Fear Not Hyde Park
by Andrew Rieser

In January 2004, the Rhinebeck Chamber of Commerce sponsored a banquet for its members at the Beekman Arms. Such events are normally filled with dry speeches and forgettable small talk. But in one respect, this event was different.

John Nolon of Pace University was there to give a talk on land use in Dutchess County. With piercing imagery, Nolon issued a call-to-arms for sustainable land-use policies in Dutchess County. Sprawl was “creeping northward” from Westchester, he warned, at the rate of several miles a year. McMansions had already engulfed Hopewell Junction and were moving up the Taconic. Ghastly housing development had swallowed Hyde Park. By the end of the talk, it seemed just a matter of time before this horrible beast would arrive at the Beekman Arms and ask for the window table.

If you live north of Hyde Park—many AboutTown readers do—this is troubling imagery. Few of the communities here have been immune from residential and industrial land pressures. Some projects, good and bad, are going through; others have been stopped. Some towns have grabbed the reins of growth. These high-stakes dramas are being played out on the front pages of our newspapers daily.

It’s tempting to advocate or prophesize. But instead, let’s examine the experience of our southern neighbors. Their experience on the frontiers of development might tell us something about our fate. And there’s no better place to begin than Hyde Park.

To its northern neighbors, Hyde Park has always been an anomaly. At first blush, it seems to lack the rural village life that typifies some of the smaller towns around it. No town along the Route 9/9G corridor has filled in the space between those roads so completely with housing. And life there is quicker, enlivened by the proximity of Poughkeepsie and the presence of major institutions, like the FDR center and the Culinary Institute of America. Hyde Park has a big central high school and a shopping mall, the only fast-food chains between Poughkeepsie and Hudson, and miles of curvilinear streets with neat houses laid out in the pattern of post-war suburban subdivisions. (In this regard, Hyde Park is a lot like the rest of America. It’s the other towns that are weird.) Perhaps a bit unfairly, Hyde Park has come to represent the standardized aesthetic that the so-called “smart-growth” advocates are eager to avoid.

However, it also possesses, in abundance, the region’s most sustainable economic resource: tourism. This mix of chain stores and priceless historic tourist sites may seem aesthetically jarring. But it makes economic sense, at least, for the retailers. In 2000, none other than Wal-Mart expressed interest in buying the land occupied by the defunct drive-in theatre across from the FDR Museum and Library. This revelation, plus subsequent scares involving other commercial developers, prompted the National Park Service to consider purchasing the property. When federal funding fell through, the Scenic Hudson Land Trust acquired the 30-acre drive-in site, plus another 15-acre parcel nearby. In 2004, the group bought yet another 336 acres between Routes 9 and 9G, a plot that connects the FDR home with Eleanor’s retreat, Val-Kill. The National Park Service plans to restore and provide public access to the historic carriage road that runs through it. So much for Wal-Mart.

Scenic Hudson’s preemption of Wal-mart was cheered by “Stop the Sprawl,” a group of Hyde Park community activists whose signs, often calling for a building moratorium, are clearly visible throughout the town. But not all of Hyde Park celebrated. A good fraction of Hyde Park’s land is already in the hands of untaxed agencies, like the park service and the FDR center. Taking the drive-in site off the tax rolls seemed to exacerbate the town’s dependence on tourism. I spoke to one Hyde Parkian who resented the way that the town catered to tourists at the expense of residents. The town had plenty of restaurants for visitors, but limited retail. “I have to drive to Rhinebeck just to buy a pair of shoes,” he pointed out, quite sensibly. “Why can’t I buy a pair of shoes in Hyde Park?”

Despite such objections, commercial development on Route 9 near FDR appears to have been checked. Yancy McArthur, the former town supervisor who favored more commercial development, was recently defeated at the polls by challenger Pompey Delafield. Editorials in local papers have questioned whether retail outlets—which pay property taxes but also cost the town money in the form of emergency services and public utilities—are really such a good deal. And the town’s new comprehensive plan, adopted in July 2005, stressed tourism over big-box retail: “Hyde Park residents are coming to see that the tourism industry can play an important part in the local and regional economy.... They see, also, that the vast scenic resources of this Hudson River community must be guarded: the open spaces, the public parks and the river view-scapes.”

Such language points to an important shift in attitude. The town’s open space and historical sites are keys to its long-term economic stability. The need to preserve them, at least for the moment, is trumping the need to buy shoes locally.

Besides, an impressive array of deep-pocketed institutions have joined forces to push tourism. The town is working with the National Park Service, Scenic Hudson, and the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area on the proposed Bellefield Planned Development District, encompassing 1000 acres along Routes 9 and 9G from the old drive-in theater to the CIA (see www.hydeparkregionalcenter.org/Home.htm). These four partners are well funded; local Republican congressman John Sweeney has secured at least $2.8 million, earmarked in the recent transportation bill, for the project (call it “federal support” if you approve, “pork” if you don’t). In addition to the restoration of the carriage trail to Val-Kill, the group intends to start a shuttle service, co-marketed with Metro North, which will connect the Poughkeepsie train station to the Wallace Center, Top Cottage, and Val-Kill. Preliminary service will begin this summer. According to Carol Kohan, Deputy Superintendent of the Roosevelt-Vanderbilt National Historic Sites, there’s been some discussion of expanding the existing farmer’s market on the site of the old drive-in theatre. But she was quick to remind me that nothing has been decided.

Meanwhile, the FDR center has just finished a round of impressive renovation. According to Cynthia Koch, Director of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, the new Henry A. Wallace Center, with its improved visitor center and multimedia capabilities, has “revolutionized the way we serve the public.” It is currently hosting a major exhibit entitled “Freedom from Fear: FDR as Commander in Chief.” While the Wallace Center is the most visible of the changes there, work continues on a number of other projects, such as updating the other exhibit spaces in the museum, creating visible study galleries, and making the research room more user friendly.

All of this is expensive. Hyde Park is essentially banking its future on what it believes is a viable alternative to retail outlets and the sprawling residential developments that often come with them. In this sense, surrounding communities have much to learn from its accomplishments. But what about communities that lack Hyde Park’s advantages—in particular, its wealthy institutions and high-profile heritage sites? What do you do if you don’t have a presidential home or the patronage of a powerful congressman? Clearly, what works for Hyde Park might not work for Catskill.

But the great thing about tourism is that it is scalable. If Hyde Park’s experience on the frontier of sprawl suggests anything, it is this: communities fearing sprawl need to establish a list of market-based alternatives to the revenues lost by stopping it; form alliances of community groups and responsible agencies to create a new master plan and line up funding to execute it; and then execute it with an open mind to new possibilities to help avoid overdependence on any single industry.

Fear not Hyde Park—embrace it. It’s coming your way.