The September 13, 2021 City Council Workshop agenda and video recording of the meeting have been added to A Little Beacon Blog’s Easy Access City Government section.
In short, a brief summary of some of the items discussed on the agenda is below. Click here for links to the agenda items for any digital resources linked to the topics discussed, as well as the video recording of the meeting.
Housing Initiative Prioritization + Parking
The City Council discussed Mayor Kyriacou’s Affordable Housing Proposals, lingering on the Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) component. The Mayor, who is a landlord who has owned several properties in Beacon, wants to see the right to have an Accessory Dwelling Unit be approved as of right for homeowners to build and rent out. An Accessory Dwelling Unit is like a giant garage/studio, that is a stand-alone structure built next to someone’s home, that can have water and electricity flowing to it. There are restrictions as to how far it needs to be from the house, and how large it can be.
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Editorial Note 9/20/2021: The paragraph above originally included a line stating that Mayor Kyriacou “is married to a realtor,” which has since been deleted. Mayor Kyriacou submitted what can be taken as a correction during the City Council Meeting on 9/20/2021. While he did not email or phone in with this correction, as is standard with most publications, he included it after his public service announcements, leading with sarcasm: “I've been made aware that I am a bigamist, which I find interesting. My spouse of 30-some years is a professional and spent most of the last dozen years in higher education as a marketing and communication executive. The last 6 years at West Point, but before that at Fordham and at RPI. But apparently I have a second spouse who is a realtor. So, unbeknownst to me, I've been married twice. And I wanted to say, whoever you are out there, come say ‘Hi,’ and I'll learn a lot more. I could at least have some fun, right? Oh, and I learned that online, by the way.”
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Currently, Beacon’s zoning laws make building Accessory Dwelling Units difficult. In general, ADUs have not been popular with the public - rather - the public who is motivated enough to attend public meetings to speak out against them. Including when homeowners want to build an ADU for in-laws or caregivers. The fear by some of the public is that the ADU will be used by developers and homeowners as rentals. Which seems to be the goal of affordable housing.
The Mayor’s proposal encourages small residential units and more cluster housing. City Administrator Chris White projected his vision of who Accessory Dwelling Units was intended for: couples and single people moving from New York City who do not need large homes, he said, and move to Beacon without cars. He referred to this concept for the ADUs as “workforce units,” and stated that he did not think homeowners would build luxury Accessory Dwelling Units, similar to the expensive apartments on Main Street. He assumed homeowners would use low or moderate grade materials to keep costs down. Which does not indicate what the homeowner may then charge for that unit.
Perhaps he has not seen the adorable tear-down renovation of the tired house with studio garage on Cross Street.
Parking Requirements Possibly Waved For Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs)
Parking requirements for Accessory Dwelling Units is also under consideration to be waved. Parking requirements are the number of parking spaces a property owner must make available to tenants. Often, these requirements are used to stall a building project if street parking cannot be found.
Councilmember George Mansfield suggested that people are moving to Beacon without cars. City Administrator Chris stated his belief that generally, people moving to Beacon do not have cars, and therefore do not need parking spaces. Councilperson Air Nonken Rhodes suggested that people do buy cars after moving to Beacon in order to leave the bubble of Beacon for necessities, jobs and enjoyment.
City Administrator Chris stated that with people moving from New York City without cars, there is less of a need for parking. He stated that he feels that assuming someone would want to buy a car after moving to Beacon, and to park that car in one of the property’s parking spots that the building owner is required to offer, is a “social justice” issue, concluding that poor people do not want to own cars and absorb the burden of incurred expenses from car ownership, and instead can rely on existing public transportation as a better idea.
City Administrator Chris stated: “Where is the evidence that you need that level of parking that we require in our code? I felt like, as a planner, a lot of this was made up. 'You have this size unit, you need 2 cars or 3 cars.' There is no evidence that you necessarily need that. Also, just be aware that we have new technology and common solutions that we could implement. The new technologies...George rode here on an electric bike. We see the proliferation of micro-mobility through scooters. If you watch people whipping up Beekman from the train station, you'll see a lot of people are looking at these things as much cheaper than maintaining a car with insurance and repairs. Again, a social justice issue is that we shouldn't have to require every poor person to own a car to get around. The other part is the societal thing which is moving toward that micro-management where there is on-demand transit. The County seems to be moving in that direction, and I've talked to them about piloting something like that in Beacon. Because again, you have 5 square miles. It's a walkable, compact community. Particularly with the new e-bikes. It really makes it accessible to someone who never would have been able to ride a bike."
Councilmember Air reiterated: "The issue is getting out of town."
It should be noted that there is no requirement of a person living in a building or house to own a car, even if they have access to a parking spot from the building owner.
Additionally, for couples who move into these units, who start families and stay in these small dwellings because they cannot afford to buy larger homes, may eventually have kids old enough to go to soccer or ice-hockey practice. Getting the family to soccer practice in Beacon on an e-bike would be impossible, and getting the family to ice-hockey practice in Poughkeepsie would be very difficult on public transit.
No Discussion Of Families With Children
There was no discussion of families - parents with children - who have moved out of Beacon because they grew out of their small apartment or rental in a duplex, and cannot afford to buy a house in Beacon with a yard. Nor was it discussed how many families are living in cramped quarters in their current small apartments because they do not want to move out of Beacon, or move out of the Beacon City School District.
