Boards asked to rezone 19 city properties
The city and Ulster County planning boards are being asked for their input on a request to rezone 19 properties on Golden Hill and in the Lawton Park area of Kingston.
During a virtual meeting Tuesday, the Common Council voted unanimously to send the rezoning request to the Kingston Planning Board and Ulster County Planning Board for review. Aldermen said it was the first step in the rezoning process.
“This resolution doesn’t, in fact, rezone the properties,” Alderman Jeffrey Ventura Morell, D-Ward 1, said. He said the council’s Laws and Rules Committee, which he chairs, would hold a public hearing on the rezoning request beginning at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 13.
The request being considered would change the zoning of the properties from the single-family RRR designation to R- 6, which
would allow developers to submit plans for multi-family projects that offer affordable housing.
Of the properties being considered, 10 are in the Golden Hill area while the remaining nine are in Lawton Park.
Ulster County owns the largest property with 41 acres that contains the former county jail and several other county services on both sides of Golden Hill
Drive. The city of Kingston owns two parcels on Golden Hill, and six other parcels there are privately owned, while ownership was not listed for the remaining parcel.
Of the 9 parcels in the Lawton Park area, three are owned by Lawton Wood LLC, two have owners that could not immediately be identified, and four are privately owned. These include some parcels that are landlocked, including a 10.6acre parcel behind homes on Pettit Avenue.
During a virtual caucus meeting Monday, Ventura Morell said the rezoning would make the properties more appealing to potential developers.
Majority Leader Reynolds Scott- Childress, DWard 3, said the city would also be able to work on other issues in that area, such as traffic, as the process moves along.
The rezoning ef for t comes as the Ulster County Housing Corporation has been meeting privately to discuss whether the former jail site, which accounts for 19.9 acres of the 41-acre parcel, should be sold to any of five potential developers. Corporation board members, which include some county legislators, have declined to release the names or proposals that have been submitted.
Officials noted that much of the property is currently off the tax rolls or assessed at rates for vacant parcels.