Merger of commissions pending, alderman says

A proposal to merge Kingston’s landmarks and heritage commissions is still pending, an alderman said.

City aldermen did not continue public discussions this month on a proposal to merge Kingston’s landmarks and heritage commissions, but the chairman of the committee overseeing the talks said it is still pending.

Alderman Bill Carey, DWard 5, said the Common Council’s Laws and Rules Committee on Wednesday did not discuss the proposed merger because there was “nothing new” to report. He said there are other ideas being floated around and he hoped to continue the discussion at the committee’s September meeting.

In the meantime, no votes have been taken by aldermen regarding the potential merger of the city’s Historic Landmarks Preservation Commission and Heritage Area Commission, Carey said.

At a previous committee meeting, aldermen and members of the commissions had discussed whether there were other options that could be explored instead of the merger. No decisions were made at that meeting, though some ideas had been presented to solve issues facing the commissions without the city actually merging the two bodies.

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, as proposed, calls for the creation of 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 proposal also provides a way to remove members from the commission, along with new language for appealing decisions made by the commission, among other changes.