KINGSTON, N.Y. — The City’s Common Council will not vote on tearing down the Pike Plan canopies on Wall and North Front streets in Uptown at its Tuesday meeting after lawmakers decided to send the plan back to the committee.
After discussing the Pike Plan resolution during a closed-door “client-attorney” session at the caucus meeting on Monday, Aug. 5, lawmakers decided to send the $1 million demolition plan back to the Council’s Laws and Rules Committee. Majority Leader Reynolds Scott-Childress said Mayor Steve Noble learned the city needed to bring in a consultant to work on the demolition plan, leading to a vote delay.
Noble had said previously if lawmakers voted yes on the demolition plan on Tuesday, that demolition could start on canopies in January 2025. Lawmakers did not say Monday if tabling Noble’s proposal would push back that timeline. Still, Scott-Childress emphasized that current structures are in such bad shape that demolition is the only practical action for the city to take.
The Pike Plan is the system of interconnected canopies over sidewalks on Wall and North Front streets that have been a fixture in Uptown for decades. The canopies, designed by Woodstock artist John Pike, were built in the early 1970s and overhauled for two years starting in 2011. They were found to be in poor condition in December 2015 due to poor craftsmanship.
Scott-Childress said once the current structures come down, the future remains open for North Front Street. He did not rule out the installation of some sort of new canopies or coverings that are designed differently to not be attached to the buildings, which has sparked complaints from building owners over water damage. “We could replace it with something similar in nature.
There are a lot of possibilities,” he said. When asked if those proposals could include a canopy of street trees to provide shade and cover, Scott-Childress said that would not be the best solution, as the design of the infrastructure would impede the growth and health of the trees and the trees could present new problems going down the road. Noble said in July that he recommended the historic facades underneath the Pike Plan be returned to their original form, leaving the “beautiful architecture” exposed.
Scott-Childress said once the current canopies are down, he’d like the public to share what they would like to see in their place. In July, Mayor Steve Noble went in front of the council to ask for $1 million for the demolition project. Completely replacing the structures as some have suggested could cost up to $10 million, up from an estimated $8 million in 2020, Noble said in July.
The funding will include the removal of the structures, which are at the end of their useful life, repairs to building facades where the Pike Plan was attached, and new lighting that will better illuminate sidewalks and storefronts, the mayor has said. “Since I first issued a joint statement with Common Council President Andrea Shaut in April, our City Engineer spent three months conducting multiple inspections of the structure,” Noble added. “I now better understand the concerns and liability risks this structure imposes on Kingston taxpayers, business owners and customers.
” He added this severely limits the city’s options. “We must remove the Pike Plan as soon as possible for the well-being of all concerned,” he said. “There is no option to repair — the current structure must be removed entirely due to its declining structural integrity and deteriorating condition.
” Noble has said studies in other parts of the country have found similar canopies detract from business districts by limiting visibility to storefronts while also hindering security. “Once the canopies were removed, merchants and patrons reported a brighter downtown with increased visibility to stores, greater security, increased prominence for historic architectural details, and a generally more open and pleasant environment,” he said. “For these reasons, we will see higher foot traffic into our tourism-dependent shops and restaurants.
” As for any kind of historic designation for the canopies, Noble cited a 2009 letter from the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation that found the Pike Plan to be a “non-contributing or non-historic” feature of the National Register-listed Stockade Historic District and recommended demolishing the Pike plan at the time. Soon after in the early 2010s, the city embarked on a troubled renovation project. After those renovations, the city filed a lawsuit against the design, engineering and construction firms involved in the project in 2015.
The state Supreme Court ruled the firms could not be held liable as the statute of limitations had expired. The city did secure a $315,000 settlement in 2018. Noble has also called on the council to set aside up to $2 million for a citywide Facade Fund providing grants for low-to-moderate-income building owners across the city to revitalize their storefronts and commercial spaces.
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