Renews support for Cold Spring ‘pause’
The Philipstown Town Board on Wednesday (Feb. 26), by a 4-1 vote, approved more than 100 comments on a draft environmental impact statement for the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail and a letter renewing a request to pause construction of a boardwalk between Dockside and Little Stony Point parks.
In addition to an 18-page document containing its comments about the state’s Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement (DGEIS), the Town Board approved, by the same 4-1 vote, comments crafted by the Conservation Board in response to HHFT’s proposal.
Board Member Judy Farrell, who said she does not support delaying or pausing the Dockside-to-Little-Stony Point segment, cast the lone “no” votes. Completion of the southern end would boost accessibility to the riverfront and there are “a lot of people in the community who have been waiting a long time” for the trail, she said.
“Of course there are going to be problems with this project, but I think we can work them out as it progresses,” Farrell said.
The HHFT plan comprises a 7.5-mile trail between Cold Spring and Beacon, with a segment containing a boardwalk elevated over the river between Dockside and Little Stony Point. It also includes a bridge over the Metro-North tracks north of the Breakneck tunnel, new platforms at the Breakneck train station, expanded parking and the redevelopment of Dutchess Manor into a visitor’s center.
State parks, which is the lead agency for the project, released the 700-page draft in December and set a deadline of Tuesday (March 4) for public comments.
A consultant with Tim Miller Associates, which reviewed the DGEIS for Philipstown, on Feb. 19 shared some of its concerns, which largely mirror those expressed by elected officials in Cold Spring and Nelsonville. (Update: The full document was released by the town on Monday, March 3.)
Primarily, the DGEIS is “lacking in details,” said Steven Marino, a senior environmental planner with the firm. For example, he said the document does not sufficiently address increased traffic as the Fjord Trail draws more visitors or the dispersal of sediment when more than 400 concrete pilings are installed in the Hudson River for the section between Dockside and Little Stony Point.
Marino also said that HHFT’s conclusions about the boardwalk’s impact on riverviews along Fair Street and Route 9D between Breakneck and Cold Spring “don’t seem to tell the whole story” and need more analysis. He said there are questions about whether the width of the walkway will accommodate pedestrians, bicyclists and other users traveling in both directions at the same time.
“It is our feeling that, in some ways, the presented DGEIS is too lacking in details or so interested in moving the project forward that some aspects of the plan, especially the potential impacts on community character, congestion and quality-of-life issues are overlooked or downplayed,” he said on Feb. 19.
On Feb. 26, Van Tassel read a letter the Town Board approved sending with the comments. It reiterates the town’s stance that the southern segment should end at Little Stony Point. The town also requested that HHFT pay for emergency services along the trail and calls for a two-year “purpose pause” after the phases north of Breakneck are completed to assess their effect on reducing congestion and traffic.
“If the train station and Breakneck work, if Dutchess Manor works, we come back to the table and say, ‘Let’s see how we can bring the trail to Dockside in a reduced version, in a full version,’” he said.
Does the developer thumb their nose at the project’s multiple threat to endangered and non-endangered species? The report should be a death knell for the Little Stony Point to Dockside segment: dead in the water indeed. As ever, recreation and preservation prove incompatible bedfellows.
My husband, David Watson, and I have been Cold Spring residents for eight years. We are writing in support of the goals of the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail for accessibility, community resources and visitation management.
As a pediatrician with a master’s degree in public health, a camp physician at Surprise Lake Camp, an instructor in wilderness medi-cine and wilderness first response and a former physician for Doctors without Borders, I have extensive experience in managing emergencies in limited-resource and wilderness settings. I have carefully reviewed the HHFT plans and feel they are well-thought-through and thorough.
As someone who has hiked all the trails in the Highlands, I know the area and am in a good position to evaluate these plans. My husband is also active but because he is 81, he looks forward to the Fjord Trail as an easier way to walk.
We believe the plan will help make Cold Spring a more habitable place. The proposal for infrastructure with restrooms at Dockside, trash cans alongside the trail, a shuttle and a robust system of wayfinding signs will help alleviate congestion. This will also provide a better pedestrian flow. We support a southernmost entry for Dockside because it will give us easy access to the Hudson River for bird-watching. We also support the complete sidewalks on Fair Street.
I was so impressed by this project, I reached out to the team to meet with their park director, Drew Polinsky, to explore how medical emergencies would be handled. Drew has excellent credentials and extensive experience and has been thorough in his planning. He has met with the Cold Spring Fire Department to go over all the details on how to best respond to emergencies and how to minimize any burden on EMS providers.
I believe the trail will be net-positive for emergency response teams by providing much-needed boots on the ground and a collaborative approach with parks staff and local first responders. Drew and I discussed the Fjord Trail providing a space for local responders to meet and host trainings on first aid or search-and-rescue. Overall, they seem to bring the same enthusiasm and fresh ideas to emergency response as they do to the idea of a trail along the Hudson.
As for the current Fjord Trail plan, I say thanks but no thanks. Thanks because I recognize we are lucky to have philanthropic, land preservationist-type people in our community. No thanks because I am deeply skeptical of this and other grandiose private/public partnership projects I’ve seen in Philipstown in recent years.
The Big Woods access road and parking area in Fahnestock State Park, for example, is an unnecessarily heavy-handed debacle that ruined habitat and a perfectly fine trail connecting the park with Glynwood’s fields. A small parking lot on the side of Route 301 would have sufficed.
I view the Fjord Trail proposal to be similarly excessive; it is way over the top of what is good for our community and the environment. We just want a simple trail, thank you.