Court upholds zoning action that allowed Irish center

A state appeals court has upheld a decision that the Kingston Zoning Board of Appeals was correct when it ruled the site of the planned Irish Cultural Center was properly zoned for the facility.

In its Nov. 1 ruling, the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court, Third Department, affirmed a May 2017 ruling by state Supreme Court Justice Richard Mott. That ruling dismissed a lawsuit filed by neighbors of the site.

Mott wrote that the plaintiffs — Hillary and Owen Harvey, and Deanna Baum — had not exhausted all other possible administrative remedies to their complaints.

The suit named as defendants the city of Kingston, the city Zoning Board of Appeals, Kingston Zoning Enforcement Officer Joseph Safford and developer Irish Cultural Center Hudson Valley Inc.

The lawsuit, filed in December 2016, challenged the zoning board’s November 2016 decision that the Irish center, at 32 Abeel St., would be in Kingston’s Broadway/West Strand zoning district and therefore allowed. The plaintiffs argued the property, which overlooks West Strand and the Rondout Creek, is separate from the district.

The half-acre parcel where the center is to be built is bordered on two sides by private properties, owned by Baum and the Harveys, and to the rear by the city-owned Company Hill Path and a retaining wall.

The Irish Cultural Center plan is undergoing a second review by the city Planning Board because its original approval expired without the developer obtaining a building permit.

After some excavation began at the site earlier this year, nearby residents complained the work was causing excessive noise and damage to surrounding properties, including Company Hill Path. In August, the developer was cited by the city engineer for violations at the site, but those violations have been corrected since, according to city officials.

In response to complaints about the excavation, the Common Council adopted changes to the City Code intended to provide more oversight and regulation of such work when it takes place on private property.

The 16,213-square-foot Irish Cultural Center is to include a 171-seat theater on its ground floor, which would be built into the hillside facing West Strand and Company Hill Path; and a restaurant with a pub space, among other amenities.