The owner of 184 Main Street in New Paltz — built as an old-fashioned drive-through restaurant, back when idling engines were not considered a terrible idea for the planet — are again looking to tear down a structure that’s become an eyesore and replace it with something much bigger. The last time Violet Jamal’s consultants pitched an idea to members of the Village of New Paltz Planning Board, it would have required zoning changes to be possible. Since then, Village trustees have helpfully changed the zoning, and now Planning Board members are reviewing a proposal for a 100-seat restaurant and outdoor café, topped by a dozen hotel rooms and a roof deck.
Only one roof deck has previously been proposed in the village, on Zero Place. If the public response to that project is any indication, roof decks are an unpopular idea among nearby neighbors, but other residents are less likely to have an opinion. However, the Zero Place roof deck is not yet fully operational.
Putting people on the roof isn’t the only idea that seems to have been borrowed from the net-zero-energy building on North Chestnut Street. At first glance, the renderings look like Zero Place, only smaller. It’s another very square, flat-roofed, brick-faced building. There’s one very big difference, though: no one’s talking about this project being energy neutral. Instead, architect Sam Dillehay spoke about “expanding the walkable village footprint” by adding another wholly commercial structure that’s close to the road.
Board member Rachel Lagodka recalled that there were past questions about draining connected to this site. As it happens Don Kerr investigated this while serving as a trustee, as did Bryant Arms, a former building inspector. The specific site issue is that the dry wells have not been maintained, and the runoff has undercut the driveway and parking area of the neighboring 180 Main Street for years. This is part of a larger issue, one that may have its roots in the decision to allow the near-total paving of the shopping plaza on the corner of Main and Manheim. Rainwater that runs off that roof and asphalt flows downhill, through 184 and 180 and eventually down properties on Center Street to pool along Plattekill Avenue. Had modern storm water regulations been in force, that runoff would have had to have been stopped before it reached the property line. Engineer Andy Willingham advised that the two failed dry wells are to be replaced with four new ones, which presumably will be maintained.
What may be more of a sticking point is whether hotel rooms can be considered “residential” or not. That’s how they are classified in building code, to ensure that the safety standards of places where people sleep are consistent, but the use of the word in zoning is different. When this stretch of Main Street was rezoned, it called for buildings that had commercial uses on the bottom floor, and residential uses above. It seems that board attorney Rick Golden is easy with hotel rooms on the second floor, but maintains that putting them on the third floor in lieu of apartments is a “threshold issue” that must be ruled on by the code enforcement officer. Planning Board members must color within the lines of the law, which includes granted variances and also these kinds of determinations. Until a decision is rendered on that question, this project won’t be moving ahead in its current form.
Join the family! 
