There is no question that most people would want to seize an opportunity if given the chance. But not knowing how to do it is often what prevents them from acting.
Solving that dilemma will be the focus of a meeting on Friday evening in Hudson, as a group of residents is inviting the public to discuss what is being framed as “a viable alternative solution to residential construction” at Sandy Beach, a wooded wetland on the shores of the Lake of Two Mountains that has been the focus of intense public interest in an effort to preserve it from development.
“There are ways to develop a financial vehicle to save Sandy Beach,” said Cam Gentile, a resident who is helping to organize the gathering on Friday.
The meeting is expected to outline a vision of how to finance a plan that would ensure the site is kept as a natural space for generations to come to enjoy and experience, Gentile said.
Proposing a viable funding plan that would pull together a network of financial resources that would include both private and public input is a realistic goal, he said.
The group organizing the event includes members of Nature Hudson, a grassroots organization that has been advocating for the preservation of the area around Sandy Beach, and the Save Sandy Beach coalition, a band of residents advocating for the maintaining of the area as natural space.
To help focus the conversation at Friday’s meeting, the organizers has invited internationally renown landscape architect Paula Meijerink, who is currently an associate professor at Ohio State University, to provide an overview of how other communities around the globe have tackled the challenge of preserving natural spaces from development and how these initiatives were financed.
Meijerink, who holds degrees from the Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands and Harvard in the U.S., will share examples of how residents of Collier County in Florida put together a funding formula to preserve a series of small natural space in the early 2000s. And how the community of about 7,000 residents in St. Agnes along the coast near Cornwall, England, mobilized to conserve waterfront space by creating the St. Agnes Marine Conservation Group, which went on to receive financial contributions from the Cornwall Wildlife Trust.
“My consclusion,” Meijerink said, “small communities are successful in conservation efforts and there are precedents everywhere.”
“I think it is a mistake to develop at Sandy Beach,” Meijerink added in an interview with The 1019 Report from her home in Ohio.
Meijerink will also discuss a vision for the site, a possible plan that would include management of the land, who would have access to it, how to balance access with safeguarding endangered species and fauna.
“I am looking for a positive solution to save Sandy Beach,” said Helen Kurgansky, a Hudson resident and a member of the Save Sandy Beach group who is helping organize Friday’s meeting.
“I think it is essential for the quality of life for our residents. I think it is essential in terms of climate change,” Kurgansky added. “And I don’t think the town should bear the burden of this solution. So we have to look at other ways to make it happen.”
Echoing the sentiment that the cost of saving the Sandy Beach area cannot be expected to be shouldered by Hudson taxpayers alone, Gentile said:“It’s not going to be a hell of a burden for the town if we find a vehicle to do this.
“We can’t do this without the town,” he added. “We have to work with them.”
The meeting, “Sandy Beach, Protecting our Natural Habitat,” will be held at the Hudson Creative Hub, 273 Main Road in Hudson on Friday, June 21, at 7:30 p.m. All are welcome.