Greenway & Byway: clearing the confusion

Subject: Greenway & Byway: clearing the confusion
Date: 3/30/2005 2:36:26 PM Eastern Standard Time
From: hilary@kitasei.com
To: info@henryhudsonparkway.org

Sent from the internet (Details)

Greenway & Byway: clearing the confusion

Friends and members of the Henry Hudson Parkway Task Force:


Inaccuracies in an article in the Columbia Spectator of May 28 (“Henry Hudson Parkway Recommended for Scenic Byway Status after Four Month Push” understandably raised a lot of eyebrows among those familiar with the Scenic Byway initiative. Its most troublesome error was its confusion of the Greenway and the Scenic Byway. The attached explanation from the Greenway Office should help clear this up.


If you have other questions, please let me know.


Hope to see you tonight at NYMTC’s meeting: 6:00 at the St. Luke AME Church Center, 1854 Amsterdam Avenue, 4th Floor (at the corner of 152nd St.).


Thanks,



Hilary Kitasei

http://www.henryhudsonparkway.org/



H U D S O N R I V E R V A L L E Y G R E E N W A Y

Barnabas McHenry, Chairman, Greenway Council
Kevin J. Plunkett, Chairman, Greenway Conservancy
Carmella R. Mantello, Executive Director, Council &
Executive Director, Conservancy


The Hudson River Valley Greenway

What is the Greenway?
The Hudson River Valley Greenway is a New York State agency within the Executive Department, established by the Greenway Act of 1991. With the passage of the Greenway Act, the legislature designated the Hudson River Valley Greenway Area, which encompasses 259 communities in 13 counties. The municipalities eligible to become Greenway Communities are located in the counties that border the Hudson River from the Capital District south to the areas of Bronx and New York counties that border the Hudson River and are within New York City’s Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan (LWRP).

What is the Greenway Community Program?
The first step in local community participation with the Greenway involves passage of a resolution by the local governing body to become a Greenway Community. The resolution approved through this voluntary process states the municipality’s support of the five “Greenway Criteria”, as stated in the Greenway Act. These five Criteria are: regional planning; economic development; public access; natural and cultural resource protection; and heritage and environmental education. Currently, 222 of the 259 eligible communities have become Greenway Communities and joined the Greenway Community Program. The eligible portions of Bronx County became a Greenway Community in 1994. Manhattan recently passed a resolution to become a Greenway Community in March of 2005.
The Greenway Community Program is designed to encourage Hudson River Valley communities to develop projects and initiatives related to the Greenway Criteria, by providing technical assistance and small grants for planning, capital projects, and water trail and land-based trails that reinforce the Criteria.

Hudson River Valley Scenic Byways Project

National and State Scenic Byways Programs
The National Scenic Byways Program is a state-administered program of the Federal Highway Administration. New York State established its Scenic Byways Program in 1992 with Article XII-C of the State Highway Law. The program is administered by the Landscape Architecture Bureau of the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT), and is guided by the Scenic Byways Advisory Board. The State Scenic Byways legislation encourages communities to make nominations to the State Scenic Byways Advisory Board for their recommendation for designation as a NYS Scenic Byway. Identification of potential byways, organizing a byway group, developing a management plan for the byway, and nomination of a roadway corridor for byway designation occur at the local level.

Hudson River Valley Scenic Byways Project
The Hudson River Valley Greenway was awarded a federal grant from the State Scenic Byways Program to explore the potential for a system of byways in the Hudson River Valley. The Greenway, along with an advisory Steering Committee, is working with NYSDOT to explore the potential for and public interest in establishing scenic byways in the Hudson Valley. Funds from this grant will also be used to encourage the development of and provide assistance to local communities or groups that are interested in seeking designation of roadway corridors as New York State Scenic Byways, and provide technical assistance to municipalities with existing byway segments. The Hudson River Valley Scenic Byways Project is one of several programs administered by the Greenway.

For more information on all of the Greenway’s programs, please visit www.hudsongreenway.state.ny.us.