Local review sought for Amtrak fencing plan

Town Board members will tell state Department of State and railroad officials that planned fences and gates to prevent public access along the Amtrak corridor are subject to local planning review.

At a Town Board meeting last week, Supervisor Elizabeth Spinzia said railroad paperwork filed with the state does not acknowledge local jurisdiction over changes made near railroad crossings.

“We believe that this has to go through our Planning Board process and get permission to be put up,” she said.

Decades ago, the town adopted a Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan, which has been endorsed by the state and which gives local officials some authority over railroad projects.

“We are going to insist that the process that we’ve laid out be followed,” Spinzia said. “We are going to try to get Amtrak here to make a presentation.”

The state Department of State has set a May 1 deadline for comments on a proposal by National Railroad Passenger Corp. (Amtrak) to block unauthorized-use roads along the Amtrak tracks between Rhinecliff and Stuyvesant. The tracks generally run along the eastern shore of the Hudson River and inhibit public access to the river.

Plans provided to municipalities show that all existing authorized access points to the Hudson River will apparently remain open, but barriers would be placed at locations where, for instance, fishermen have created vehicular access to drive along the shore parallel to the tracks.

Affected locations include: Rhinebeck, where gates would be placed on Slate Dock Road near the water treatment plant, and in Rhinecliff, at the south end of the train station parking lot. Gates also would be placed on the north and south sides of the crossing in Tivoli, where private vehicles have been driven on miles of narrow Amtrak access road.

Spinzia said public officials are generally concerned about Amtrak’s lack of responsiveness to local concerns, including having failed to communicate directly with the municipalities about the fencing and gating plan, as well as other issues, such as not paying taxes for the Rhinecliff rail station.

“So we’ve tried to get the county and Amtrak to sit down with us to get them on a (payment-in-lieu-of-taxes) program to pay their ad valorem taxes, turn the state back over to them and hold their feet to the fire to fix some of the infrastructure there,” she said. “We have no communication with Amtrak, and we’re looking to the state to help us with this.”

In Columbia County, several of the most common fishing locations would be fenced under the Amtrak plan. A Stuyvesant access point would have 350 feet of fencing installed to the north side and 500 feet to the south side, and Stockport would have 350 feet of fencing on the north side of the railroad bridge and a gate to prevent unauthorized vehicles from getting onto the access road. In addition, Germantown would have 125 feet of fencing to prevent vehicles from entering the access road at a boat launch, while an additional 700 feet of fence would be erected along tracks at the nearby town park and, at the Cheviot Road, there would be 245 feet of fence to the north of the crossing and a gate would be installed to prevent use of the access road to the south.