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CAC to review Penn Court and Broadway Commons plans; urges comp‑plan checklist be incorporated into review
Summary
Members discussed pending development applications—Penn Court, Broadway Commons (former Kings Inn) and others—and urged that the sustainability checklist embedded in the 2025 comp plan be linked to the planning-review process so developers and staff follow compact, green-building recommendations.
The Conservation Advisory Council reviewed several pending planning projects and recommended closer use of the City of Kingston’s comp-plan sustainability checklist during project review.
Council members discussed Penn Court, 615 Broadway and the redevelopment of the former Kings Inn site—now called Broadway Commons—and noted recurring concerns about landscaping, lighting, traffic, and pedestrian access. Members agreed to examine submitted landscaping plans and architectural drawings and to submit comments as agency reviewers while those applications remain open.
"One of the comments we could just send out for Penn Court, really, is to say, don't forget. There's this section here," a member said, referring to the comp plan’s list of sustainable building recommendations.
Members observed that the checklist exists in the comp plan (page 46, as cited during discussion) but is not consistently applied through the planning department’s formal review checklists. The CAC proposed two near-term actions: (1) assign members to review landscaping and lighting on specific projects before the next agency comment deadline (members volunteered to review Penn Court landscaping and 615 Broadway), and (2) ask planning staff to integrate the comp-plan checklist into routine project-review checklists or funding application guidance so developers encounter sustainability objectives earlier.
The group also discussed form-based zoning changes and whether the new code includes provisions that treat large-scale solar projects differently; members said they had sent comments to the zoning review and wanted confirmation that public-utility categorization for large solar had been noted in bulk-regulation changes.
No formal CAC resolution was adopted; members agreed to continue agency-review comments, to compile a short list of recommended sustainability items for planning staff, and to consider a follow-up at the next meeting.
