Alternatives considered to merging landmarks, heritage commissions

KINGSTON, N.Y. » A proposal to merge Kingston’s landmarks and heritage commissions remains on the table, but city lawmakers are considering other options as well.

At a meeting of the Common Council’s Laws and Rules Committee on Wednesday, lawmakers and members of the city’s Historic Landmarks Preservation Commission and Heritage Area Commission discussed common problems that can occur when proposed projects go through the review process for required city permits and approvals. From there, they discussed potential so-

lutions that could be implemented without the city actually merging the two bodies.

No decisions were made, but the Laws and Rules Committee plans to hold a special meeting in the coming weeks to vote on whether the city should move forward with the merger proposal.

Alderwoman Andrea Shaut, D-Ward 9, said the solutions discussed give the city options instead of just the “tunnel vision” of pursuing the merger.

Many of the concerns raised about the review process centered on education.

Marissa Marvelli, vice chairwoman of the Historic Landmarks Preservation Commission, said many applicants who come before the panel do not know ahead of time what to expect. She said they don’t know what information to provide or who to bring with them to present their applications.

“That’s probably the greatest frustration of applicants,” Marvelli said. “It’s lack of clarity before they even come to us.”

Another issue is the amount of time each commission spends at meetings and how that would be lengthened if the groups were merged. There also was discussion about how the commissions sometimes have overlapping reviews of individual proposals, even though the Heritage Area Commission is an advisory body while the landmarks commission makes binding decisions.

Among the possible solutions discussed was hiring a part-time city employee with a background in preservation to act as a sort of concierge who would work with applicants and guide them through the review process. There also was discussion of the city creating an overall preservation plan and with potentially taking away some of the duties of the Heritage Area Commission.

The merger legislation, if adopted, would create a new commission called the Historic Landmarks and Heritage Area Commission, comprising seven members and three alternates appointed by the mayor. The landmarks commission currently has seven members, while the heritage commission has 11. Neither commission currently has alternates to step in when a regular member is absent or has a conflict of interest.

The proposed legislation also provides a way to remove members from the commission, along with new language for appealing decisions made by the commission, among other changes.