More details on brewery, building inspector withdraws
A public hearing held by the Beacon Planning Board on Tuesday (Jan. 8) revealed more details about a microbrewery proposed for 511 Fishkill Ave.
Industrial Arts Brewing Co., which was founded by Cold Spring resident Jeff O’Neil in 2016 in Rockland County, has asked the Planning Board to amend an approved site plan to allow a brewery, arcade and event space at the former Mechtronics Corp. building on the outskirts of Beacon.
The firm plans to request the board require less parking than if the uses were separate businesses, architect Aryeh Siegel said. Because the brewery will operate during the day and the arcade and event space will likely be open only on Thursday and weekend evenings, the amount of parking required for each will be “comfortably less” than the 205 spaces on the property, he said. Without an exception, city zoning requires 299 spaces.
Although Siegel called the brewery and arcade (the latter also has a Peekskill location and will not be operated by Industrial Arts) “known quantities,” some Planning Board members cautioned that parking could be inadequate for some events, such as beer tastings.
Industrial Arts plans to open a beer-tasting room of “modest size” with an outdoor deck first, followed by a second phase with an event space upstairs and beer manufacturing as a third phase, O’Neil said.
Only one resident spoke during the hearing, suggesting that beer production could cause water consumption to spike. The hearing will resume at the February board meeting.
In other business …
The Planning Board closed its public hearing on a request by the River Valley Restaurant Group to convert the two-story commercial building and single-story garage at 296 Main St. into a new location for Ziatun, now at 244 Main. River Valley also owns Tito Santana, Vegetalien and Beacon Bread Company.
After being named in November as the city’s new building inspector, George Kolb has decided not to take the job, Mayor Randy Casale said during Monday’s City Council meeting. Kolb will remain in Union Vale, where he has been the building inspector since 2011. Tim Dexter, Beacon’s longtime inspector, retired at the end of 2018. David Buckley, the department’s deputy, will lead the agency on an interim basis while city officials seek a full-time replacement through Dutchess County civil service, said Anthony Ruggiero, the city administrator.
