Cement Plant Opposition Picks Up Steam
After five years, St. Lawrence Cement (SLC) has not one of 17 permits for the mammoth industrial and mining complex it wants to build in one of the valley's most scenic and historic areas. The plant would produce 20 million pounds of pollution that doctors say would worsen children's asthma and increase cancer rates and heart attacks.
Our Hudson Valley Preservation Coalition radio ad campaign prompted thousands of citizens to visit stoptheplant.com and fax a letter to Gov. George E. Pataki urging him to stop the plant. Scenic Hudson President Ned Sullivan's editorial meetings generated a flurry of highly visible anti-plant editorials from The New York Times, Boston Globe, Hartford Courant, New Haven Register, Portland Press Herald and Bangor Daily News. And during administrative hearings, we and Friends of Hudson successfully made the case that SLC's noise and traffic studies have fallen far short of what is required by law. |
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Fueling Economic Engines
Two recent projects highlight how our professional staff is helping communities pursue economic opportunity while improving quality of life. In Hyde Park, Dutchess County, we secured an option to purchase 338 acres that connect the FDR and Val-Kill National Historic Sites, which are among the state's leading tourism attractions. This effort builds on a public-private partnership Scenic Hudson helped create to establish a regional heritage tourism center in the historic municipality.
The second initiative involved purchasing development rights on a 250-acre dairy farm in Stuyvesant - one of the region's leading agricultural areas. This is the seventh farm Scenic Hudson has protected in the Columbia County town, and the success represents another stride in our support-for-agriculture program launched in 1995. Also recently in Red Hook, Dutchess County, we were gratified that our work helped inspire a farmland protection initiative by the town. Voters by a 4-to-1 margin approved a $3.5 million bond program to safeguard additional critical farms. We are expanding our work to other important farming communities throughout the valley. |
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Pushing Smart Growth
In an era marked by uncontrolled sprawl, Scenic Hudson is advancing new-paradigm solutions for economic growth. This fall we and the Dutchess County Planning Federation coordinated a conference for 200 decision-makers and community leaders to learn about building stronger urban and town centers. Sponsored by the Hudson Valley Smart Growth Alliance (HVSGA), of which Scenic Hudson is a founder, the event featured a keynote presentation by a national expert on "new urbanism" and panel discussions on affordable housing and pedestrian-friendly communities. Our project to create a "green development" on a once-contaminated Beacon waterfront in Dutchess County was among the case studies highlighted. |
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Photo above: Poughkeepsie Mayor Nancy Cozean registers for the Hudson Valley smart growth conference.
Photo of Meryl Streep by Thomas Moore. Photo of Mayor Nancy Cozean by Chris Davis Cina. |
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