Council changes policy for excavating
City lawmakers have adopted the first set of changes to the City Code intended to provide more oversight and regulation of excavation work when it takes place on private property.
The changes are a response to excavation work at 32 Abeel St. to make way for the planned Irish Cultural Center to be built. After excavation began there in May, neighbors complained it was causing excessive noise and damage to surrounding properties, including the city-owned Company Hill Path.
During a meeting Tuesday, the Common Council had a second reading and then unanimously adopted two local laws without any further discussion. One allows the city engineer to issue appearance tickets for violations of Kingston’s Stormwater Management and Erosion and Sediment Control section of the code. The other expands a section dealing with excavation hazards. That law requires fencing or a covering for any open cistern, well or excavation site requiring a building permit to prevent members of the public from gaining access.
Still pending is a proposed local law that would amend the City Code to require a building permit when excavation work is done in preparation for construction, enlargement, alteration, improvement, removal, relocation or demolition of any building or structure. It also would require the city engineer to review any work involving excavation before a building permit could be issued. That review would ensure the excavation complies with the city’s Stormwater Management and Erosion and Sediment Control regulations.
Each local law must go through two readings at separate meetings before the full council can vote on their adoption. The pending local law is expected to be voted on by the council at its November monthly meeting.
Work at the Irish Cultural Center site led former City Engineer Ralph Swenson to issue a violation notice to the developer, which since has corrected the violations to the city’s satisfaction.
The developer, though, must again go before the city Planning Board because the site plan approval for the center has expired.
A public hearing on the site plan will be held during the Planning Board meeting scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 15, in City Hall, 420 Broadway.
The Irish Cultural Center is planned to be a 16,213-square-foot facility that would include a 171-seat theater and a restaurant with a pub space. The ground floor is to be built into the hillside facing West Strand and Company Hill Path.