City Council Agenda For 6/2/2025 Meeting

Tonight’s 6/2/2025 City Council Meeting is open to the public, in that the public can come to speak on any topic for up to 3 minutes at the beginning and end of the meeting. Meeting begins at 7pm and is at Town Hall. The agenda has been republished to ALBB here.

Tonight’s meeting consists of 3 Public Hearings concerning the following. A Public Hearing means that the City Council needs to hear from the public on this specific subject before voting on proposed legislation.

• Accessory Apartment Requirements, to make those easier to apply for and build.

• Drought Emergency Plan.

• Loitering Law with Marijuana removed from it in order to match New York State’s law (ALBB wrote on that here).

Five laws are up for vote:

• 2026-2030 Capital Program Proposal (a vote to pass this budget on major purchases and infrastructure upgrades).

• Traffic and Parking (ALBB wrote on that here)

• Appointing Justine Bienkowski to the Tree Advisory Committee

• Appointing Brian Donnelly to the Tree Advisory Committee

• Self-Storage Facilities and Warehouse Storage Changes to law to address how they would not front on the street (must be set back). This is a reversal to an earlier proposed full out ban.

Marijuana and Cannabis Use On Sidewalks Proposed To Be Acceptable in Beacon - Not Loitering - Public Hearing Next

In a detailed set of Track Changes, the Beacon’s City Council at its 5/19/2025 Meeting agreed to set a Public Hearing to possibly Accept the proposed change in Beacon’s Loitering law in order to match New York State’s legality of marijuana and cannabis use in public spaces of streets and sidewalks, but not city parks, which Beacon has made such usage location illegal (listen to ALBB’s podcast episode about that law). Streets and sidewalks, however, the City of Beacon is proposing to deem legal in order to match New York State’s law.

The City’s Attorney Nick Ward-Willis explained: “The City's current loitering law says that if one is using marijuana, then they are deemed to be loitering. This would remove that from your from your law. Marijuana or cannabis use is permitted except where prohibited. So it can't be used in the city's parks, but it can be used in other public ways such as the road or the sidewalks. And that's permitted by New York State, so this makes the City's loitering law consistent with New York State law.”

The Public Hearing is set for the June 2nd City Council Meeting.

Traffic Proposals Up For Vote: No Parking Spots On Verplanck, Willow, North Chestnut; Adding Stop Signs to Washington Avenue

Beacon’s Parking and Traffic Safety Committee made the following recommendations during this week’s City Council Workshop meeting, which was presented by Ben Swanson, who serves as the Secretary for the Committee and is the Assistant to the Mayor’s Office. There will be a Public Hearing scheduled to hear from the public before these modifications are voted upon.

Verplanck and North Chestnut

A resident requested that the single parking spot on the East side of North Chestnut be eliminated. Councilperson Paloma Wake asked who brought this parking issue to the attention of the Traffic and Parking Safety Committee. Ben answered: "Someone who said that they use that intersection often in their travels." Ben added that there is a "related issue about the the mechanics [Verplanck Auto], whether or not they're allowed to be parking full up; filling up their little lot there on the corner. That's kind of a separate tangential issue," Ben said.

Both sides of the street are no-parking zones 50 feet from the intersection of Verplanck. The new no-parking spot would extend the East side to be 80 feet from Verplanck, and no cars would be between the house's driveway and Verplanck. The rest of Chestnut would remain having on-street parking.

A Little Beacon Blog asked Verplanck Auto if they were aware of any on-street parking issues, and they said that they were not. They agreed that the reduction of that single parking space would be a good idea, as turning into North Chestnut is difficult.

Verplanck and Willow Street

Beacon’s Fire Chief Thomas Lucchesi requested that the on-street parking on the tiny triangle at Willow Street and Verplanck be eliminated, as firetrucks need to get through. Ben explained that Willow Street is being used as the Fire Department’s “primary access route, rather than going further along Main Street than they have to.” The fire trucks come up from the new station, turn down Willow Street and go back into the surrounding neighborhoods.

Currently, there is a driveway there, and the on-street parking. During Sunday church-time, this area gets particularly crowded. When cars are parked there normally, they can become easy targets to be hit by people cutting right instead of taking the 90 degree right turn onto Verplanck from Willow Street.

Ben stated: “Verplanck and Willow Street at that intersection itself would be a very tight turn for a fire apparatus to make that turn. That access-road is really pretty crucial to their their access.”

Loading Zones of Willow Street by Main Street

Fire Chief Thomas also requested that no parking be along both sides of Willow Street for specified distances. For the West side of the street, the distance would be 65 feet, and from the East side of the street, the distance would be 90 feet.

Councilperson Paloma Wake stressed her concern for loading zones for businesses along Main Street. Turning onto Willow Street when trucks are parked on both sides of the street can be difficult, and during high traffic time between 3-5pm, a car can get stuck between them, therefore needing to alternate the oncoming cars. Trucks also do park further down into the middle of Willow Street to walk their loads down.

Stop Sign at Washington Avenue and Tillot Street

The proposal is to put Stop signs in both directions of travel on Washington Avenue at the intersection of Tillot Street, making the intersection a 4-way stop. Currently, there are Stop signs in both directions on Tillot Street.

Ben explained that there have been several requests for Stop signs along Washington Avenue. A Stop sign was discussed at Grove Street, but ultimately Tillot Street was decided upon. “Tillot Street was eventually the preferred option by the Committee because it is a primary school crossing area there's nearby bus stops. It's kind of where the character of the neighborhoods are changing along Washington Avenue becoming more dense residential, so it's kind of seen as a safety improvement to add the Stop signs to make this a four-way stop,” Ben said.

A Public Hearing will be scheduled so that the public can come in or call in with their opinions before the City Council votes on these changes.