Red Hook officials may try to take over boat club through eminent domain, convert into public park
If approved by multiple boards, the town would be able to buy the property for a fair price and make it a public park, even though leaders of the private 100-member club do not want to sell it.
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Leaders of a boat club on the Hudson River are suing to try to keep the Town of Red Hook from taking over their land and turning it into a public park.
The debate has heated up ahead of a Friday evening public meeting that promises to be well attended.
Rich Ross, the commodore of the Red Hook Boat Club, is leading the resistance to the Town of Red Hook's preliminary plans to seize the club's 2.37 acres through eminent domain, a power afforded to all governments to acquire properties for public use.
If approved by multiple boards, the town would be able to buy the property for a fair price and make it a public park, even though leaders of the private 100-member club do not want to sell it.
"The truth of the matter is that eminent domain is a serious government power," Ross said during an interview at the boat club, "and if they're able to do this here in Red Hook, it kind of opens the door to 'What else?'"
Town officials have pointed out that there is no safe, free access to the river in Red Hook for the town's 11,000 residents.
They have also said that converting the lot to public use falls in line with the town's 1993 Local Waterfront Revitalization Program that was approved by the state.
The town board has also submitted the plans to the town's planning board, which also serves as Red Hook's Waterfront Advisory Committee, for approval.
Ross said the town is moving too quickly.
"Why are we not stopping and listening to the community's concerns," he said. "It's not just members of the Red Hook Boat Club who are voicing out and speaking to matters regarding the club and the organization."
Cary Kittner, who lives nearby and is not a member of the club, said that considering the influx of new residents from New York City and the expansion at nearby Bard College, the boat club's property is the wrong spot for a park.
"It's a quiet, little neighborhood," Kittner said, "and if you have people coming down to see if they can get in, that's just a huge amount of traffic."
Red Hook Town Supervisor Robert McKeon told News 12 in an email that the town had been seeking a compromise with the club, but talks between the two sides never got started.
"A director of the club came to the Town and offered to set up a meeting several months ago but they have not actually done so after repeated suggestions they would," he wrote. "They now have indicated they will not."
The town is holding a public meeting on the issue 6:30 p.m. Friday at Red Hook High School.
McKeon said town officials will explain more about the eminent domain acquisition process and why the town is eyeing the boat club for a park location.
"Folks will hear tomorrow night how this property is the only one viable one along the river," McKeon wrote. "If the Board were to go ahead with eminent domain all residents could access the property and river for free. There is no safe free access currently in the Town of Red Hook."
Other local government officials, including Dutchess County Executive Sue Serino, are urging Red Hook town officials to be open to other options.
"Government should only ever use its power to take private property in the rarest and most necessary circumstances – and only with full transparency and when it’s clear that it’s in the public’s best interests," Serino said. "I urge the Town Board to really listen to the concerns and voices of our neighbors and to reconsider this course of action."
