IMPACT STUDY REQUEST
Historic Landmarks Preservation Commission wants review of proposed Irish Cultural Center
KINGSTON, N.Y. » The city’s Historic Landmarks Preservation Commission has requested that developers of the Irish Cultural Center provide it with a detailed visual impact study, a commission member said.
In December, the same board had requested that the city Planning Board ask for the study, which would show how the proposed center would look from various vantage points.
Earlier this month, the Planning Board unanimously decided that the project would have no significant impact on the neighborhood.
The Historic Landmarks Preservation
Commission needs to make a decision on the project as well. But before it does, the board wants the visual impact study, according to Marissa Marvelli, the commission’s vice chairwoman. The board decided Thursday to table any decision until then.
“The commission requested that the applicants provide a visibility study of how the new building will impact the panorama of the West Strand and how it will impact Abeel Street,” Marvelli said Monday.
Marvelli said the board was “disappointed” that such a study had not been provided following its December letter to the Planning Board.
“This is a significant proposal for us and we want to make sure we evaluate this from all perspectives,” Marvelli said.
Planning Board Chairman Wayne Platte said that his board thought that the center’s developers had provided enough visual information. Platte said the board never requested a more detailed study, as the Historic Landmarks Preservation Commission has done.
“We (the Planning Board) felt that the applicants submitted ample information to address the visual impact,” Platte said Monday. “As far as our review, we felt they provided ample information to move forward.”
In its letter to the Planning Board, landmarks commission Chairman Mark Grunblatt argued
that a visual study would be worthwhile.
“A visibility study using multiple vantage points along public thoroughfares would illustrate how this building’s scale and massing will impact sightlines,” Grunblatt wrote. “The West Strand on the waterfront is arguably one of our most cherished panoramas in Kingston. Any new development affecting this vista must be carefully scrutinized.”
The Irish Cultural Center environmental assessment, stating the project would not harm the environment, was adopted by planners July 10 after a public hearing that pitted project supporters against neighbors and the owners of nearby businesses. Nineteen people spoke.
The project still requires site plan approval by the Planning Board for it to be built.
If approved, the center will be built on a 0.44-acre site at 32 Abeel St. in Downtown Kingston, overlooking the Rondout Creek.
The center first was proposed in March 2012, and the project has been under city review since March 2016.
The Irish Cultural Center is proposed to be a 16,213-square-foot structure that would include a 171-seat theater and a 70seat pub. A banquet area previously included in the plan has been dropped.
Besides needing the green light from the Kingston Planning Board and the Historic Landmarks Preservation Commission, the proposal must also pass muster with the city’s Heritage Area Commission.