Westfaironline.com: Elected officials from river towns in Westchester have banded together to ban the barges.

A dozen officials gathered at Yonkers City Hall on Aug. 22 to rally opposition to a U.S. Coast Guard proposal to create 10 anchorages along the Hudson.

The Hudson River Waterfront Alliance opposes the anchorages on the grounds of economic development, environmental concerns and public safety.

There are three kinds of government programs, said Peekskill Mayor Frank Catalina, good, bad and really bad.

“This is a really bad,” he said.

Three industry groups are behind the proposal.

The Maritime Association of the Port of New York and New Jersey, the Hudson River Pilots Association and American Waterways Operators requested the anchorages in January.

The maritime industry had been put on notice about commercial vessels illegally parking in unofficial anchorages.

The industry groups proposed creating 10 official anchorages along a 109-mile stretch of the river, from Yonkers to Kingston, where crews have customarily parked vessels to wait out storms or wait for high tide.

The largest anchorage would be offshore of Yonkers, encompassing 715 acres up to Dobbs Ferry and allowing 16 vessels at a time. The Yonkers Hub would extend an existing anchorage that runs from Yonkers to the George Washington Bridge.

Riverfront towns that have invested heavily in converting abandoned industrial sites to residential and commercial buildings and parks see the anchorages as a setback.  Read more.