Decision Makers:
Hudson Planning Board
A resident statement on the Hudson Housing Authority's plan for 41 North Second Street, submitted for the public record before the Planning Board.
Based on your feedback: 🔒🐳 You can sign the petition and verify your contact details without displaying your real name publicly by clicking on the "Privacy Settings" link beneath the orange "Sign Petition" button.
We are residents and taxpayers of Hudson: renters, homeowners, immigrants, artists, and housing providers, living across all five wards. We support more homes in Hudson, at every price point.
We believe most Hudsonians, whatever they think of the plan as a whole, agree on 3 things:
1. Every current resident deserves a secure home. All 85 residents now living in Bliss Towers and Columbia Apartments should be rehoused safely, with a written commitment stating where they will live, at what rent, and by when. It is the law.
2. Bliss Towers should come down, and come down safely. The tower is Hudson's last major legacy of 1970s urban renewal. Its own owner reports that roughly 40 percent of its units are offline. Before demolition begins, the asbestos and lead surveys and a dust containment and truck route plan belong in the public record.
3. Hudson can do better than re-building bigger, over a 5-10 year period, on the same site at $800k per apartment. The Housing Authority is proposing approximately 276 units on this one site, where 135 stand today. That gathers subsidized housing onto a single concentrated block. Hudson's own Common Council adopted Housing and Comprehensive Plans call for the opposite: new homes spread across neighborhoods. So does 30 years of federal (HUD) housing policy and the research behind it. And the previous HHA leadership confirmed that the site plan soil is not stable enough for this big a project.
We ask the Planning Board to take a genuine hard look at the soil, the structures, the environmental record, and the effect on the Second Ward, and Hudson.
We ask the Common Council to examine whether this plan serves the city's social and fiscal future.
Hudson deserves a better alternative: We urge the Hudson Planning Board (Chair Bogle) and the Hudson Housing Authority (ED Dodson) to work together on an alternative that keeps every promised home: new homes for every current household, built across Hudson's neighborhoods on sites the city already controls, as the City of Hudson's Housing Plan and its recently adopted Comprehensive Plan direct.
Hudson made this mistake once, on these same blocks. It should not make it twice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Read more:
1. Hudson Planning Board Project Website:
https://hudsonny.municollab.com/planning-board/projects/hudson-housing-authority-mountco-construction-and-development-corp/dashboard
2. Hudson 2025 Comprehensive Plan:
https://www.hudsonny.gov/business/comprehensive_plan/index.php
3. Hudson's 2018 Strategic Housing Action Plan and 2021 Affordable Housing Action Plan:
https://www.hudsonny.gov/departments/housing/plans_studies.php
4. US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD): The Effects of Exposure to Better Neighborhoods on Children
https://www.huduser.gov/portal/investing_people.html
Re: 🔒 Residents' Public Anonymity
Due to public pressure and fear of retaliation residents have asked to sign the petition without their real names being displayed online. By request, the organizers of Hudson Friends of 2nd Street can share the list of residents with Mr. Bogle, the Chair of the Planning Board, without transmitting the private resident names onto public City servers or documents.
You can sign the petition and verify your contact details without displaying your real name publicly by clicking on the "Privacy Settings" link beneath the orange "Sign Petition" button.
Updates
Public Comment Period Extended & Site Tour Scheduled
August 15, 2026
Public Comment Period was extended by the PB, formal list of questions were presented by the PB to MountCo, and a public tour was scheduled for August 24th at 1pm. From Gossips of Rivertown: The Planning Board scheduled a site visit to Bliss Towers on Monday, August 24, at 1:00 p.m. The board will not only tour the interior of the building but also walk the site to understand the placement of the proposed new structures. Because all the members of the Planning Board are to be present for this site visit, it will be a special meeting, and members of the public are welcome to join the tour and walkabout. https://gossipsofrivertown.blogspot.com/search?q=bliss&max-results=20&by-date=true
Reached 100 supporters
August 11, 2026
August 9, 2026
Planning Board Extends Comment Period to August 12th, 2026
35 Comments
Hudson currently has a number of vacant multi-family properties for sale, including some priced below $800k. I strongly believe affordable housing should be thoughtfully integrated throughout our community rather than concentrated in any one area. Everyone deserves the opportunity to live in safe, welcoming neighborhoods and to feel connected to the broader community. Creating affordable housing in different parts of Hudson can promote greater and dignity.
Concern about use of toxic land for residential development. Overcrowding the neighborhood when previous develop plan had an indicated awider scope throughout Hudson for relocating residents of Bliss Towers and new affordable housing. Concerns over asbestos contamination in the neighborhood with no plan in place for safe demolition and removal of hazardous material.
This plan is easily improvable and not doing it will set up Hudson for another few decades of easily avoidable misery. Go back to last year's plan which had a first-floor retail component. What is currently proposed will create buildings that no one, other than those living in it, will ever want to interact with. That is not a vision of good urbanism.
I support affordable housing. I don’t support this project. Its scale, cost, construction impacts, and still-unanswered questions make it wrong for a small, historic city like Hudson. We can and must do better.
I live in Hudson. I agree with the stated points.
Needs an effort at humanizing the project plus a major effort at cost control
The charm of Hudson is that it is not dominated by big, ugly buildings.
