First draft of Newburgh’s riverfront plan is more scrapbook than playbook

By John Doherty

Times Herald-Record

Newburgh — Like everything about the project so far, the first draft of the plan to turn 30 grassy acres along the Hudson here into a city-within-a-city is big — and impressive.

It is more than an inch thick, 100 pages long, and stuffed with color drawings of the future project: a hotel, a Calvert Vaux-style park, and a reborn Clinton Square, once the heart of Newburgh’s black community. Vaux was a 19th-century architect who designed Newburgh’s Downing Park with Frederick Law Olmstead.

But that first draft, delivered to the city late last week, is more scrapbook than playbook.

City officials and residents hungry to know when shovels will hit the dirt and what aspect of the project will be done first will have to wait.

The first draft, which the City Council will discuss tonight at a work session, “is more of an historical record of what’s taken place,” says Bob McKenna, the city’s planning and economic development chief.

Leyland Alliance, the city’s developer for the project and city officials are continuing to work on a development agreement, which will include more of the nitty-gritty of the ambitious project. The agreement is set to be completed by mid-June.

“We understand everybody wants to know when work will begin, and wants it to begin as quickly as possible,” said Harry Lassiter, a spokesman for Leyland Alliance. “But at this point, timetables are just undetermined.

Council to offer suggestions

The draft includes a full transcript of renowned planner Andres Duany’s final presentation on the project.

It also includes all of the drawings and most of the comments generated during that charette process.

The City Council is to review the draft and return it with criticisms or suggestions. A final draft of the plan is due next month, but it will be mum on a timetable for the long permit process or on how the project will be divided into phases.

During the charette process, Leyland said it expected the total construction process to take seven or eight years. Tonight’s council discussion of the first draft begins at 6 p.m.

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070329/NEWS/703290325