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Committee refers proposal to rezone Schwenk Drive to T5 Main Street and sets public hearing
Summary
Staff presented a proposal to begin rezoning properties along Schwenk Drive to a T5 Main Street transect to encourage larger storefront-front buildings and housing; the committee voted to refer the request to planning bodies and schedule a public hearing.
The committee voted May 21 to refer a request to rezone properties along Schwenk Drive to the Kingston Planning Board, the Ulster County Planning Board and the Historic Landmarks Preservation Commission and to set a public hearing on the matter.
Staff said the proposed rezoning would change selected parcels along Schwenk Drive from a T5 neighborhood transect to T5 Main Street, a designation that allows slightly taller buildings (moving from 3.5 to 4 stories in some places), larger footprints and ground-floor frontages oriented toward commercial storefronts rather than residential facades. City staff framed the change as incremental and targeted: it would exclude certain existing buildings such as the CVS and a bank and would not be a wholesale rezoning of all nearby parcels. Staff said the change is intended to encourage denser, walkable development that blends retail and housing and to give developers clearer expectations of preferred form for the corridor.
Staff noted the referral process is the first step: the Common Council will send the request to municipal and county review bodies and set a public hearing; engineering and conceptual streetscape work from previous planning efforts was cited as background, and staff said detailed site plans would still be subject to planning review and any required traffic analysis.
The committee read a resolution referring the rezoning request and setting a public hearing, a motion and second were recorded and members voted in favor with no recorded opposition. The staff report and referral will move to the planning and preservation bodies for comment and then back to the council for further action after public hearing.
