Tourism experts say the new crossing and an enhanced bus system could lure tourists and their money to Rockland but officials need to start planning now.
SOUTH NYACK – Most of the talk about the Tappan Zee Bridge project so far has been about construction, noise and how the state will pay for the crossing.
But on Monday, the conversation took a new direction: the bridge as a money generator.
“You’re in a good place here right now, particularly with some of the development at the Tappan Zee Bridge and what’s going to happen,” Mary Kay Vrba, tourism director for Dutchess County, told 50 people at “Destination Rockland: Blazing New Trails in Tourism” at Nyack College.
A group of marketing experts, business leaders and elected officials saw visions of cash registers being filled up by tourists walking or bicycling over the bridge’s dedicated path into Rockland County. A revitalized bus system slated to be ready when the $3.9 billion span opens in 2018 could bring more.
Rockland Legislative Chair Alden Wolfe organized the three-hour conference, stating that it marked the “launching point” for further discussion.
Vrba drew parallels between the upcoming Tappan Zee path and the Walkway Over the Hudson, a 1.2-mile-long pedestrian walkway connecting Highland and Poughkeepsie that draws 700,000 visitors a year. Rockland has most of the ingredients to became a destination with its access to the Hudson River, a bevy of hiking trails and parks, and quaint river villages filled with stores and restaurants.
Downtown Poughkeepsie, on the other hand, lacks popular tourist draws like art galleries, she said.
“They walk the bridge and they say, ‘What next?’ ” Vrba said. “So you’ve got the what next, I think, with Nyack and Piermont and a lot of the shops and everything. You’ve got a product that you can work with. I think you have some real opportunities.”
Officials have the luxury of time to take a look at their towns and villages, address their needs and invest in a tourism plan, she said.
South Nyack and Tappan Zee project officials are still struggling to figure out where people who want to use the path will park in the village. The project team is expected to hold a meeting soon with several concepts proposed by the community, Mayor Bonnie Christian said.
Asked how they addressed parking for the Walkway Over the Hudson, Vrba said the land on both sides was municipally owned and purchased by the state parks department so they could be converted into paid lots. They also had the benefit in Poughkeepsie of parking garages six blocks away.
Veronica Vanterpool, executive director of Tri-State Transportation Campaign and a member of the task force that recently came up with transit recommendations for the bridge, said it was seeking a “transformation” of the existing Tappan ZEExpress service to entice more riders. There would be modern buses, traveling more frequently, utilizing technology like off-board fare collection, but some have said the plan didn’t work.
The system, known as bus rapid transit, is still in the conceptual stage. There are no cost estimates, and only $20 million in state seed money to date.
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