Preserving Land to Revitalize Communities
by Steve Rosenberg
Since the mid-1990s Scenic Hudson, Inc. has used nontraditional strategies to create healthier, more vital Hudson Valley communities. From Yonkers to Beacon, we have acquired key parcels to create parks and protect natural resources, stem sprawl and remove industrial contamination.
Our land preservation toolbox is diverse.
Create Public Access and Reveal Special Places
The most tangible result of Scenic Hudson's community-based land protection work is the preservation of the Hudson River and the significant places that dot the valley's landscape. In urban and developed areas, neglected and overgrown landscapes are being cleaned up to reveal – almost magically – the natural beauty that made them attractive to earlier generations.
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Spectacular Tioronda Falls at Madam Brett Park in Beacon is one of the treasures we have helped preserve. |
At Madam Brett Park in the City of Beacon in Dutchess County, next to a dormant, historic hat factory, access has been opened to a spectacular waterfall and marsh along Fishkill Creek. Now a community asset, the area is safe and clean and visited by families and school groups.
Remove Contamination and Blight
Many urban waterfront sites contain relics of their industrial past – including contamination. Scenic Hudson has played a key role in the complex process of investigating and remediating these sites to convert them for new uses. By teaming up with municipalities, we are turning formerly contaminated lands into parks and other riverfront assets. Making brownfields useful again helps reduce the pressure of new development that sprawls across the surrounding countryside.
Spark Citizen Involvement and Bring Communities Together
Scenic Hudson acquired two parcels across from the Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site in the Town of Hyde Park in Dutchess County and invited stakeholders from the community to create a plan for the area. Our Land Preservation and Riverfront Communities programs are working with these stakeholders to protect the historic site from inappropriate development and encourage new growth where it will have a positive impact. Similarly, land purchased on the Beacon waterfront helped create new grass-roots committees, a series of public meetings and roundtables and an international planning exchange. These initiatives are the seeds of a burgeoning arts-based renaissance.
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| FACT: To date Scenic Hudson has protected 17,700 acres of land in 10 counties and created or enhanced 28 parks and preserves for public enjoyment. |
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Integrate Strategies to Create Positive Waterfront Development
Owning land gives us a stake in communities and the opportunities to create relationships with local groups. In the Village of Haverstraw in Rockland County owning part of Emeline Park gives us a stronger voice in how the remainder of the village's expansive postindustrial waterfront will be redeveloped.
In the City of Yonkers in Westchester County, Scenic Hudson helped the Beczak Environmental Center and city and county governments acquire waterfront property and convert it to a park, environmental education center and community meeting space. This project's positive outcome is attributed in part to Scenic Hudson's acquisition of a conservation easement on the property more than 15 years ago. The easement enhanced our standing to influence the reuse of a large, underutilized waterfront parcel.
Scenic Hudson is using land preservation not just as an end in itself but as leverage in community-based planning and public outreach. The result is a better informed and engaged public, which translates into more access to the Hudson River and development that reflects local needs. |
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| Public officials and developers break ground for a new waterfront project in the City of Yonkers. |
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