City Administrator Chris stated: “Now you see more people moving in who are single adults, empty nesters, younger people who maybe have a different...or are single or are just 2 people. We are building houses for these huge families...and I know I look a lot of the housing as someone who is single, and it doesn't fit. It would never fit. I don't need that much house. I think a lot of people think that way."
Several families have also left Beacon because they could not find a house to buy with several bedrooms with a yard in their price range.
Also not discussed was how many people of high and low incomes do buy cars after moving to Beacon from New York City. Leaving the bubble of New York City for any community outside of that island usually involves leaving the municipality for doctor appointments, different grocery shopping experiences, dining out in new locations, visiting family, going to the Dutchess County Fairgrounds, etc.
Some people who do not have cars hire taxis to get their children to school, to the public pool, to Girl Scouts. Some take the bus, however, getting children onto public transportation is work.
Recreation Needs Assessment Scoping
Parks and Recreation Director Mark Price was called to the meeting by City Administrator Chris to present Mark’s early vision of what the Recreation Study could look like. Now that the Recreation Department is done with the Kids Camp Program and the Public Pool Program, the City Administrator said that he felt that Recreation Director Mark had time to think about preparing the study.
In last year’s budget planning, where there was a groundswell of demands from the public for more money to be placed into the Recreation Department, which Recreation Director Mark voluntarily decreased. Mayor Kyriacou earmarked at least $50,000 for a Recreation Study to discover what people needed.
During this City Council Workshop, Councilmember Dan Aymar-Blair pointed out that he wanted to see the building of a new and larger Recreation Community Center be part of that study, and recalled that the budget earmarked two studies for $50,000, totalling $100,000: one for programs, and one for a building. He did not want to see the building left out.
Mayor Kyriacou and City Administrator Chris responded that they wanted to see programs first in order to see what kind of building to build. For instance, City Administrator Chris suggested that a theater program could happen in the Memorial Building, which has a stage and according to him, sits empty most of the time, he said.
It should be noted that the Memorial Building was dedicated to the Veterans, where Veterans are regularly requesting maintenance to it as it is in disrepair.
Councilperson Air Nonken Rhodes stressed their desire to see a space for “hanging out,” that is not structured with programming, but just is a place for kids to come hang out, in addition to programming going on around the space.
Hiring and Promoting City of Beacon Employees
In the hiring and promoting of City Employees, the Council has requested more information before they make hires, which they do by voting at public meetings. Spearheaded by Councilperson Jodi McCredo, who wants to see more information before the Council votes to hire people, she has made a suggestion to City Administrator Chris to see resumes before being presented with a candidate at public meetings. In past workshops, City Administrator Chris has responded to that concept that he did not want to “waste their time” with sending resumes, but could consider obliging.
It should be noted that the public is not regularly informed when city employees are terminated or quit, unless the position is in the the public eye, such as the City Administrator position last year, Police Chief, etc. Terminations or resignations of employees of Police Officers, Highway Department, Water Department, etc. are not regularly shared in public meetings or in Resolution documents that are uploaded to the internet. One usually needs to find out by submitting a FOIL request.
Proposed Amendment to 2021 City Council Meeting Schedule
Mayor Kyriacou would like to have less City Council meetings, similar to what was tried during the summer of 2021 when public City Council meetings were paired with Workshops where the public is not allowed to speak. The lighter summer schedule left some Monday nights open with no meetings scheduled.
Mayor Kyriacou consistently tells his constituents that he is a “part time” mayor while he is out chatting in the community, or even during his most recent testimony against the Damskammer plant, as reported by the Beacon Free Press.
City Administrator Chris referred to the preparation for weekly meetings as a “hamster wheel” that was a lot of work. Mayor Kyriacou positioned the proposed change of reduced meetings as not necessarily a reduction of meetings, but as a way to favor seasonally crowded meeting agendas, such as October’s budget season.
Councilperson Dan disagreed with the proposal, and cited that he saw this as a reduction in meeting times. Though he figured his kids would like to see him on Monday nights, Councilperson Dan felt it right to continue with the weekly meetings. Councilperson George Mansfield noted that while he has been attending the weekly meetings for 12 years, and would appreciate an open Monday, he also wanted to continue with regular meetings for consistency for the public.
The Council was not aligned with the Mayor’s vision of a reduction in meetings, so the Mayor suggested hiring an additional support person for the City Administrator, to which the Council agreed was a good idea.
Community Facilities Grant Applications
Movement has been made on the awarding of unused grant money that can be used to improve buildings owned or leased by non-profits or by building owners whose buildings have been designated historic, or are in the Historic District. The monies need to be used for permanent structures that cannot be removed. The first entities who look the most promising are the Beacon Historical Society for an accessible ramp, and the Howland Cultural Center for facade improvements.
The River Pool of Beacon did apply for money to help with this temporary pool that it sets up in the Hudson River each year, but the City Administrator said that the grant rules state that the structure needs to be permanent, but that he was happy to see them apply and had not considered an entity like that. Applications are still open for this financial opportunity.
Executive Session Items
Personnel and Contract Negotiations
Details on what is talked about during the Executive Session portion of the meeting are never revealed. Only the City Council members, Mayor, City Administrator, Attorney, and if anyone else was in the meeting have access to this knowledge.
