THE KINGSTONIAN
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SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES
Sidestepping SEQRA: With soil like “toothpaste,” an ounce of prevention may be worth a pound of cure.
The developers strong-armed their way out of the lengthy environmental review spelled out in the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act known as SEQRA.
Developers hate the law, which they say costs hundreds of thousands of dollars and can delay a project by years.
But the parcels in question sit atop so-called lacustrine soil, which means there’s no bedrock, and a garage that once stood there had to be torn down, perhaps because of the soil. And it’s not clear whether construction would threaten the nearby Federal-era and pre-Revolutionary buildings that define Kingston’s Stockade District.
According to SEQRA, government agencies are supposed to follow a detailed decision tree to decide whether to require builders to produce an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).
But instead, Kingston’s government co-operated with the developers to launch a concerted and well-planned strategy to bypass an EIS:
– A City Hall housing report dating from March laid the groundwork, going so far as to identify SEQRA as an “impediment” to new housing.
– Kingston’s Mayor, Steve Noble, let go two members of the city’s Historic Landmarks Preservation Commission (HLPC) after the commission voted unanimously in favor of a full environmental review and produced a letter to that effect signed by all members. Then, city government tried to bury the document.
– The Kingstonian’s engineer, Dennis Larios, wrote on Facebook that the builders would pull the plug on the project if they were forced to perform the full environmental review.
– In a post on the Kingstonian’s website, project attorney Michael Moriello outlined his strategy to dodge an EIS, also spilling much digital ink in an attack on a leading community figure who had called for the full review.
The one public hearing requesting community input, which was supposed to focus on whether a full SEQRA review should be required, morphed instead into a popularity contest on the project in general, with business owners in full support, and activists asking the developers to compromise on social justice demands. Only a minority of speakers addressed the issue of SEQRA.
Marissa Marvelli, a historic preservation expert and one of the two fired HLPC members, said that in March, the commission unanimously agreed that the project posed risks, citing the need for studies to ensure that construction did not jeopardize neighboring centuries-old landmarked buildings and that no historically significant artifacts were destroyed.
The developer himself has quoted his geotechnical engineer as saying that 40 feet below the base of the bluff where the garage is to be built, the consistency of the earth is like “toothpaste.” And the last building to occupy that site, a three-story parking garage, had to be demolished because of structural concerns that Bonura himself acknowledged may have been related to the soil underneath.
Moreover, the geotechnical engineer’s report said not enough borings into the soil had been performed to determine whether the project was safe.
Publicly available interviews and videos of HLPC meetings show City Hall employees trying to quash a formal finding of “potentially significant adverse impacts.” Despite pushback from a city attorney and the city planner, the commission members prevailed, and produced this letter. Shortly thereafter, the mayor ousted Marvelli and architect Alan Baer. Then, at a June 3 special meeting on the Kingstonian, the Planning Board refused to accept the letter as the HLPC’s official opinion on grounds that the newly-reconfigured commission had yet to come to a conclusion. “They’re still deliberating,” said City Planner Suzanne Cahill, one of the employees who had tried to forestall the HLPC’s recommendation. (See start of Part 2 of the June 3 videorecording. For more, see SEQRA and Landmarks sidebars.)
AFFORDABLE HOUSING: Praised in principle, ignored in practice
Virtually no one denies the need for new housing. The official vacancy rate in Ulster County is 3.16%, and estimates in Kingston run as low as 1.16%, according to local affordable housing builder RUPCO.
At the same time, Ulster County is one of New York State’s most heavily “cost-burdened” areas, a term with a definition that only a bureaucrat could love but that is making its way into the everyday lexicon.
According to HUD, cost-burdened families “pay more than 30 percent of their income for housing,” while the severely rent-burdened pay more than 50 percent. More than half of Ulster County’s renters are defined as cost-burdened, and almost a third – 29.6%, to be exact – are severely cost-burdened.
It is not unheard of to find people such as Tammy Terbush, who recently started a $15 an hour seasonal, part-time housekeeping job at a motel a few miles west of Kingston. Almost all her take-home pay goes toward $950 in rent for a cottage with two rooms, one large enough to hold her mattress, the other, a tiny kitchenette. She lives within walking distance of the motel but relies on friends to drive her to food pantries.
It is against this backdrop that the Kingstonian’s developers are proposing 129 market rate apartments and 14 for people qualifying for the high end of “affordable” housing — workers who earn between 60-110% AMI. The developers originally refused to include any affordable units, but in September 2019 they agreed to add on another floor to increase the total units to include the workforce 14.
Kingston law and guiding documents such as zoning code, the Comprehensive Plan, and a recent city housing report call for affordable housing.
When grants totaling $6.8 million from New York State were awarded for the project in 2018, an official from the state housing agency Homes and Community Renewal (HCR) reportedly offered to help find tax credits and other subsidies to offset the cost of affordable units. It was unclear why this effort failed to pan out. (See Affordable Housing sidebar.)
