Highlands Current Audio Stories

Artists work it out with nudes

For Sal Russo, the live figure drawing sessions at Garrison Art Center are about a youthful dream revived following the death of his wife.

Russo, 78, loved drawing as a kid and considered a career in art before landing a position climbing down New York City manholes as a lineman for Ma Bell. When Dottie, his wife of 37 years, died of pancreatic cancer in 2010, he decided it was time to return to drawing.

"I did it to stay sane," says Russo, who lives in Orange County. "Without it, I would have been a little bit lost." Now, in addition to attending the weekly Garrison sessions, Russo enters his pastel paintings in local art shows and has made some sales.

Russo is part of Highland's flourishing figuring drawing scene, where artists in Philipstown and Beacon practice drawing nude models.

"It's just about the process of sitting and looking and making marks," said John Allen, 83, of Philipstown, who started drawing in the 1980s when his wife, a clothing designer, signed him up for a class at the Garrison Art Center.

He has also done sculpture, but says he has no interest in showing or selling his work, as in the past. He just enjoys the meditative process. "Sometimes you make a drawing that you really like," he says. "That makes everything count."

Meet the Models

Sophia Jackson was 18 when she first posed nude for an art class. "I was applying to art school and needed some drawings for my portfolio," said the Beacon resident. She began accompanying her mother, a ceramicist, to life-drawing sessions in Philadelphia, where they lived.

"One day, the model didn't show up," said Jackson. "They asked me if I would do it. It was a group of artists whom my mom knew — people I had grown up with — so it was comfortable and easy. They were excited [about having a new model], and I was excited to make some money."

Jackson has modeled off and on for 30 years. She is one of several models who regularly pose for artists in the Highlands and around the Hudson Valley.

She said that, when she is posing, she doesn't think much about being nude. "I think about shapes, and what story I can tell with my body that's going to inspire the people in the room," said Jackson.

What are the keys to being a good model? "You make yourself truly available to the artists," said Rudy Vavra, who has been modeling for nearly four decades in and around New York City. "When you're comfortable being nude, that goes out to the person that's drawing you, and they feel comfortable with you. The other aspect is you must stand still."

Vavra said he models to support his own art, which focuses on abstract paintings and woven projects. At times, he has modeled as much as 60 hours a week. He said he once posed for singer Tony Bennett, who was also an artist. Vavra, who lives near Rhinebeck, said he has had a few "wacky" assignments, such as when he posed nude on a sofa next to the artist's fully clothed mother while she read a book.

Todd Moore was inspired to become a nude model by the ancient Greek statues at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. "I've always been into Spartans," said Moore, 36, who lives in Wappingers Falls. "I thought, 'These statues are really cool. I wonder if they still do these things.'"

Moore is known to artists for his ripped muscles. He has a degree in exercise science, has worked as a personal trainer and aspires to model clothing for fitness brands. He was once asked to bring a Captain America shield to a session. "Captain America is my favorite Marvel character," he said. "The Hulk used to be."

Allen doubles as the Garrison Art Center's figure-drawing "monitor." He collects the weekly $25 fee from the 15 or so people who crowd into the back room on Monday mornings. He also levies a $5 fine if a cellphone rings. During the three-hour sessions, models pose for up to 25 minutes while the artists work with pencil, ink, charcoal, pastels, watercolors and gouache.

At a recent session, Peter Dama drew on an iPad using an elect...

Mezzo soprano will join string instruments at Howland

This weekend, Grammy-Award winning singer Fleur Barron and the Parker Quartet are riding the Brooklyn-to-Beacon pipeline to road test a two-year-old work before heading into a Manhattan studio to record it.

On Saturday (April 25), they will perform at National Sawdust, followed on Sunday by a trip to the Howland Cultural Center as part of the Chamber Music Circle series.

