Planning Board will hold off on decision

A vote on the project’s site plan probably won’t come until after the Kingston Historic Landmarks Preservation Commission weighs in

City planners are not likely to make any decision on the Irish Cultural Center site plan until another panel makes up its mind on the proposal.

Planning Board Chairman Wayne Platte said this week that the board would probably await a decision by the Kingston Historic Landmarks Preservation Commission before taking a vote on the Irish Cultural Center site plan.

Recently, Platte said, the commission has tabled a decision at two separate meetings.

“We (the Planning Board) are going to let (the) Landmarks Commission make their decision first before we go ahead,” Platte said.

Commission Vice Chairwoman Marisa Marvelli said that a special meeting of the Kingston

Historic Landmarks Preservation Commission will take place at 6:30 p.m. on Monday at City Hall. The only matter up for discussion

will be the Irish Cultural Center planned for Abeel Street.

Platte said the Planning Board will often grant approval to other matters, with a provision that all approvals be in place before launching a particular project.

But Platte said the Irish Cultural Center is a more “substantive” one than those that are given conditional approvals.

On Monday, the Planning Board tabled a decision on the center’s site plan.

In January, the Planning Board accepted an environmental

assessment of the project and had expected to begin site plan discussions this month. The environmental assessment, which concluded that the project would not harm the environment, was adopted after a public hearing that pitted project supporters

against neighbors and the owners of nearby businesses. Nineteen people spoke.

The center is proposed for a 0.44-acre site at 32 Abeel St. in Rondout, overlooking the Rondout Creek. The center was first proposed in March 2012, and

the project has been under city review since March 2016.

The proposed center, containing 16,213 square feet, would include a 171seat theater and a 70-seat pub. A banquet area previously included in the plan has been dropped.