City officials say that the developers of the proposed Kingstonian project have completed a series of studies on the environmental impact of the mixed-use complex eyed for Uptown. Now the city’s planning board will decide whether to accept those studies as sufficient, or seek a more exhaustive environmental review process.
“I don’t know anyone who is against developing the city property at the end of Wall Street,” writes a reader. “Nor do I know anyone who is against a true increase in parking spaces available to the community. What I hear and see are that people want a project that aesthetically fits the area; that benefits the community, and that addresses historical, societal, and environmental needs. The Kingstonian project, as it is currently designed, fails in most of these areas.”
The Kingston Planning Board may, at a special meeting set for Sept. 11, be ready to decide just how thorough a review the proposed Kingstonian condo-hotel-parking project will get. Or it may not.
Speakers remain divided on whether the project being pitched for the edge of Kingston’s historic Stockade District would contribute to economic growth, or simply accelerate the pace of gentrification.
A request for a zoning change by developers of the Kingstonian complex could give the Common Council an opportunity to bring more scrutiny to bear on the proposed residential, commercial and hotel complex.
The Kingston planning board this week declined to make a key ruling on the scope of an environmental review of the Kingstonian, the proposed residential, parking and hotel project in Uptown Kingston.
Will the $53 million proposed residential, commercial and parking project proposed for Uptown Kingston face a long (and expensive) review process or a relatively quick and painless one? An engineer for the developers has said a lengthy review will kill the project, while protestors have called on the city to reject the proposal, arguing it will drive up rents for the city’s poorer residents.
As the city’s planning board is working to decide just how extensive the environmental review for the Kingstonian should be, an engineer for the developers of the site said this week he believes his bosses will pull the plug on the $53 million proposed residential, commercial and parking project if planners demand they produce a full environmental impact statement.
Battle lines were drawn in the matter of the city’s most divisive development proposal in years when more than 200 people turned out for a public hearing Wednesday night on the proposed Kingstonian project. While members of the city’s business community came out strong in support of the proposed housing, parking and retail complex in the Stockade District, affordable housing advocates and other activists called for the city’s planning board to reject the $52 million project, claiming that it would fuel gentrification and lead to Kingston’s poorest residents being pushed out of their homes.
Developers of a proposed retail, residential and parking complex in Uptown Kingston are planning to present studies on traffic, stormwater and other issues at an April 10 public hearing at City Hall. It will then be up to the city’s planning board to determine if the proposed Kingstonian project needs to go through a more extensive — and potentially years-long — environmental review.
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