Also: Cold Spring wants Fjord Trail hearing

Mayor Kathleen Foley reported at the Wednesday (Jan. 14) meeting of the Cold Spring Village Board that the redevelopment project at the former Marathon Battery Co. site on Kemble Avenue "is gearing up to go."

The 12-acre parcel — zoned for mixed-use, planned-unit development — is the largest undeveloped tract in the village. The Kearney Group owns the property but has not yet applied to develop it.

The mayor said the Kearney Group is "sensitive to the fact" that the last major development in the village, at the former Butterfield Hospital site, had been "sort of put upon us and was not driven from need first."

In an email to The Current, Foley said the property owner wants to take "a community-forward approach" to ensure "the public has many opportunities to participate in visioning for redevelopment." Sean Kearney, president of Kearney Group, lives in Cold Spring with his family. "He wants to ensure that what he builds looks and feels like Cold Spring," Foley said.

She said a visioning process for the site will be hosted by the village and led by Speck Dempsey, a planning firm known for developing walkable neighborhoods. The Kearney Group will pay the cost of Speck Dempsey's work.

In her email, the mayor outlined a tentative timeline for public engagement that includes:

March 2026: A public talk on walkable places led by Speck Dempsey and including examples from other communities.

April 2026: A weeklong series of public workshops to collect input, with a planning exercise that incorporates community feedback and culminating in a presentation sharing initial site concepts.

Summer 2026: A presentation of a refined proposal or proposals that reflect public comment and site goals.

Fjord Trail

The Village Board will ask the state parks department to hold a public hearing on the Final Generic Environmental Impact Statement for the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail, which was released Jan. 7. The FGEIS includes responses to comments the agency received on the draft statement, including an extensive submission by the village.

The decision to request a public hearing was made at a special meeting of the Village Board on Jan. 8 and discussed again on Jan. 14. The FGEIS is "a massive document, roughly 1,000 pages," Foley said, adding that it contains "a lot of findings of no adverse impact, which is obviously problematic for us as a village." She said while state parks is not obligated to hold a public hearing, village attorney John Furst advised the board to request one.

In other business …

The board approved a law amending Chapter 126 of the Village Code, Vehicles and Traffic, which includes revisions to parking regulations on several streets. The revisions, which were the subject of two public hearings, include eliminating parking along Fair Street except for the municipal lot at Mayor's Park; restricting parking on Northern Avenue; and providing free public parking on the east side of High Street from Haldane Street to Northern.

The board approved a new Village Code chapter governing the Justice Court. Chapter 125 includes residency requirements for the justice, associate justice and court clerk.

The Stage One water emergency declared in September, which required conservation measures due to low reservoir levels, has been rescinded. The reservoirs are above 90 percent capacity.

The Cold Spring Fire Co. responded to 10 calls in December, including five activated alarms, and single incidents of a chimney fire, a lost hiker, an injured hiker, an elevator rescue and a medical emergency assist.

The mayor was authorized to sign a memorandum of agreement with the the fire company to provide $147,419 toward the company's 2026 operating expenses. The Town of Philipstown will pay $68,450 for fire protection services.

The Cold Spring Police Department answered 77 calls in December, including 28 assists to other agencies, seven alarms, five traffic stops and single incidents involving an overdose, hara...