HUDSON — Three environmental watchdog groups have filed a petition in Columbia County Court seeking to overturn the recent city planning board’s decision to grant site plan and conditional use permit approval to A. Colarusso & Son for its gravel operation on the city’s waterfront.
In a 29-page petition, Our Hudson Waterfront, The Valley Alliance and River District Economic Coalition asked the court to vacate the Hudson Planning Board’s determination as “arbitrary, capricious and contrary to law.”
The petition alleges the planning board failed to determine the Colarusso application is compatible with the city’s Local Waterfront Revitalization Program as required under city code; the board failed to make a determination that the conditional use permit is in harmony with the appropriate and orderly development of the district...and will not be detrimental to the orderly development of adjacent properties; and the board’s determination to approve the site plan and conditional use permit contradicts and is inconsistent with the prior determination in 2021 to issue a positive declaration of significance in relation to Colarusso’s commercial dock operations including its private access roads.
“The planning board had the opportunity to choose a win-win option for the people of Hudson,” Valley Alliance President Peter Jung said in a statement. “Denying the applications would stop gravel trucks from harming both downtown and the waterfront. Instead, the planners rolled over for a Greenport corporation which has put its own narrow self-interest over everyone else.”
An email to A. Colarusso & Son and a call to John Privitera, Colarusso’s attorney, seeking comment were unsuccessful.
The Alliance has been working on waterfront issues for 18 years and has submitted more than 20 detailed memos and legal briefs on the project.
“Since the beginning, we’ve sought a thorough review of negative impacts, given the huge economic and social potential of the river district,” Our Hudson Riverfront President David Konigsberg said in a statement. “Despite concerns expressed by the city’s engineers and a strong declaration from the previous board in 2021, the current members disregarded both in rendering their recent decision.”
The River District Economic Council was formed in 2023 to promote sound, sustainable economic development, according to its president, Clark Wieman.
“The planning board’s decision to permit doubling the road’s size sets the stage for major intensification of industrial activity on the waterfront,” Wieman said in a statement. “This decision flies in the face of a 40-year trend toward low-impact service sectors, retail, light industry and recreation. It violates the spirit and letter of Hudson’s LWRP which envisions a mixed-use, sustainable waterfront.”
In a 5-1 decision Dec. 14, the planning board voted to give conditional approval to A. Colarusso & Son’s application for a conditional use permit to build a paved, two-lane road through South Bay.
The private haul road would be owned by Colarusso, a gravel and road fabrication company that has operated in Columbia County for more than 100 years and is one of the area’s major employers.
The company has been trying to expand its haul road leading from its quarry outside the city to its dock on the waterfront from one lane to two lanes so it can ferry gravel and other rock aggregates to and from the dock.