The City of Newburgh Zoning Board of Appeals granted approval on requested variances through an unconditional vote for the mixed-use project at 50, 50½, 52, and 54 Liberty Street on Tuesday, July 23. The approval passed with a 4-2 vote following over an hour of deliberation and public comment at the city’s zoning meeting at the Recreation Center.

Along Liberty Street, a vacant gravel lot sits adjacent to the housing community known as the Foundry, Washington’s Headquarters, the Liberty Street corridor and the Johnes and Edward Street neighborhoods. The project property, according to county records, is owned by Mid Hudson Film LLC and is located in the Downtown Neighborhood Zone in the city’s East End Historic District.

The project last appeared in late February and the proposal before the Zoning Board is for a new building with 145 units of housing. The building would feature 127 of those units being workforce, affordable housing and the remaining 18 units being market rate housing. The ground floor of the building would feature 11,000 square feet of retail and 46 parking spots would be included on the site itself. Street and sidewalk improvements would also be part of the overall project.

Assistant Corporation Counsel Jeremy Kaufman explained Tuesday night that the unconditional vote would allow variances to be granted without any conditions while a conditional vote would include conditions for the project. Approvals through the city council would also be required.

Prior to the vote on Tuesday night, Kaufman noted for the record that member Tiffany Buxton was contacted by a member of the development team prior to the meeting. Based on the interaction, Buxton confirmed the contact made during the meeting and recused herself from voting and participation.

The project team of Andrew Schrijver, Attorney John Furst, Traffic Engineer Frank Filiciotto and Architect Chris Berg returned Tuesday night. “I would submit to you [the zoning board] that this project offers an opportunity to vigorously progress what Newburgh means to be a city, that responds to the needs of different types of working class residents seeking housing, that embraces its small businesses, business owners, by ensuring community and a customer base is there to be supported and nourished by those businesses, that embraces new efforts that enrich the entire community,” said Schrijver.
The request, according to the city agenda, from the zoning board was for an area variance on a maximum yard setback and for 112 off-street parking spaces. Back in late February and on Tuesday night, Filiciotto discussed the parking availability for the project through a traffic study conducted in the area. City streets and parking areas were reviewed during the course of the conducted study, determining adequate parking.

“Our project requires 154 parking spaces, that’s combined between the 145 units of residential and the commercial space. We’re providing 46 parking spaces on the site which renders a variance of 108 parking spaces so that’s how the math is working out,” said Filiciotto.

Filiciotto also discussed the proposed changes to city streets in the immediate area of the project. The streets include Liberty Street, Johnes Street, Lafayette Street, Edward Street and South William Street. Filiciotto discussed back in February that Johnes, Edward and Lafayette were proposed to be converted into one-way streets. Following Filiciotto, Assistant Corporation Counsel Jeremy Kaufman said a request has been received by the city and the city staff is reviewing the request to then make a recommendation to the city council on the proposed street directional changes.

Back in late February, the proposal went before the zoning board and a public hearing was held, with comments from residents that evening not expressing favor for the project. At the conclusion of the hearing, the zoning board voted to keep the hearing open until the next appearance by the project.

The continuation of the hearing was held later that evening with a different intake of comments from the public. Kaufman served as moderator of the hearing and comments from the public. “I just wanted to say that I really like the look and feel of this project, and I’m in favor of it,” said Chris Hajek, resident and Liberty Street business owner. “I think that the long term impact would be beneficial to the flavor and variety of what’s in the neighborhood.”

“The City of Newburgh and so much of our area is experiencing a dire housing crisis, and this project will create 145 units of housing, with 127 of those being affordable. That is a lot of housing,” said Lisa Silverstone, Executive Director of Safe Harbors. “In my opinion, this is a beautiful and well designed project that will replace vacancy with vibrancy. It’s critically important for success of our city to create density and bring neighbors back to our neighborhoods.”

“One of the things that I feel like nobody from the public’s talked about yet is the retail space here and the impact it’s going to have on providing jobs to local folks who don’t have a car,” said Dan Gilbert. “Newburgh’s getting more expensive and one of the ways to combat that besides adding affordable housing is to bring more jobs here.”

“I just want to point out that there used to be a beautiful building on that lot that I think was torn down during Urban Renewal and I think there deserves to be another beautiful building there,” said Erik Cooney. “I think Andrew and his team did a beautiful job with the Foundry and I think we should give them this opportunity to take this project off the ground and I think it’ll be transformational for Liberty Street and I think there’s plenty of parking.”

Several members of the city council and the Architectural Review Commission (ARC) were present at the meeting and offered their comments on the project. Kaufman emphasized to the zoning board and for the public’s knowledge that these members were speaking in their capacity as city residents.

“I’m here tonight to urge the zoning board to approve the 1 Lafayette development project. I want to remind you that in 2021 the City Council conducted a comprehensive housing study that outlined the critical housing needs for the City of Newburgh community. The study concluded that we need to build, build and build affordable housing,” said Ramona Monteverde, a city councilwoman. “The 1 Lafayette project represents an essential step forward in addressing our current housing crisis, and yes, the city did declare a housing crisis. It aligns perfectly with the study’s recommendation and the city’s long term vision for sustainable and inclusive growth.”

“I want to voice my support for this project. I’ve seen it move through the other boards for a number of months now, and really good faith efforts made to make this a project that I think will be a really successful mixed use project,” said Carson Carter, an ARC member.

“I want the project because we are in a housing crisis in this state and we need affordable housing,” said Raymond Bryant (aka Omari Shakur), a city councilman. “I talked to about 30 people who live right in my vicinity. Not one of them has even been talked to about this project.”