Mayor will sign revised rules for excavation

‘Now ... any excavation would have to be reviewed by the city engineering office,’ Steve Noble says.

KINGSTON, N.Y. >> Mayor Steve Noble says he expects to sign two pieces of legislation designed to strengthen city control over excavation and land clearing.

Public hearings held Tuesday on the proposed laws drew no speakers.

“These chapter changes will actually affect all future development going forward,” Noble said. “The larger premise of this was that our building code did not have excavation as part of the permitting process. So now ... any excavation would have to be reviewed by the city engineering office.”

Changes in the city law that covers stormwater management, erosion and sediment control will allow the city engineer to “issue appearance tickets for violations” for excavations that have not received city approval or violate approved plans.

A second revision would make it unlawful to “create, construct, allow or permit ... any excavation requiring a building permit” to be “unattended or unguarded or without fencing deemed adequate by the Building Safety Division.”

The Common Council also is reviewing a third proposed revision that would define the type of work associated with requiring a permit for excavation.

“A building permit shall be required for any work ... [that includes] construction, enlargement, alteration, improvement, removal, relocation or demolition of any building or structure ... or any excavation in preparation for any of the foregoing activities,” the proposal states.

The laws were drafted after neighbors complained that work done at the site of the planned Irish Cultural Center on Abeel Street in Downtown Kingston had created a muddy mess that traveled across West Strand, threatened neighboring properties and did not follow best-management practices.

In August, city inspectors found work at the site was being done without a stabilized construction entrance, that a silt fence was not fully embedded, and untreated drainage was migrating off the site and causing erosion to the cityowned Company Hill Path.

The Irish Cultural Center developers ultimately satisfied code enforcement officials that the violations have been resolved.

However, the city Planning Board on Oct. 15 stated a new application for the project must be submitted because a building permit had not been secured within 120 days of the project’s site plan being approved in April.

The new application will be subject to the revised excavation rules.