Final Env. Impact Statement For Fjord Trail Released

The Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail would run along the eastern shore of the Hudson River between Beacon and Cold Spring. Photo courtesy of Scenic Hudson.

By Holly Crocco

With the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation having released the Final Generic Environmental Impact Statement for the planned Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail, the Village of Cold Spring has acted quickly to request that State Parks hold a public hearing on the controversial matter.

“It has a lot of findings of ‘no adverse impact,’ which is obviously problematic for us as a village,” said Cold Spring Mayor Kathleen Foley at a Jan. 8 special meeting of the village board.

“We are asking state parks to hold a public hearing on its own document,” she explained. “They are not required to do so, but given the scope and scale of the project, and impact and the public interest,” the village is making the request.

Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail, Inc., proposes to build a 7.5-mile-long publicly accessible linear park that is a shared-use pedestrian and bicycle (non-motorized) trail. The park would run along the eastern shore of the Hudson River between the City of Beacon in Dutchess County and the Village of Cold Spring in Putnam.

The Fjord Trail would be partially within the Hudson Highlands State Park Preserve, which is owned and managed by State Parks, and would extend through other public and private lands.

State Parks, which is serving as the lead agency for the State Environmental Quality Review Act, has made the final environmental impact statement available for review at parks.ny.gov/plans. 

The 2020 Draft Master Plan and FGEIS can also be found at hhft.org.

According to Foley, it’s a “massive document” of about 1,000 pages.

“We have very tight timelines on this portion of the SEQRA process,” she said. “The village attorney has recommended that we request a public hearing and public comment… No public hearing is required, no comment period is required as part of the SEQRA process when you get to a final document… We are requesting it.”

The Village of Nelsonville and Town of Philipstown are expected to issue similar requests to State Parks.

Prior to the release of the final environmental impact statement, State Parks said it received more than 650 comment submissions, including both verbal testimonies at public hearings and written comments during the public comment period on the draft statement, from Dec. 4, 2024, to March 4, 2025.