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Publication Date: June 11th, 2025
Image originally posted on Hudson Common Sense Instagram
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Is the Mill Street Flood Zone Hudson’s Next Colarusso & Sons Waterfront Multi-Decade Debacle?
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A flood-zone housing project. A Planning Board handpicked for compliance, not competence.
A Mayor and Planning Board in cahoots, fast-tracking one dubious development while ignoring more viable, less destructive alternatives. In a gross act of misinformation, he labels critics “anti-housing” to shield his political allies—when critics of the plan are simply anti-corruption.
The parallels to the Hudson Waterfront / Colarusso & Sons Cement Haul Road Conflict are unmistakable:
That saga triggered years of costly legal wrangling: Article 78 challenges, court fights with environmental groups, and a trail of taxpayer expense stretching over a decade.
The process became the problem.
Now, almost every candidate in the upcoming election and even County Supervisors oppose building questionable "affordable" housing in the Mill Street floodplain.
Their message is clear: this is not anti-housing, but anti-incompetence.
Eloquent residents, including longtime Habitat for Humanity supporters, have outlined in detail how the Mayor and the failing local school district (HCSD) likely violated New York State law to convert a recreational park into land that can be sold.
The project targets one of Hudson’s most diverse and loyal neighborhoods, sacrificed as a Hail Mary for the Mayor’s unfulfilled housing promises. It makes you wonder if he, or his girlfriend who serves as the city’s “Housing Justice Director,” is receiving any quid pro quo from the developers.
Even if it is built, when it floods—because it will—there will be recriminations, lawsuits, and perhaps later, yet another unused building in town.
Like a ship builder ignoring storm warnings, this process invites the flood.
Common sense says if you defy Mother Nature, and ignore state law, the courts and storms will do the planning for you
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Last edited/updated:
June 11th, 2025
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