Rhinebeck board enters executive session to address joining lawsuit challenging Hyde Park Local Law No. 1 of 2025

Acting Supervisor convened an early executive session at the March 10 Town of Rhinebeck board meeting to consider joining litigation challenging Hyde Park’s recently enacted Local Law No. 1 of 2025.

Town counsel Warren told the board that the matter would be filed in Supreme Court, Dutchess County as “a hybrid Article 78 petition” and described the basis for the challenge as concerns that the Hyde Park law permits a development near Route 9G that “would have a detrimental impact on the citizens of Rhinebeck as well as the citizens of the town of Clinton, and the town of Hyde Park.” Warren said the board went into executive session “to take a vote, pursuant to the provisions of town law” and that the town would pass a public resolution joining the lawsuit when the filing is made public.

Why this matters: Warren said the town believes the Hyde Park law “circumvents” zoning restrictions and state decisional and statutory law, and that no environmental review was completed. He told the board the town will join the litigation because of potential cross-boundary impacts and alleged procedural and substantive legal defects.

Board members did not describe the vote outcome in detail on the public record at the meeting. Warren said publicly that once the town files or formally joins as a party plaintiff, the resolution and related materials will be made public; he repeated that he could provide a copy of Hyde Park’s Local Law No. 1 to board members on request. The board did not provide further specifics about the draft complaint, the timetable for filing, or whether the town would share in litigation costs at the March 10 meeting.

Notes and next steps: The town counsel indicated that specifics are limited until the pleading is filed. The transcript shows the board treated the matter as sensitive enough to address in executive session and signaled that a public resolution authorizing a formal joining as plaintiff will follow when the litigation is filed.