Plaza builder wants to increase its size
The proposed Washington Avenue project has been referred to the county Planning Board for input on the change.
Changes to the site plan for the Kingston Commons plaza on Washington Avenue have been referred by the town of the Ulster County Planning Board.
The town is seeking comments from the board about whether an additional 935 square feet of retail space should be approved.
The extra amount would bring the size of the primary retail building planned by SAI Capital Group to 7,425 square feet.
The project without the additional space was approved by the town almost two years ago.
Besides the now-proposed larger retail building, the plaza still would comprise a 3,190-squarefoot bank with two drive-through lanes, a 4,430-square-foot fastfood restaurant with two drive-through lanes, and a 2,200-square-foot coffee and donut shop with one drive-through lane. The site is just south of the Thruway Exit 19 roundabout.
Town of Ulster Supervisor James Quigley said the project has been delayed by efforts to negotiate an easement through the property to create access to a planned county park.
“The developers were slow in getting the issues with Ulster County straightened out,” he said.
Quigley noted that the developer was required to have the site plan reviewed a second time because it did work outside of the scope of the initial approval when clearing the site. One of the issues was that SAI had a popular sycamore tree on the site trimmed without permission.
“Consequently, they were told to come back to the [town] Planning Board,” Quigley said. “When they came back to the Planning Board, it was discovered they had increased the project size, so we are in essence making them do complete submittals and then are referring it to the county Planning Board for review.”