Kingstonian hearing draws crowd
Critics say project needs more scrutiny while backers warn of sending negative message
Critics of the proposed commercial and residential development known as The Kingstonian said the project needs more scrutiny and a change in its design, while some supporters cautioned that opposing the project would send a negative message to other developers and that the Uptown area needs more people living there to support local businesses.
The city Planning Board heard from more than two dozen people during a public hearing on Monday about the proposed Uptown Kingston project. The board will continue to accept written comment on the proposal through 4 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 6. It will
then hold a special meeting on The Kingstonian beginning at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 11, in the council chambers at City Hall, 420 Broadway.
Among the speakers in support of The Kingstonian project was Vince Rua, one of the candidates challenging Mayor Steve Noble in November’s election.
Rua, who is running on the SAM (formerly Serve America Movement) line, said he had questioned aspects of the project from the outset but had mostly gotten answers. He said he had raised concerns about issues like whether Uptown needed more retail or restaurant space, which are a part of the overall project.
“But at the end of the day, I believe this project is indeed a huge plus for Uptown Kingston,” Rua said. He also criticized Noble for failing to build consensus on the project, leading to divisiveness over the matter. Rua said the mayor should bring all the stakeholders together and reach a compromise on the project to move it forward.
First proposed in September 2017, The Kingstonian is to be built on two sites at the corner of Fair and North Front streets, including the location of the
city’s former Uptown parking garage. An open-air pedestrian plaza would be built over a portion of Fair Street Extension. That portion of the road, between Schwenk Drive and North Front Street, would be closed to through traffic.
The Kingstonian is to comprise 129 market-rate apartments for rent, 8,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space, a 32-room boutique hotel, the pedestrian plaza, a footbridge crossing Schwenk Drive between the new development and Kingston Plaza, and 420 parking spaces, of which at least 250 would be for public use.
Don Tallerman, the Democratic candidate for Kingston’s Fifth Ward seat, also voiced support for the project. He said Uptown needs more parking and to have more people living and visiting there. Tallerman added that he is a strong proponent of affordable housing and while that would be a great aspect of The Kingstonian, the city could not “have its cake and eat it too.” The developers behind the project will, however, be building and maintaining public parking at no expense to the taxpayers, he said.
Other supporters pointed to a need for market-rate housing in Kingston to go along with affordable housing projects already being created, which would allow people who do not qualify for affordable
housing to be able to sell their private homes and still live in the city. They also said the project would not be able to go forward if it was forced to include affordable housing.
Supporters also said the developers behind The Kingstonian are locally-based and have the community’s best interests in mind. If the project is not approved, it would send a negative message to other developers.
Much of the criticism against The Kingstonian proposal during the hearing focused on its design and visual impact on the historic Stockade District. Several speakers also urged for more thorough scrutiny of the project, including its potential environmental impacts.
Lowell Thing, who formerly served on the city’s Historic Landmark Preservation Commission, said the visual impact of the project does not relate to the significance of the Stockade District.
“These buildings could be anywhere,” he said of the design.
Aimee Gardner, director of operations for the O+ Festival, said she served on the Downtown Revitalization Initiative Local Planning Committee, which evaluated projects to receive state funding. She said she was concerned with the process for selecting the project and felt the committee members’ voices were not heard and
their questions were not taken seriously. Gardner also said the public needs more time to absorb the contents of several reports about the project released by the developer.
The city recently made public several environmental impact reports for the project, including the visual impact analysis, a traffic study, and a stormwater report. Those reports are available on the city’s website.
Other speakers said there has been no evidence of a demand for more retail or hotel space in Uptown and that the project’s traffic study does not take into account the nearconstant double-parking of vehicles on Wall and North Front streets. Some also questioned whether all of the other involved and interested agencies have had a chance to weigh in on the project proposal, such as the city’s Historic Landmarks Preservation Commission. That commission is responsible for judging the size, scale and other characteristics of projects being built in historic districts.
The project’s cost is expected to exceed $52 million, more than $46 million of which would come from private funding. The project is to receive $3.8 million from the $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant awarded to Kingston by New York state, as well as other government funding.