Key ruling on Irish center draws near
Zoning board can overturn action by commission that blocked project
KINGSTON, N.Y. » The city Zoning Board of Appeals has declared a public hearing on the proposed Irish Cultural Center to be closed as of the end of business Friday, and it expects to decide in the next two months whether to overturn another board’s decision that effectively blocked the project.
During a zoning board meeting Thursday, Ron Pordy, an attorney representing the Irish center, said the Sept. 25 ruling by the city’s Historic Landmarks Preservation Commission was faulty.
“The landmarks commission ... does not have the planning or required expertise ... to engage in an expanded review of a project outside of its limited jurisdiction,” Pordy argued.
The commission voted 4-3 to not issue the “preservation notice of action” for construction of the center. The notice is required for the project to proceed.
The developer filed an appeal of the commission’s ruling in December.
Thursday’s meeting of the Zoning Board of Appeals was a continuation of a Jan. 11 session. That meeting included comments by 13 members of the public; no new comments were offered Thursday.
The proposed Irish Cultural Center, which still requires city Planning Board approval, would be a 16,000-square-foot building constructed on a half-acre parcel at 32 Abeel St. in Kingston’s Rondout district. It would include a 171-seat theater and a 70-seat pub, as well as space for educational programs and other activities.
The proposed site is bordered on two sides by private properties and to the rear by the city-owned Company Hill Path. It would overlook the Rondout Creek from the south side of the building.
Pordy contends opposition to the project is partly to blame for a review that has taken nearly two years.
“There’s been an attempt to divert everyone’s attention from that reality that this a legal project in compliance with the zoning laws,” he said. “They do it by demonizing the project, saying ... it’s going to swallow the Rondout, it’ll destroy Kingston.”
Kingston Deputy Fire Chief Tom Tiano, who heads the city’s Building Safety Division, told zoning board members that the commission turned down the center’s application based on the size of the project.
“It was the committee’s feeling that the building at this time, the way it was presented, was too large for the proposed site,” he said.
Tiano, however, said the Historic Landmarks Preservation Commission went out of its scope of authority when conducting its most recent review of the project.
“My opinion, the committee was overstepping their bounds in some of the questions that they had asked, many of them regarding site plan, which ... is a Planning Board issue, not a landmarks commission issue,” he said.