Times Union reporter, Roger Hannigan Gilson, recently reported that a local coalition, with legal backing from Rupp Pfalzgraf, has filed a lawsuit against the Hudson Planning Board for approving an industrial haul road leading from a gravel quarry to the city’s waterfront.
The lawsuit contends that the Planning Board overlooked various aspects of local law in its decision. One of the main issues is the failure to determine if the expansion aligns with the city’s Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan (LWRP), greenlit back in 2011.
Hudson’s LWRP mandates that any waterfront development must pass through the scrutiny of a Local Coastal Consistency Review Board to see if the development aligns with the Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan. However, the State Department of State never approved Hudson’s waterfront plan, and the city also never established a review board. Since this crucial step has been omitted, it casts doubts on the alignment of the haul road expansion with the broader waterfront plan.
The three groups leading this legal charge, with Rupp Pfalzgraf in their corner, argue that the dock operation and the proposed haul road expansion deviate from the direction the waterfront has been heading for years.
For more details on why the road got initial approval and the potential impacts on the community, check out the full article from The Times Union here.