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Decision Makers:
Hudson Planning Board
A resident statement on the Hudson Housing Authority's plan for 41 North Second Street, submitted for the public record before the Planning Board.
Based on your feedback: 🔒🐳 You can sign the petition and verify your contact details without displaying your real name publicly by clicking on the "Privacy Settings" link beneath the orange "Sign Petition" button.
We are residents and taxpayers of Hudson: renters, homeowners, immigrants, artists, and housing providers, living across all five wards. We support more homes in Hudson, at every price point.
We believe most Hudsonians, whatever they think of the plan as a whole, agree on 3 things:
1. Every current resident deserves a secure home. All 85 residents now living in Bliss Towers and Columbia Apartments should be rehoused safely, with a written commitment stating where they will live, at what rent, and by when. It is the law.
2. Bliss Towers should come down, and come down safely. The tower is Hudson's last major legacy of 1970s urban renewal. Its own owner reports that roughly 40 percent of its units are offline. Before demolition begins, the asbestos and lead surveys and a dust containment and truck route plan belong in the public record.
3. Hudson can do better than re-building bigger, over a 5-10 year period, on the same site at $800k per apartment. The Housing Authority is proposing approximately 276 units on this one site, where 135 stand today. That gathers subsidized housing onto a single concentrated block. Hudson's own Common Council adopted Housing and Comprehensive Plans call for the opposite: new homes spread across neighborhoods. So does 30 years of federal (HUD) housing policy and the research behind it. And the previous HHA leadership confirmed that the site plan soil is not stable enough for this big a project.
We ask the Planning Board to take a genuine hard look at the soil, the structures, the environmental record, and the effect on the Second Ward, and Hudson.
We ask the Common Council to examine whether this plan serves the city's social and fiscal future.
Hudson deserves a better alternative: We urge the Hudson Planning Board (Chair Bogle) and the Hudson Housing Authority (ED Dodson) to work together on an alternative that keeps every promised home: new homes for every current household, built across Hudson's neighborhoods on sites the city already controls, as the City of Hudson's Housing Plan and its recently adopted Comprehensive Plan direct.
Hudson made this mistake once, on these same blocks. It should not make it twice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Read more:
1. Hudson Planning Board Project Website:
https://hudsonny.municollab.com/planning-board/projects/hudson-housing-authority-mountco-construction-and-development-corp/dashboard
2. Hudson 2025 Comprehensive Plan:
https://www.hudsonny.gov/business/comprehensive_plan/index.php
3. Hudson's 2018 Strategic Housing Action Plan and 2021 Affordable Housing Action Plan:
https://www.hudsonny.gov/departments/housing/plans_studies.php
4. US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD): The Effects of Exposure to Better Neighborhoods on Children
https://www.huduser.gov/portal/investing_people.html
Re: 🔒 Residents' Public Anonymity
Due to public pressure and fear of retaliation residents have asked to sign the petition without their real names being displayed online. By request, the organizers of Hudson Friends of 2nd Street can share the list of residents with Mr. Bogle, the Chair of the Planning Board, without transmitting the private resident names onto public City servers or documents.
You can sign the petition and verify your contact details without displaying your real name publicly by clicking on the "Privacy Settings" link beneath the orange "Sign Petition" button.
Updates
Public Comment Period Extended & Site Tour Scheduled
August 15, 2026
Public Comment Period was extended by the PB, formal list of questions were presented by the PB to MountCo, and a public tour was scheduled for August 24th at 1pm. From Gossips of Rivertown: The Planning Board scheduled a site visit to Bliss Towers on Monday, August 24, at 1:00 p.m. The board will not only tour the interior of the building but also walk the site to understand the placement of the proposed new structures. Because all the members of the Planning Board are to be present for this site visit, it will be a special meeting, and members of the public are welcome to join the tour and walkabout. https://gossipsofrivertown.blogspot.com/search?q=bliss&max-results=20&by-date=true
Reached 100 supporters
August 11, 2026
August 9, 2026
Planning Board Extends Comment Period to August 12th, 2026
35 Comments
As a local resident, I feel this site is not suitable for a building of this size
Hudson currently has a number of vacant multi-family properties for sale, including some priced below $800k. I strongly believe affordable housing should be thoughtfully integrated throughout our community rather than concentrated in any one area. Everyone deserves the opportunity to live in safe, welcoming neighborhoods and to feel connected to the broader community. Creating affordable housing in different parts of Hudson can promote greater and dignity.
Concern about use of toxic land for residential development. Overcrowding the neighborhood when previous develop plan had an indicated awider scope throughout Hudson for relocating residents of Bliss Towers and new affordable housing. Concerns over asbestos contamination in the neighborhood with no plan in place for safe demolition and removal of hazardous material.
This plan is easily improvable and not doing it will set up Hudson for another few decades of easily avoidable misery. Go back to last year's plan which had a first-floor retail component. What is currently proposed will create buildings that no one, other than those living in it, will ever want to interact with. That is not a vision of good urbanism.
I support affordable housing. I don’t support this project. Its scale, cost, construction impacts, and still-unanswered questions make it wrong for a small, historic city like Hudson. We can and must do better.
I live in Hudson. I agree with the stated points.
Needs an effort at humanizing the project plus a major effort at cost control
The charm of Hudson is that it is not dominated by big, ugly buildings.
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As a local resident, I feel this site is not suitable for a building of this size