Utility seeks to postpone city review of proposed gas regulator station
KINGSTON, N.Y. » Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. is asking city planners to postpone their review Monday of the utility’s proposed gas regulator installation at Washington Avenue and Janet Street.
The city Planning Office has received a letter from attorney Anthony F. Morando requesting that the board table its review. The matter of the controversial gas regulator installation does appear on Monday’s Planning Board agenda.
“We are writing on behalf of Central Hudson
Gas & Electric, and in connection with its pending application, which is currently on the Board’s November 20, 2017 meeting agenda,” Morando wrote to board Chairman Wayne Platte Jr. “Central Hudson respectfully requests that the Planning Board remove this matter from its November 20 agenda and adjourn Central Hudson’s appearance to December 18, 2017.”
Central Hudson spokesman John Maserjian said the utility needs more time to prepare its proposal.
“We requested a postponement and will ask to be placed on the December meeting agenda, as we are preparing additional documentation to provide more information about the project,” Maserjian said in an email.
In October, the Planning Board postponed voting on Central Hudson’s request to install a natural gas regulating station at Washington Avenue and Janet Street while possible alternate locations were explored.
During the October meeting, the board heard from more than a dozen people who raised concerns about the utility’s proposal to install the regulating station at 245 Washington Ave.
Among concerns were how the station would affect property values in the neighborhood and whether there would be any environmental or health impacts to the area and its residents.
After hearing from the public and Central Hudson’s representatives, the Planning Board voted unanimously to table action on the utility’s request for a month.
Platte had said there is a need for reliable natural gas service to residents in the area, but that he was inclined to table the matter for now. In the meantime, he said, there should be “serious discussion” over the next month to find a solution that works for everyone involved.
Central Hudson is proposing the new regulating station to replace an existing underground facility on Emerson Street that was built in 1930. The new station would consist of two lines that come out of the ground and go through equipment intended to balance pressure of natural gas running to about 5,100 customers.
The utility’s site plan shows the proposed new station would be screened with trees and a picket fence that would be placed around the property.
Central Hudson engineer Tera Stoner has said the utility has “been operating these types of natural gas regulator stations in our territory for nearly a hundred years, and a lot of them are located within residential areas.” She said this station would be one of 10 within the “Kingston low-pressure system.”
Stoner said Central Hudson is required to follow regulations set by the state Public Service Commission, which she said incorporate nearly a century’s worth of engineering that makes the stations extremely safe. She said if Central Hudson had to move the station to a more commercial location, it would require a “significant upgrade” of the piping infrastructure.