Novel combinations have been a theme of the 2025-26 season, with previous concerts by a cello quartet and a reed quintet. The pairing of mezzo-soprano with a traditional string quartet is so unusual that the Boston-based group commissioned "the field remembers" by Chinese American composer Anthony Cheung.

Another work on the program is a Schubert lieder written for piano and voice arranged for two violins, viola and cello by Ken Hamao, one of the Parker violinists. Other pieces include quartets by Schubert and Philip Glass.

Barron, who lives in London, tours the world to accompany prominent orchestras and made her New York Philharmonic debut with conductor Gustavo Dudamel last month. Schubert's vocal works, along with those by Bach, Mahler, Ravel and Debussy, land in her wheelhouse, she says, but she also champions new music.

"It's always nice to hear works from the great composers we know and love, but it's also good to bask in the familiar and discover something new," she says.

Barron met a couple of quartet members at a festival, developed a relationship, and the commission concept developed. Since 2014, the quartet has held an artist-in-residence at Harvard University, which helped support the project.

Hamao says the musicians chose Cheung because he writes well for the format, and he's also experienced with vocal parts, which is unusual, says Barron. They let the composer choose the texts.

The ensemble has performed the piece three times, she says, and the first of six "ambitious" movements, according to Hamao, is available online. Barron calls it "complicated"; the opening section includes a speaking part.

"Since 2020, it's been important for me to feature chamber music works related to the Asian diaspora," says Barron, who is of English and Singaporean decent. She notes that the text in "the field remembers" is written in English by Chinese American poets.

"I sing and commission a lot of songs from all over Asia. Singapore is such a melting pot that I feel like it's important and part of my artistic responsibility to highlight these beautiful, creative works."

Beyond promoting Asian-themed music, the Parker Quartet embarks on other missions in its hometown, says Hamao: "We perform in homeless shelters, community centers and youth programs. For a 20th-anniversary Beethoven project [in 2022], we had some moving moments, like playing at a recovery shelter for three weeks in a row. The people came out, and hopefully the music uplifted them."

The Howland Cultural Center is located at 477 Main St. in Beacon. Tickets for the April 26 concert, which begins at 4 p.m., are $5 to $35 at howlandmusic.org/tickets.

Violist-comedian returns to Chapel

Next weekend, a violist is coming to Chapel Restoration with a bagful of jokes.

In a way, Isabel Hagen's act reprises and modernizes Borscht Belt legend Henny Youngman, known as the king of the one-liners ("Take my wife, please"), who displayed a violin onstage but rarely played it.

Hagen, 34, saws away on short selections adapted from Bach cello suites, then unleashes F-bombs. During shows, the music lasts for five minutes, she says, but serves as a palate cleanser between jokes.

"If I'm going dark, I'll play a suitable passage to set it up," she says.

Last year, she toured with the prominent rock group Vampire Weekend, formed in 2008. One of their songs is titled "Oxford Comma," though the lyrics never jump into the debate over its usage.

The gig happened because Hagen is a graduate of The Juilliard School, the band's intellectual style lends itself to string instruments and her husband is the band's keyboard player. "It's who you know," she says.

In her solo routine, Hagen quips that when she married Will Canzoneri, his family went into a congratulatory tizzy, which made her think, "Did I choose a loser?" Take my husband, please.

Upping the edge factor, the viola is one of the orchestra's most obscure instruments. Pitched lower than the violin, it adds another layer of sound and harmonic potential to string sections, but throughout classical music history, viola solos, chamber works and concertos versus music written for the violin are hard to find.

Hagen started on the fiddle in the classical vein for five years, but at age 10, "I had a crush on my brother's friend who played viola and heard that because there are fewer of us, there's more work," she says. "As a shy, awkward kid, I figured that I could be a good teammate and was desperate to fit in, so it was nice to be in the background but still be necessary."

Choosing the viola propelled a music career, but she turned to comedy after an injury forced her hand, knowing nothing about her predecessor Youngman until she hit the podcast circuit and heard about him. "He was so deadpan and self-deprecating, like me," she says. "It's so trippy and fun to learn about him."

