Beacon to Fjord Trail: ‘Enthusiastic’ Support

Many, but not all, in city favor proposal

Beacon Mayor Lee Kyriacou was the first elected official to speak when the state Department of Environmental Conservation held two virtual hearings last month on the Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement (DGEIS) for the proposed Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail. 

The hearings came after the state parks department’s release in December of its 709-page review of Scenic Hudson’s plans to construct a 7.5-mile linear park connecting Beacon and Cold Spring. Ninety people spoke during the hearings; written comments are being accepted until March 4.

Offering “enthusiastic, unqualified” support, Kyriacou’s comments stood in contrast to the reception the project has received from some elected officials and residents in Cold Spring and Philipstown. 

“There will be greater access, not only to the Hudson Highlands, but for the first time to large sections of the Hudson River that previously were inaccessible due to the railroad tracks,” he said during the Jan. 14 hearing. “Along the Hudson will be flat trail sections, broadening access to those who cannot easily do mountain hikes — including seniors, persons with disabilities, cyclists, runners and those simply wanting less strenuous options.”

In addition, he said, the north end of the trail, which would begin at Beacon’s Long Dock Park — a former junkyard transformed over 15 years by Scenic Hudson — will link many open spaces: Dennings Point State Park, Madam Brett Park, Seeger Riverfront Park, the Klara Sauer Trail and the city’s Fishkill Creek Greenway & Heritage Trail, which is being created in segments around Beacon’s perimeter. 

Then there’s the biggest connection of all: If Dutchess County commits to constructing a trail along 13 miles of dormant railroad from Beacon to Hopewell Junction, the Fjord Trail would connect to the Dutchess Rail Trail, Walkway Over the Hudson and the 750-mile Empire State Trail. 

Turn Lane Weighed for Dutchess Manor
Would serve cars at Fjord Trail center

A lane for vehicles turning left from northbound Route 9D into the former Dutchess Manor site is being analyzed as part of the proposal to remake the property as a visitors center for the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail. 

In a memorandum submitted to the Fishkill Planning Board for its meeting on Feb. 13, planning consultant AKRF said anticipated traffic volumes during Saturday and Sunday midday and late-afternoon peak hours exceeded the threshold for a left-turn lane for drivers turning into the property. 

Aaron Werner, AKRF’s senior technical director, said during the meeting that HHFT has “started conversations” with the state Department of Transportation, which has jurisdiction over Route 9D, while engineers for the project examine the feasibility of adding a lane. 

Exceeding the threshold “does not automatically mean that turn lanes are required, as other factors, such as impacts to drainage or right-of-way constraints, should be considered,” said AKRF. 

HHFT’s plans for the property include demolishing three additions to the original structure built between 1947 and 2007, restoring a slate roof and adding a parking area with 181 spaces, upstairs offices, bathrooms and an area where shuttles and buses can drop off and load visitors to the Fjord Trail. 

While Fjord Trail opponents in Cold Spring have bristled at the number of tourists they say the project will bring to the village, Kyriacou said he welcomes more visitors to Beacon’s mile-long Main Street. “The Fjord Trail helps Beacon far more than any ancillary problems that it may create, and that we will manage,” he said.

The mayor has worn his support for HHFT for months, donning gear with the organization’s logo during City Council meetings. Given the mixed reception the proposal has received elsewhere, he has suggested many times that construction in Beacon begin sooner rather than later. 

Kyriacou isn’t alone. In 2023, Dan Aymar-Blair and Justice McCray, both members at the time of Beacon’s City Council, hosted an information session that filled the gymnasium at the city’s Recreation Center. And City Administrator Chris White said he expects to bring a proposal to the council later this year to place an HHFT maintenance facility at the transfer station on Dennings Avenue. 

“The majority of people I have spoken to are really excited,” said Amber Grant, a council member who serves on the HHFT Visitation Data Committee. It released a report last fall projecting that the Fjord Trail will add 268,700 visits annually throughout the corridor from people who would not typically come to the connected parks and trails.

