Fishkill Avenue: Zoning Could Come First

Committee chair provides progress report 

The citizen committee studying the Fishkill Avenue corridor in Beacon is more than 50 percent finished with its work and could soon issue preliminary zoning recommendations to the City Council. 

That was the most significant takeaway from a status report that committee Chair J.C. Calderon delivered to the council on Monday (Nov. 25). While firm dates were not discussed, Mayor Lee Kyriacou said that he and City Attorney Nick Ward-Willis would meet with Calderon, who is a former Planning Board member, and Natalie Quinn, the city’s planning consultant who is advising the committee, in the next two weeks. 

A batch of recommendations could follow, with more potentially to come.

Kyriacou created the 11-person committee in January (since then, three members have dropped out and one was added) to study zoning, streetscapes, non-vehicular access and other questions related to the northeast section of Beacon, although most of Monday’s discussion focused on Fishkill Avenue (Route 52). The group has met monthly since March, with subcommittees concentrating on zoning and streetscapes. 

The former is further along. “The zoning subcommittee definitely has some solid ideas, they just need to get them down and formalized and get the full committee’s support,” Quinn said. After that, they can be sent to the council.

It was Council Member Amber Grant on Monday who asked if she and her colleagues could “lock arms” on a first tranche of zoning revisions and then return to the issue once the committee has completed its work. The urgency, she said, is evident after this month’s Planning Board meeting, which marked the beginning of the city’s review of a proposal to convert the former Healey Brothers Ford dealership at 420 Fishkill Ave. to a Dunkin’ coffeehouse with a drive-thru, additional commercial space and three apartments on the second floor.

“Are there some things from the zoning aspect that we could take a look at really quickly and get into place to minimize the stuff that we absolutely don’t want to be happening” on Fishkill Avenue, Grant asked. 

Another council member, Molly Rhodes, agreed, likening preliminary recommendations to the low-cost “quick fixes” that the Main Street Access Committee submitted to the council in 2020, nearly two years ahead of its full report. 

Calderon also introduced a series of hand-drawn sketches that, if finalized, would give the council multiple scenarios to consider for adding or improving sidewalks and street trees along the corridor. Three of the four sketches include adding bike lanes to Fishkill Avenue, which should please the members of the Beacon Bicycle Coalition. 

Members of the coalition and its supporters have flooded the council with public comments in recent weeks advocating dedicated lanes for cyclists on the busy thoroughfare.  

Calderon’s update made frequent reference to a trail that’s been proposed for the dormant Metro-North rail bed that runs mostly parallel to Fishkill Creek, recommending trail connections at seven sites in the corridor, including near Lank’s Automotive, the former Healey properties and the Hudson Baylor recycling center. Dutchess County issued a report this month on conditions along the 13-mile segment of railroad from the Beacon waterfront to Hopewell Junction, where, if built, the trail would connect with the Dutchess Rail Trail and the 750-mile Empire State Trail. 

The report notes that the corridor is in good condition and introduces two options: converting the corridor into a trail or constructing a trail adjacent to the railroad tracks. A detailed analysis of the options will follow in a separate report, but “the study team did not find any issues that would preclude the conversion of the corridor to a trail,” it said. 

The Fishkill Avenue committee is also studying walkability in the area and may “strongly” advocate sidewalks on both sides of the road in its final report, Calderon said. “My goal is to make Fishkill Avenue a place that you want to go to, not a place that you have to go to,” he said. 

248 Tioronda request

The council could vote on Monday (Dec. 2) on a developer’s request to be issued certificates of occupancy (COs) for 64 apartments at 248 Tioronda Ave. 

The developer, Bernard Kohn, constructed the apartments in two buildings overlooking Fishkill Creek but did not construct a third, commercial building at the same time, which was a condition of approval in the Fishkill Creek development zone. 

Kohn asked the council in July to authorize the COs because he has been unable to land a tenant for the unbuilt commercial structure. In response, the council adopted amendments to the zoning requirements that permit COs for residential buildings before commercial with “good cause shown” and with conditions as the council “deems appropriate.”

On Nov. 25, Kohn and his attorney offered to convert two, 1-bedroom apartments in the complex to below-market rental rates, in addition to the six affordable units already required by the city’s zoning. If the council accepts, Kohn said he would continue seeking tenants for the third building and report back next spring. 

Some council members were unimpressed with the offer while Kyriacou noted that, through lost rent and administrative costs, it could cost Kohn $300,000 for each apartment he converts. 

After some debate, Kohn upped his offer to convert a 1-bedroom unit and a 2-bedroom unit to affordable status (an increase of an additional bedroom). With Kyriacou dissenting, the council asked Kohn to add two more apartments to the affordable column, possibly for five years, after which they could revert to market rate. 

Kohn and the attorney, Brad Schwartz, said they would consider the request and return for the Dec. 2 meeting.