Kingston—The Heritage Area and Historic Landmark Preservation Commissions Thursday night jointly supported the proposal for a temporary-use zoning variance to be adopted by the City of Kingston.
Kingston’s Assistant Corporation Counsel Daniel Gartenstein said there have been multiple requests made for use changes to properties since its proposal by the common council in October and appear to all be related to shifting from commercial to residential use.
“How frequently it’s going to come up, I don’t know; but just since it was raised it has come up three times,” said Gartenstein.
The temporary-use variance allows property owners to change the zoned use of their properties for up to a year during a state of emergency, given they can prove the emergency has prevented them from being able to utilize the property as zoned and will return the property to its former state after the variance period is up. That includes any improvements and the variance cannot be used to appeal for a permanent variance.
Members of the Heritage Area Commission raised concerns about property owners making improvements, then refusing to change them back upon cessation of the temporary variance.
Kingston Planning Director Suzanne Cahill said following the Planning Board’s support of the proposal, they made an addition that would mitigate such an issue.
“At the conclusion of the state of emergency, or term of the temporary use variance, an inspection will be conducted by the Building Safety Commission and any and all improvements made to accommodate the change in use will be removed within 60 days,” said Cahill.
Following the submission of a letter of approval from both the Heritage Area and Historic Landmark Preservation Commissions, the common council will vote to initiate the temporary-use variance.
