The District Today
Due to the views and history, homes in the area still command a high price. The open space overlooking the river within the district is a source of constant development pressure on the district, as builders look to serve buyers priced out of growing suburbs further south in the valley yet still looking for a rail commute to the city via Amtrak or Metro-North (via Poughkeepsie). The district boundaries had to be drawn to exclude one newer subdivision near Staatsburg, but had to include one in Tivoli.
To protect the district's historic character, the Town of Rhinebeck, at least a third of which is included in it, has adopted local ordinances which govern the potential demolition of historic buildings as well as creating a special historic-preservation zoning district for those areas.
The other municipalities with land in the district have not gone quite to this extent. Hyde Park has created a historic overlay district which applies to all historic properties in the town, providing in the case of the Hudson River Historic District that land use within its boundaries "shall obtain site plan approval and shall be limited to an agriculture, water-dependent and/or water-enhanced use or to a use appropriate to preservation of the historic resources of the district". Clermont, Red Hook and Tivoli have so far not chosen to apply any additional standards and continue to preserve the district through their existing zoning and applicable New York state laws requiring historical and environmental reviews in certain areas.
The district's boundaries have not been expanded since its creation and designation, but there is some interest in doing so. The Town of Germantown has formally expressed its intention to have the northern boundary extended from the Clermont line to the hamlet of Germantown.
Read more about this topic: Hudson River Historic District
Famous quotes containing the words district and/or today:
“Most works of art, like most wines, ought to be consumed in the district of their fabrication.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)
“In communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticize after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, shepherd or critic.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)