At a December 21 public hearing, the Town of Ulster will seek input on a request by National Resources to have the entirety of the iPark 87 east campus to be considered part of the municipal Redevelopment Overlay District (ROD).
Established over a decade ago at the request of former TechCity owner Alan Ginsberg, the ROD was intended to allow for zoning flexibility in a space that had long been established as falling within the town’s Office and Manufacturing (OM) District going back to IBM’s ownership. Ginsberg hoped the ROD would allow the beleaguered development to attract a broader range of businesses in the technology field. The move failed to keep TechCity afloat, but the ROD remains in place.
National Resources have already come before town officials to discuss the ROD, seeking a zoning amendment in September that would allow the developers to have some fully-residential buildings in areas where first floor retail space was required. That change would also allow for a two proposed five-story residential units.
In a September interview with Hudson Valley One, Ulster Town Supervisor James E. Quigley, III explained that the first-floor restriction was the result of over two decades of dumping and chemical incidents on the property by IBM between the mid-1950’s and late-1970’s. Quigley said the first-floor requirement was originally devised by Ginsberg under the direction of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
“The restriction on the first floor residential requiring the retail was developed back in 2010 based upon the environmental data that was in place at that time on the cleanup,” Quigley said. “It was proposed by the prior owner as an easy fix given the fact that the DEC had placed restrictions on any kind of activity that would jeopardize a resident or a user from any migration from below the surface of the ground.”
At the time, Quigley said that National Resources was hoping to undo the restriction self-imposed by Ginsberg on an area that, while technically on the property, was not a contaminated hotspot, particularly as IBM has carried on remediation efforts across its former campus.
A local law pertaining to zoning amendments on the property was introduced during a meeting held on Thursday, September 7, with an addition reading:
“Residential uses permitted,” with a subsection reading, “No building or structure in the ROD (Redevelopment Overlay District) District shall exceed a height of 75 feet above curb level, or five stories.”
“The original zoning code overlay was reflective of what the thinking was 13 years ago,” Quigley said after that meeting. “So we said why handicap the project based upon 13-year-old information?”
At the time, Quigley said he expected the town board would be voting on the law this month; that vote may not come until the new year, particularly with additional ROD-related requests by National Resources addressed during the town board meeting held on Thursday, December 7.
Quigley was absent from the December 7 meeting, but in September he said that the law would only be one step in the process.
“This is a complicated project in the fact that not only do you have the zoning changes going on, but you have an application that has been submitted in concept to the planning board, which is for a revision to the master plan that had previously been approved,” Quigley said. “So now we’re walking forward on a parallel track.”
How the recent changes in National Resources’ ROD request impacts the timing of the process is unclear: Town attorney Jason Kovacs was unavailable as of press time. But last week, those changes included requesting that the structures within 138.4 acres of the east campus be included in the ROD, with the vacant spaces remaining in the OM. Six parcels totaling around 100.25 acres would be designated ROD. The December 21 public hearing will give local residents an opportunity to have their say, though in September Quigley said he didn’t expect there to be much in the way of opposition for a development that has largely garnered support from the community.
National Resources purchased the former TechCity in early June 2022, which included the exchange of 18 parcels for the eradication of $10.82 million in unpaid taxes by former owner Allen Ginsberg. The property deeds for the parcels were transferred to the Ulster County Economic Development Alliance, and were then sold to National Resources for $5 million to be paid over a five-year period, with a commitment to cover a minimum of $7 million in environmental cleanup costs, removal of debris and completion of interior demolition of abandoned buildings.
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