property with a driving range behind the remnants of Dutchess Mall and bordering Clove Creek.
Scannell’s $63 million proposal for its Fishkill Commerce Center includes 70 loading docks and 221 parking spaces for employees and 81 for tractor-trailers. To accommodate traffic, the company would ask the state Department of Transportation to install a signal on Route 9 and widen the access road to create right and left turn lanes onto the highway.
Dan Madrigal, development director for Scannell, said the company specializes in distribution and manufacturing facilities, as well as cold storage, data centers and truck terminals. “Over 79 percent of our projects are with repeat clients,” such as Amazon, Best Buy, Lowe’s and Walmart, he said.
Along with site-plan approval and authorization for water service from the Village of Fishkill, the project would need wetlands permits from the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the Army Corps of Engineers.
Scannell designed the project “to avoid those wetlands and their buffers,” said Jennifer Gray, a project attorney. One buffer will be disturbed to install infrastructure for a 16,000-gallon septic system, and “a small area of wetland” to widen the access road, according to the company.
Scannell said that, because the project is within the 100-year floodplain of Clove Creek, which runs along the property’s western edge, the firm would use fill and grading to raise its elevation. Runoff from stormwater would be captured and treated by bioretention basins and a wet pond.
While the Planning Board review is just beginning, Chair Jonathan Kanter expressed some initial concerns: the potential for downstream flooding from stormwater runoff and the board’s approval in February 2023 of a 350,000-square-foot warehouse with 78 loading docks and 209 parking spaces at the adjacent Dutchess Mall site.
Hudson Properties LLC, which owns Dutchess Mall, notified the board late last year that the warehouse developer, Crow Holdings, had terminated its contract to build. Kanter asked if Scannell had approached Hudson Properties about building its warehouse on the former mall site.
Madrigal said the company was interested in pursuing both projects and had engaged multiple times with Hudson Properties but “as of now, [they] don’t seem very open” to the company’s involvement.
It is telling that while all eyes and dollars are focused on creating even more amenities to draw more people and more human development to the eastern edges of the Hudson Highlands State Park via the HHFT, the northern edges of the same park remain woefully underdeveloped and neglected.
While the powers that be pour money and resources into making the already spectacular river reaches of the park even more spectacular and attractive — destined to draw even larger throngs into an already overtaxed trail network — the northern stretches of the Hudson Highlands State Park, including the fragile Clove Creek watershed, abut the Dutchess Mall and Fishkill golf land currently under threat of excessive development, as detailed in this article.
Before the northern edges of the park sink further into ecological neglect, and the underappreciated lower Clove Creek (which this paper mentions as habitat for elusive trout) gets washed away down the drain of roof and parking lot runoff, I encourage all of us who care about this beautiful park to turn at least part of our attention to its northern reaches before they are lost forever to mindless overdevelopment. A truly visionary park would embrace its less spectacular edges and encourage strategies such as strategic rewilding of the former Dutchess Mall site and Fishkill golf course. This effort could be dovetailed into applicable programs at Dutchess Community College (situated just steps from the park and Clove Creek) such as biology, exercise/wellness, public health and hospitality/tourism. Imagine a world-class educational institution tied directly to a nature-based economy which could include trout fishing (tourism), watershed rehabilitation (biology), camping and hiking (exercise/wellness), and outdoor exploration for disadvantaged populations (public health).
This is one of the best ideas I’ve heard in a while. Mount Beacon is fantastic, and right there. The infrastructure is already on Route 9 to accommodate tourists too. So smart!
Hudson Properties LLC is a terrible member of the Fishkill community. Dutchess Mall is an eyesore, but it refuses to demolish the dilapidated buildings. Perhaps the newly adopted town laws will force a cleanup of the site. [via Facebook]
What a shame that all the beautiful open land along Route 9 is falling to development. Don’t counties and towns plan with zoning? The beautiful Hudson Valley is disappearing quickly. [via Facebook]
Anyone interested in the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail discussion should pay attention to what’s going on across the pond. Resi-dents of many European travel destinations are pushing back against unchecked tourism. Florence, Barcelona, the Balearic Islands, the Cotswolds, Venice — the list goes on. Reporting crowded sidewalks, environmental damage, littering, traffic jams, overburdened water utilities and the deleterious effects of short-term rentals, the members of these communities have made their voices heard.
Social media and cheap travel have fueled a global travel boom. The Fjord Trail, as envisaged, could be a magnet for this type of unmanageable “Instagram tourism” that has already proven detrimental elsewhere.
Discerning Cold Springers may already know how other cities in the world are fighting back against dreaded tourist trapism. Venice is charging an entrance fee and punishing noncompliance with a fine. Amsterdam is “encouraging” young British men, known for their laddish behavior (over there, not here of course), to take their pounds elsewhere. Japan erected a screen to block views of Mount Fuji so selfies will only have a self in it.
Barcelona seems to have gone bananas. Residents armed with water guns are squirting tourists dining outside, dousing their already watered-down, gringo-ready paella in the process. Signs with messages like “Tourist Go Home” amplify the sentiment in case the visitor misses the point.
Should Cold Springers adopt Barcelona tactics on the soon-to-be HHFT tourist explosion? Or on the Seastreak amphibious assaults? Well, I say a resounding “No!” We Cold Springers are a God-fearing (or ignoring, or hiding-from) people with good taste and manners. In fact, when visitors arrive by automobile and ask if it’s OK to park in front of our houses, our ingrained response is always, “Certainly you can, and I’ll wash your car by the time you return.”
After all, some long-timers recall the bad old days, circa 1965, when Main Street was a boarded-up ghost town and potential tourists sniffed at the gaucheness of it all. Fortunately, the antique trade found a home here and memorabilia seekers saved the village from remaining an afterthought for money-dropping day-trippers.
So, let’s make peace with the future as did Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Disney. If HHFT wants to turn our village into a people-jammed Fjordland, let them. What’s in it for locals? There’s money to be made on a side hustle dressed as costumed cartoon characters like Fjordy Mouse. Think Times Square.