Hagen performed at Chapel Restoration in 2024 and admits to trepidation about delivering her blunt, raunchy set in a former church. "I was like, OK, I'm down for whatever," Hagen recalls. "The crowd was so fun — I didn't expect it."

Being a young woman with a public interface who has reached a modicum of fame — she performed on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon — has its downsides.

"So many haters; it's a snake pit," she says. "Every woman has to deal with this, but I can't spend time getting upset. My defiance is to ignore it as best I can."

The Chapel Restoration is located at 45 Market St. in Cold Spring. Tickets for the performance, which begins at 7 p.m., are $25 at dub.sh/hagen-chapel.

Singer-songwriter works at the edges

Singer-songwriter Marc Douglas Berardo digs deep to find pathos and humor in universal human conditions.

A troubadour in the tradition of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, he forgoes boxcars, hitting up hotels or rooms provided by fans and venues as he travels, hitting hard with existential, soul-bearing lyrics.

Berardo has carved a 35-year career outside the mainstream, ping-ponging around the country to perform house concerts and at smaller venues, such as the Towne Crier in Beacon on Friday (May 1).

"This is such a niche market, songwriters who don't have any hits and just keep writing and playing live, anywhere," he says. "But it has its own ecosystem" of fans, festivals and music rooms (he has a following in Texas and Arizona).

Berardo grew up in Westchester County and cannot count how many times he's played the Towne Crier, which opened in 1972 in Pawling and moved to Beacon in 2013.

"I've known Phil [Ciganer] since the early days," he says. "We knew people who had a farm up there, and when I looked at a lineup of performers, I recognized a friend's name and snuck in with a fake ID. Later, in about 2005, I opened for Chris Brown. Phil remembered me, and I developed a draw, so I opened for a lot of acts."

Joining him on May 1 will be Abbie Gardner, Dobro guitar player for Red Molly, a female trio founded at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival in Hillsdale that splintered in 2014. Gardner and Berardo joined forces in 2006 to write tunes, learn each other's songs and put on extemporaneous shows.

Gardner brings fun, funny energy to the mix. At one show, he said, "If you write your email on the list, we'll come over and do odd jobs." She responded, "We're not good at it, but we'll try."

Adding harmony voices and another instrument to a solo singer-songwriter act beefs up the sound and adds visual impact. In this case, the Dobro emits a biting, barking sound that differs from a standard acoustic guitar, although it has six strings and is referred to as a "resonator."

Created in the 1920s with metal components to increase the volume of an acoustic guitar, it got absorbed into bluegrass during the 1950s and is played with a slide because the strings sit far above the fretboard and cannot be pressed down.

One tune Berardo and Gardner play together, the melancholy "My Mistakes," epitomizes his go-with-the-flow and enjoy-every-moment ethos. Berardo also focuses on a neighbor who drinks too much, fights with his wife every night and is "wasting away." In "Passing Through," he sings of life: "In this moment, on this stool, that's all I need to know."

The Towne Crier is located at 379 Main St. in Beacon. Tickets for the concert, which begins at 8:30 p.m., are $25 at townecrier.com, or $30 at the door.

Say nominating petitions invalid in House race

The Ulster County clerk has taken his case to state court against the Republican candidate for the U.S. House district that includes Beacon.

Taylor Bruck, joined by Amee Peterson, deputy chair of the Kingston Democratic Committee, filed a challenge in state court on April 16, asking a judge in Albany to invalidate nominating petitions filed by Sharanjit "Sunny" Thind for the Republican and Conservative lines on the November ballot to challenge Rep. Pat Ryan, the Democratic incumbent.

Judge Kimberly O'Connor, a state judge based in Albany, scheduled a hearing for 9 a.m. on Monday (April 27).

Candidates were required to submit 1,250 signatures of District 18 voters for the Democratic or Republican lines and 509 for the Conservative line.