“Our living space in Beacon is a little more removed from the river than it is in Cold Spring,” Grant noted. “What the trail will add is, I think, manageable for Beacon. We can handle that volume around our trails.”

Not everyone in Beacon agrees, of course. Mary Fris, a retired Main Street business owner who lives near the foot of Mount Beacon, has been vocal in her opposition to the Fjord Trail. 

Fris said the idea of a simple riverside trail connecting the two municipalities appealed to her when she first heard of it, “but it didn’t turn out that way. It’s turned into this big boondoggle” with plans calling for hundreds of underwater pilings to create an elevated boardwalk near Little Stony Point. In recent years, Fris said she has started bringing garbage bags to pick up litter when she hikes Mount Beacon, and she’s afraid the HHFT will bring more careless visitors while disturbing sensitive wildlife habitat. 

“I’m aghast at what people do,” she said. “Scenic Hudson is pretty much in the business now of building parks, and I fear this will be the same thing all over again. I think there are a lot more people in Beacon who are against it than they’re saying.”

Supervisor: Fishkill ‘Favorable’ to Trail

Although the proposed 7.5-mile Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail would run between Cold Spring and Beacon, much of it — about 3.5 miles, from Dutchess Junction to the Putnam County line — would be in the Town of Fishkill. (Of the remainder, about 2 miles would be in Beacon, 1.75 miles in Philipstown and a quarter-mile in Cold Spring.)

On Wednesday (Feb. 19), the Fishkill Town Board voted unanimously to submit written comments to the state parks department on the DGEIS for the trail. Its three-page letter highlights concerns about increased traffic on Route 9D, insufficient emergency services, trespassing on private property, destruction of wildlife habitat and impacts around the Notch Trailhead, where HHFT has proposed constructing an 80-space parking lot with a restroom building. 

The letter asks HHFT to consider mitigating measures, such as a reduced speed limit on 9D, and to conduct a fiscal impact study with proposals for providing increased funding for emergency services. It also asks the organization to better study long-term impacts on the environment and to consider installing a “pedestrian-friendly” traffic light at the Notch Trail. 

Despite those concerns, Supervisor Ozzy Albra said this week that Fishkill residents are generally “very favorable” to the project. He noted that Fishkill is one of the only municipalities in Dutchess County without direct access to the Hudson River, “and we want to get waterfront access.” 

But Andy Bell, a member of Beacon’s Greenway Trail and Tree Advisory committees, says he was “shocked” when he heard of opposition to the Fjord Trail. “We’ve all driven down [Route] 9D and we see how dangerous that is,” he said. “This is what people asked for.”

Bell points to the 23-acre Long Dock property, an “absolute gem” that Scenic Hudson opened in 2011, as the reason he’s confident the Fjord Trail will be environmentally sustainable. “We know how hard it is to get funding for things like this, and here’s a trail that’s going to be funded and maintained and given to the community,” he said. “How could you not support that?”

Amy Kacala, HHFT’s executive director, appreciates Beacon’s enthusiasm for the project, calling the Walk & Talk information session held last year at Long Dock, as well as the organization’s appearances at the Howland Public Library and Farmers Market, “uplifting and energizing.”

How to Comment

The Fjord Trail DGEIS is online at dub.sh/state-parks-HHFT. Comments can be submitted through March 4 to [email protected] or to: Nancy Stoner, Environmental Analyst, NYS OPRHP, DESP, 625 Broadway, 2nd Floor, Albany, NY 12238.

The first phase of the Fjord Trail, the Breakneck Connector and Bridge, has been approved by the state, with the bulk of its construction to begin this year and conclude in 2026. According to the DGEIS, Phase 2, scheduled for 2026 to 2029, would take the trail to the Notch Trailhead outside of Beacon, but Kacala acknowledged she has heard Kyriacou’s requests to jump ahead to the city.

As construction continues this year, she said the organization will soon turn its attention to designing the next phase, “and we’ll be looking north for that.”