Community reaction to the original refusal to include any affordable units was predictable. Before a Common Council hearing, protesters from several advocacy groups demonstrated outside City Hall. At the April 10, 2019 hearing, most of the objections included affordable housing. (See Youtube clip. Note there are four parts.)
ENVIRONMENT: Law, ideals and action not aligned.
Environmental advocates have decried the failure to include eco-friendly construction, even though sustainability goals are written into Kingston’s Comprehensive Plan, which has the force of law and is supposed to be the source document for local zoning code.
Kingston Transition, a citizens’ group that focuses on sustainability and climate change, sent a letter signed by nine members calling for “net zero construction, geothermal, solar capture, rainwater capture and public EV charging.”
No mention of these or any other sustainable building features were available on the Kingstonian website.
At an April 10, 2019, hearing in Kingston’s City Hall, developer Joe Bonura Jr. praised the development as environmentally friendly (at 9:08) because no wilderness, grassland or forest was being developed.
In response to the letter from Kingston Transition, Kingston’s Planning Board at a June 3 meeting refused to ask for a formal study on the question of eco-construction, but did say they would ask the developers to report their plans. The project engineer, Dennis Larios, said geothermal was impossible. For the developer’s response, see Green or Greenwashed sidebar.
The lack of attention to energy-saving construction contrasts with strong environmental legislation on local and state levels, as well as the campaign platforms of local officials.
Kingston’s recently passed Comprehensive Plan, which carries the force of law and is supposed to inform building code, contains 44 uses of the word “green” and 12 of “greenhouse” gas emissions, and invokes “the authority of the City’s Planning Board to assure that new developments reflect the community’s desires for a low carbon/low emissions future.”
Mayor Steve Noble ran on his environmental credentials, and his re-election website, nobleformayor.com, features a photograph of him and his wife Julie in front of an electric vehicle charging station. Moreover, in 2017, during his tenure, Kingston became a signatory to the Climate Mayors Agreement, intended to align with the Paris Agreement.
On July 18, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, with former Vice President Al Gore standing alongside, signed into law the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), one of the most sweeping plans to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. It is too soon to know exactly how the new law will affect the construction industry.
Newly-elected County Executive Pat Ryan campaigned on the idea of bringing a Green New Deal to Ulster County. However, the county has little to no jurisdiction over certain construction issues or zoning requirements.
For a further look at the eco aspect, please read Green or Greenwashed.
PARKING: New spaces for cars, or a fig leaf to gain community support?
For years, shopkeepers and restaurateurs clustered in the Stockade District have complained their customers cannot find parking space. Right now, if street spots are taken, drivers can try two small municipal lots on North Front Street or, at the base of the bluff, an existing municipal lot over which the future Kingstonian garage would rise.
In response to the parking shortage in the Stockade District, the City prioritized additional garage space in its original Request for Qualifications (RFQ). And the developers obliged by proposing a 420-car garage.
Of the 420 spots, 130 would be reserved for the project, according to the developers, leaving 290 for the community at large.
At first glance, this appears to be a major improvement over the 138 spaces currently at the base of the stairs.
However, if code were followed, the math is very different, showing 305 spots required for the project, leaving 115 to the community, for a loss of 23 spots. (See New Parking Math sidebar for code and calculations.)
The developers say their target market of empty-nesters and young professionals will not own the number of cars anticipated in the code.
At the June 3, 2019, Special Kingstonian Planning Board meeting, project engineer Dennis Larios said the developers would ask the city to waive the code requirements because the law allows for it when municipal lots are nearby and the property owners control space that can be used for parking.
In this case, there are two nearby municipal lots — although Mayor Noble has said he would like to see those lots developed. (See starting at 7:16) One of the developers, Brad Jordan, also owns Kingston Plaza, a large mall anchored by a supermarket, which boasts hundreds of spots.
However, Kevin Roach, an alternate on the Planning Board, noted that he can barely find a spot in Kingston Plaza when he visits the area mid-day.
In response, Larios acknowledged that Jordan would add spaces at the outer edge of the parking lot, almost 1,000 feet away from the planned garage. “It’s my understanding the applicant is willing to designate an area there for both employees that may be working in the building and also for folks that have a second car that they would park off site but within walking distance.” Larios did not discuss where hotel guests and shop, restaurant and bar employees and patrons would park.
In a promotional video for HVNN, developer Joe Bonura Jr. had promised the project would “more than double the amount of parking that’s available to Kingston businesses and residents and visitors right now.”
Yet at the June 3 meeting, both the Planning Board chair Wayne Platte and Larios carefully chose their words to avoid openly acknowledging that not only would the new garage not double availability but that it would cut into it.
Platte asked, “Is that something that’s new to the whole discussion, that aspect of the parking?” and Larios replied, “That’s my understanding of the nature of the discussions.”
It may be new to the Planning Board, but it was brought up at the April 10 public hearing by many speakers and Facebook has been burning up with comments at least since February.
(See Parking and Layout sidebars and June 3 Planning Board meeting 47:40 to 50:40)
Messages left with the offices of Patrick Page, Joseph Bonura, and Moriello were not returned.