After submitting the petitions, Thind filed to refuse the nominations, and the Republican and Conservative parties named Jackie Auringer to replace him. Because the deadline for petitions had passed, Auringer must rely on Thind's petitions to get on the ballot.

The lawsuit names Thind, Auringer, members of the committees to fill vacancies for the Republican and Conservative parties and four state Board of Elections commissioners.

Bruck earlier appealed to the state Board of Elections to reject Thind's petitions, claiming the candidate had given an inaccurate home address and did not number the signatures as required, making them harder to review.

According to the legal filing, after Thind withdrew, each party on April 13 submitted a Certificate of Substitution by Committee to Fill Vacancies After Declination, Death or Disqualification and a Consent by Substituted Candidate with the state Board of Elections. Peterson filed objections the following day.

The lawsuit asks the court to order the state Board of Elections to conduct a "timely" review of the petitions. It lists 55 objections, among them that the petitions do not contain the minimum number of valid signatures, that some signatures were forged and that many people who signed do not reside at the addresses given.

On Monday (April 20), Auringer, who lives in Kingston, accused Ryan of hypocrisy. "Instead of competing, my opponent is trying to deny voters a real choice," she said in a statement to the Daily Freeman. "You can't talk about freedom and patriotism while trying to keep your opponent off the ballot. Maybe he thinks I'm someone he can push around. He wouldn't be the first to get that wrong."

Ryan's campaign said in a statement that he had submitted "more than 12,000 signatures to get on the November ballot. His opponent submitted zero."

Candidate also gets nod from Dutchess

The Putnam County Democratic Committee voted on Monday (April 20) to endorse Cait Conley, one of five candidates who hope to challenge Mike Lawler for his U.S. House seat in November. The district includes Philipstown.

"In a race among strong Democratic candidates, Cait Conley has the X factor that we think will give us the best chance to beat Mike Lawler in November," said Jennifer Colamonico, the committee chair. She said Conley received 63 percent of the vote on the first ballot.

Conley is a West Point graduate from Orange County and former director of counterterrorism for the National Security Council.

The other candidates who will appear on the June 23 primary ballot are John Cappello, a Rockland native and former defense attaché at the U.S. embassies in Israel and Serbia; Beth Davidson, a Rockland County legislator; Effie Phillips-Staley, a Tarrytown trustee; and Mike Sacks, a lawyer and former TV journalist from Westchester.

The Dutchess County Democratic Committee earlier endorsed Conley and Rep. Pat Ryan, the incumbent in House District 18, which includes Beacon.

In Westchester County, Democratic leaders on April 15 declined to endorse in the District 17 race, with its 26 members splitting their votes between Conley and Davidson or abstaining. The other candidates did not seek the endorsement, according to the committee.

State Senate

Putnam County Democrats declined to endorse in the race for the state Senate seat held by Republican Rob Rolison that includes the Highlands.

Colamonico said the representatives from the two towns in the district, Philipstown and Putnam Valley, felt that both Evan Menist, a member of the Poughkeepsie Common Council, and Lisa Kaul, a member of the Dutchess Legislature, were "outstanding candidates." A third candidate, Gay Lee, a social worker and former Newburgh City Council member, will also appear on the primary ballot.

The Dutchess Democrats endorsed Kaul for state Senate and Jonathan Jacobson, the Assembly incumbent whose district includes Beacon.

The Putnam Democrats earlier endorsed incumbent Dana Levenberg for the state Assembly seat that includes Philipstown. The organization also endorsed John Van Tassel for Philipstown supervisor, Brett Yarris for county executive, Dr. Michael Strauss for county coroner and Maia Gilleo, Kathy Kahng and Gwen Burke for the county Legislature.

There's a new class being offered at Ballet Arts Studio for children of all abilities. It's been a godsend for 13-year-old Emma Posey and her mother, Pamela.

