Kingstonian needs zoning variances
Engineer outlines reasons, but board can’t make decision yet
The developers of the proposed residential and commercial development known as The Kingstonian will need three different variances from the city Zoning Board of Appeals as part of the project’s approval process.
Dennis Larios, the project’s civil engineer, told the board at a meeting Thursday evening that The Kingstonian needs a setback variance, as well as variances to the city’s flood damage prevention law and its landscape provisions. He provided a brief overview of why the project would need the variances, but no decisions were made by the board.
Board Chairman Anthony Argulewicz said decisions about the
variances cannot be made until after the city Planning Board issues an environmental impact determination about the project. He also said the developers need to return to the Zoning Board of Appeals with a detailed presentation that provides their rationale for seeking the variances.
With the setback requirements, Larios said, the city would require a project like The Kingstonian to either build right at the property line or be at least 6 feet back from it.
“The way the buildings are designed, we don’t meet that strictly,” Larios said. “We’d like to be about a foot off the back along Schwenk [Drive], where we do have a straight building line, just so we don’t undermine the city sidewalk while we’re building foundations.”
In other areas, the buildings are close to the property lines, he said.
Larios said that along the North Front Street side of the project, the buildings would meet the setback requirements.
The Kingstonian, if approved, is to be built on two sites at the corner of Fair and North Front streets. It is to comprise 129 marketrate apartments for rent, 8,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space, a 32room boutique hotel, a pedestrian plaza, a footbridge crossing Schwenk Drive between the new development and Kingston Plaza, and 420 parking spaces, of which 130 would be reserved for the residents. The remaining parking spaces would be available for public use.
The 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 developers have said all traffic from The Kingstonian’s parking garages would exit along Fair Street Extension, with most also arriving via that road. There would be a second entrance on North Front Street.
Larios said the flood damage prevention variance is necessary because the stair towers and elevator towers at either end of the pedestrian bridge would have to be at grade so people in wheelchairs could access them. He said the city’s code requires such structures to be built 2 feet above the established elevation.
The landscape variance is required because the developers would not be able to provide a 3-foot strip of landscaping along each of the property lines, Larios said. He said the developers also hope to exceed the 3-foot requirement in some areas.
The Kingstonian’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.
“The way the buildings are designed, we don’t meet that strictly. We’d like to be about a foot off the back along Schwenk [Drive], where we do have a straight building line, just so we don’t undermine the city sidewalk while we’re building foundations.” — Dennis Larios, civil engineer