Beacon, Church Settle Dispute

City will pay $80K to terminate agreement

St. Andrew & St. Luke Episcopal Church and the City of Beacon have agreed to end a lawsuit filed more than a year ago by the church over parking. 

The church sued in Dutchess County court in June 2023 over access to a city-owned lot where, according to St. Andrew, church employees and parishioners had parked for at least 30 years. The city had closed the lot days earlier when construction began on the adjacent central fire station. 

The settlement, obtained by The Current through a Freedom of Information Law request, was reached in July and filed this month. The city agreed to pay $80,000 to terminate a 1987 agreement between St. Andrew and the Lewis Tompkins Hose Co., the former owner of the lot. 

The church said the agreement guaranteed its use of the lot, and the city disagreed. The lawsuit was discontinued with prejudice, meaning it cannot be revived. Neither side admitted wrongdoing. 

The city bought the lot from the volunteer fire company in 2020 and opened it to the public. It is being used to store machinery and equipment for the $14.7 million station, which should be completed next month. 

According to the settlement, until the fire station parking lot is completed (it is being paved and striped for 52 spaces), parishioners may continue to use temporary parking provided by the city — a 22-space lot next to the fire station lot, along with on-street spaces on South Avenue and at City Hall that are reserved on Sundays.

City Administrator Chris White said Wednesday (Sept. 11) that he expects the fire station lot to reopen for public parking by Sept. 30. 

Fishkill Creek proposal

The City Council will hold a public hearing Monday (Sept. 16) on proposed changes to the Fishkill Creek development district that would allow the council to approve a certificate of occupancy for the residential portion of a project in the zone even if the commercial portion is unfinished. 

Since 2017, the council has required developments in the creekside district to include at least 25 percent commercial space, and for the commercial to be built before or at the same time as the residential. 

But Bernard Kohn, the owner of the development at 248 Tioronda Ave., asked the council in July to waive the requirement and let him construct a third apartment building because he has been unable to secure a commercial tenant. He also asked the council to permit certificates of occupancy to be issued for the 64 apartments that are finished.

There’s been “almost zero interest” in office space at the development, said Kohn, who has not constructed the commercial building. A public hearing on his first request was scheduled for Monday but has been canceled because Kohn has undertaken “more aggressive marketing efforts” to promote the space to commercial tenants, City Attorney Nick Ward-Willis said during the council’s Sept. 9 meeting. 

White argued Sept. 9 that it would be counterproductive to deny Kohn’s second request, for certificates of occupancy for the 64 completed apartments, which include six below-market-rent units and would generate $75,000 in tax revenue for the city, as well as water and sewer funds.

But “the council didn’t create this problem,” said Council Member Dan Aymar-Blair. “The conversation you’re having with us is the conversation you should be having with the developer” about why the project has not been completed.

Kohn’s requests prompted the council to draft amendments to the Fishkill Creek zone that would permit certificates of occupancy for residential buildings before commercial with “good cause.” That public hearing will proceed on Monday.   

During the Planning Board’s Aug. 13 meeting, its members objected to the proposed amendment, saying it undermines the mixed-use purpose of the zone. 

City Council members also seemed unsure. “This is going to be a way to skirt the law,” said Aymar-Blair. “If we put this language in, everybody can build their residential projects and leave the non-residential unbuilt.”

Memorial request

The council will vote Monday on a request to name the recently renovated plaza at the Veterans Memorial Building at 513 Main St. for 1st Lt. Francis Peattie, a Beacon resident killed in action at age 20 during World War II.

Peattie was a member of the Lewis Tompkins Hose Co. before enlisting in the U.S. Army a month after the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. A member of the 65th Bomber Squadron, his plane was shot down over the Bismarck Sea on June 26, 1943. His remains were recovered in 1984 and buried at the St. Joachim–St. John the Evangelist cemetery on Falconer Street.

The council must approve the request because of a policy enacted in 2020 when it authorized Scalzo Way as a secondary name for Henry Street to honor Anthony Scalzo, the only soldier from Beacon to die in the Korean War.