"I had been looking for years — and for a class where she was with her peers, not with children much younger" Pamela said. "Emma has always loved dancing, but she was born with multiple genetic complications. Among her many challenges is a genetic mutation where she can be more easily injured."

When asked what she wants to be when she grows up, Emma always writes: "Ballerina."

Pamela found Dance As You Are, held on Tuesday nights for children ages 7 to 12, by circumstance: She happened to drive by the Beacon studio and saw a sign. Katie Bissinger, the artistic director at Ballet Arts Studio, said she had long wanted to offer the class because her younger sister was born with special needs, and a fun, creative, active class was nowhere to be found during her short life.

Emma's mother says she has come a long way from the gastrostomy tube ("g-tubes") and neurological and medical interventions of her younger years. At Rombout Middle School, she is the manager of the cheer team, carrying a clipboard with a list of the routines. She also works the spotlight for the Drama Club.

Two other mothers said they also had been searching for a class like Dance As You Are. "It's something I've always wanted for her," said Alexandra Devin about her daughter, Madeline, 10. "Improvisatory movement is a great opportunity for self-expression."

Melissa Akar said of her 11-year-old daughter: "Daya has a lot of medical, doctor and therapy appointments, all with adults. Her week is very structured, so it's great to have something where she can just be a kid."

Anna Brady Marcus, who leads the class, said she uses music she knows the dancers will like but often plays challenging songs that might intrigue them, such as those by The Talking Heads or Steve Reich.

On May 30, these students will perform a piece they're creating with Marcus at the studio's annual showcase at the Bardavon in Poughkeepsie.

Planning board finds no 'significant' impacts

The Fishkill Planning Board concluded on April 9 that the plan to restore the 158-year-old Dutchess Manor into a visitor's center and offices for the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail will not have a significant environmental impact.

The "negative declaration" unanimously approved by the board ends its environmental review of the project and allows HHFT Inc. to avoid a more in-depth study of the impacts. But it still needs Planning Board approval for its site plan, a special-use permit and a zoning change to 14 Coris Lane, the adjacent property it purchased with Dutchess Manor in 2020 for $3.4 million.

While acknowledging small impacts from land disturbance and runoff, as well as the "targeted" use of herbicides on invasive plants and an increase in visitors to the property, the Planning Board determined that HHFT will incorporate sufficient mitigations, including proposing a left turn lane for entering Dutchess Manor from northbound Route 9D.

In addition, the board approved a "certificate of appropriateness" that will allow HHFT to begin demolishing additions constructed in 1947, 1989 and 2007. The original structure, built in 1868 as a home for merchant James Wade and his wife, Louisa, is on the National Register of Historic Places.

"With the environmental review finalized and the certificate of appropriateness issued, we look forward to beginning work so that we can realize our vision for the Fjord Trail Visitor Center as a welcoming hub for our educational programs and events and our home base," said Amy Kacala, HHFT's executive director.

Demolishing the additions will be a prelude to renovations that include restoring the slate roof and rear patio, removing paint to expose the brickwork and rebuilding the trim, HHFT said. The interior will be remade with first-floor spaces for a welcome desk and interpretive exhibits, upper-floor offices and meeting space.

Outside, a 600-square-foot bathroom with four stalls, a service closet and a pump house for the manor's fire-suppression system is planned for a sunken area southwest of the manor. There would also be 170 parking spaces in three areas: a paved lot with 48 spaces for the public and 19 for staff; a gravel parking area with 55 spaces; and a grass "overflow" spot with 48 spaces.

A shuttle is proposed to transport visitors from the Dutchess Manor to trailheads, as well as terraced lawn seating and a lawn behind the manor for events. According to HHFT, the property will not be marketed as a venue for private events.

During the review process, HHFT expanded a planted buffer on the property's southern boundary in response to concerns from neighbors about the visual impact of the overflow parking area. One of those neighbors, Erin Sine, had suggested eliminating the overflow lot and replacing it with "a substantial and dense evergreen buffer that protects the safety and quality of life of the residents who live close to this park."

Along with concerns from neighbors, opponents of the Fjord Trail development argued to the board that HHFT improperly "segmented" the project by having the Dutchess Manor project reviewed by Fishkill rather than by the state as part of its environmental review of the entire trail.

Under state law, segmenting projects to avoid a comprehensive review "may result in legal action." But state parks rejected the claim. In an October 2025 letter addressed to the Planning Board, the department said that because Dutchess Manor is located within Fishkill, "it is appropriate for the town to analyze the potential impacts arising from its specific land use actions."

State parks also concluded that Dutchess Manor, which is projected to open next year, will have "independent utility" from the trail and support the existing trail system. It said that its environmental review of the Fjord Trail, which concluded in January, considered the Dutchess Manor visitor center's impact on traffic, parking and community character.

Editor's note: Beacon was created in 1913 from Matteawan and Fishkill Landing.

150 Years Ago (April 1876)

The station master at Matteawan had four boys arrested for stealing eggs from the freight house.

Willett Dates, the baggage master at the Dutchess Junction station, bought the restaurant at the depot.

When the Addington family came down to breakfast in their home on South Avenue near Beacon Street on a Tuesday morning, they found their pantry had been raided. A burglar had broken through a basement window and taken loaves of bread, a dish of meat, four pounds of butter, pickles, preserves and canned goods.

W. Burnett Jr., a clerk at Dr. Schneck's drugstore in Glenham, was sleeping in the store when he was awakened at 5 a.m. on a Sunday by someone trying to unlock the cellar door. When he opened the door, the culprit fled.

The Dutchess & Columbia Railroad freight depot burned, destroying $3,000 [about $93,000 today] worth of stock owned by the paper bag factory.

The bankrupt Newburgh Lager Beer Brewery was sold at auction for $10,000 [$300,000]. It was said that many evangelical Christians owned stock. The firm had a capacity of 800 barrels per week.

According to The Cold Spring Recorder, "Matteawan is becoming a sort of mecca for tramps. On Sunday night, no less than 50 applied for and were furnished with lodgings" by the poor master.

M.E. Dietrich bought a property on Ferry Street and planned to divide the lower floor into two stores.

A clay slide at Dutchess Junction reminded James Mackin of when he was a boy and a slide happened near Low Point in which the trees slid down the bank but were not uprooted.

W.G. Van Buskirk, the master mechanic of the Dutchess & Columbia Railroad, and the first engineer to run a locomotive west of the Mississippi River, was interviewed by the Fishkill Landing correspondent of The New York Times. Van Buskirk recalled that his trains hit and killed people so often that he stopped counting at 17. One night, at a hotel in the west where he was staying, a clergyman from Arkansas overheard Van Buskirk discussing the number of people he had killed and cried, "Monster! Monster!" He was told that Van Buskirk was a train engineer, but the minister was offended anyway and moved to another hotel. The next morning, as Van Buskirk's train left town, a horse pulling a wagon carrying two men became frightened and pulled it onto the tracks. The horse and passenger were killed, and Van Buskirk realized it was the preacher, who had hired the wagon rather than take the train. At the funeral, the minister said: "Truly, Providence, thy ways are mysterious."

Alexander Turney Stewart died at age 72. Known as the "merchant prince" of New York City, he built a $50 million [$1.5 billion] fortune as a dry-goods merchant and real estate investor. At the time of his death, he was rebuilding and expanding a cassimere and carpet factory known as Glenham Mills to compete with foreign products. He expected to bring skilled workmen from abroad and was building homes for them. Stewart bought the mill for $195,000 [$6 million] after it failed in 1873 and made extensive improvements; its first shipment of carpets arrived at his flagship Manhattan store two weeks before his death.

During a storm, the Hudson overflowed at the long dock, washing away wells along the tracks and uprooting trees and fence posts. A flood also came down Fishkill Creek, threatening the wooden dams and filling cellars with 3 feet of mud.

The Matteawan correspondent for The Poughkeepsie Journal lamented that the village didn't have a ready-made clothing store or a good bakery.

Justice Ormsbee fined Mrs. McBurney $5 [$150] for assaulting James Leslie with a shovel.

Stolesbury Brothers closed their branch in Matteawan to concentrate on their wholesale and retail grocery trade at Fishkill Landing.

Zacheus Marsh, known for his tobacco, died at Glenham of apoplexy [stroke].

When the factory bells sounded on a Sunday night during services at the Pilgrim Bap...

City Council expected to reconsider zoning, policies

For at least a year, the Beacon City Council has grappled with how to address housing "affordability."

The city recently streamlined the approval process to create accessory dwelling units, an element of Gov. Kathy Hochul's plan to reverse a statewide housing shortage. Beacon is part of a state grant program launched in 2024 that awards up to $125,000 to low- and middle-income residents to build or improve ADUs on their properties.

The City Council also negotiated the addition of 27 below-market-rate apartments in the complex under construction at 248 Tioronda Ave. Further, the rollback of parking requirements in some parts of the city may spur construction.

This year, council members have said they want to revisit the local law governing short-term rentals, potentially freeing up residential units, and to examine the city's "inclusionary" zoning policy, which requires new developments of 10 units or more to rent at least 10 percent at below-market rates.

With all this in mind, a team of Dutchess County planners earlier this month walked the council through various scenarios.

The planners said that renters earning between $50,000 and $75,000 annually should find a surplus of apartments in Beacon, but all other income levels will be challenged. The most significant shortages are for people making less than $20,000 annually or more than $75,000, they said.

At the same time, a survey found the city provides 17 percent of all affordable apartments in complexes with at least 20 units in Dutchess County, second only to the City of Poughkeepsie (44 percent). According to the 2024 Dutchess Rental Housing Survey — the most recent available — there are 783 "capital-A affordable" apartments in Beacon. This includes government-subsidized units, such as those managed by the Beacon Housing Authority, and apartments with below-market rents due to tax credits or the inclusionary requirement. However, the owners of six complexes, representing at least 400 apartments, did not respond to the voluntary survey.

During an April 6 workshop, the planners told the council that many renters in Dutchess County are "severely cost burdened" by housing, meaning they spend more than 30 percent of their income on rent. Rising construction and borrowing costs have driven rents higher, while incomes have not kept pace, they said.

Not Counted

These developers did not respond to a 2024 housing survey conducted by Dutchess County.

344 Main (25 units)*

50 Leonard St. (68 units)

Landgrove (44 units)

Lofts at Beacon (178 units)*

Prospect Realty (63 units)

The Beacon (29 units)

*Received government housing subsidies

According to the county survey, the average one-bedroom, market-rate apartment in Beacon costs $2,725 per month, nearly $900 more than the county average. The below-market rate for a one-bedroom in Beacon, based on developer responses, ranges from $1,400 to $1,853. The Dutchess average is $1,008. The report does not include average prices for subsidized units.

In addition, incomes are increasing faster at the top of the scale than at the low end, said Gail Padalino, a county representative. "Eventually it just pushes out the people at the bottom, so that people with the lowest incomes have the hardest time finding housing," she said.

Padalino noted that, along with the rental survey, some data was taken from the county's 2022 Housing Needs Assessment. The county is updating that report, she said, but "I don't think much has changed as far as the shortage and who's struggling the most to find affordable housing."

As for inclusionary zoning, if the city bumps its affordable requirement for developers from 10 percent to 15 percent or 20 percent, it will probably have to offer a "giveback," such as allowing more apartments in a complex or providing property tax relief.

"In general, having an incentive is part of the deal," said Emily Dozier, another Dutchess planner, because a higher percentage of afford...