A significant legal obstacle to the demolition of Uptown Kingston’s Pike Plan Canopy has been cleared after a state appeals court ruled that the city had no obligation to maintain them. The ruling issued Sept. 25 lifts an injunction granted earlier this year that prevented the city from removing the canopies until litigation brought by a real estate firm that owns multiple properties abutting the pike plan was settled.

Mayor Steve Noble has had his sights set on demolishing the canopies for several years. The porticos, which cover the sidewalk along portions of Wall and North Front streets, were built in the 1970s as part of a larger, never realized, plan by artist and architect John Pike to create a pedestrian mall in the Stockade District. A botched restoration effort in 2011 failed to address issues with deterioration and drainage.

In 2023, Noble began lobbying the Kingston Common Council for authorization to take down the canopies. Noble argued that the structures had deteriorated past the point of repair and the only alternative to demolition was their wholesale replacement at an estimated cost of $10 million. In August 2024, the Kingston Common Council voted to go ahead with the demolition and allocated $1.2 million to carry out the work and restore underlying building façades. The project also won approval from the city’s Historic Landmarks Preservation Commission, which found the canopies did not merit landmark status. At the time, Noble said he hoped to begin the demolition process in early 2025 to avoid disrupting the holiday season in the Uptown Business District.

But progress towards the removal effort ground to a halt after a group of LLCs affiliated with William Gottlieb Real Estate, which owns buildings abutting the Pike Plan, filed a series of legal actions to halt the demolition. On Thursday, a five-judge appellate panel of the Third Judicial District unanimously upheld a lower court ruling that rejected the real estate company’s argument that the canopies were “permanent” and “immovable” structures that could not be removed without property owners’ consent.

Writing on behalf of the panel, Judge J.P Lynch said that the plain language of the law and the original memorandum of agreement between the city and Pike Plan property owners established clearly that the canopies were city property and could be disposed of as the city sees fit.

“It is declared that the Pike Plan canopies are owned by [the city] and are not immovable fixtures,” Lynch wrote.

On Thursday afternoon, Mayor Steve Noble issued a statement announcing the court decision and praising Corporation Counsel Barbara Graves-Poller for successfully defending the case. Noble said he hopes to begin work on the demolition project in early 2026, exactly one year after his original plan. Noble also pointed to the Hudson Valley LGBTQ Community Center at 300 Wall St. — where a section of canopy was removed last year as an emergency measure — as an example of the positive change that would come with the demolition of the Pike Plan.

“During the full year that this litigation halted our progress on removal of the Pike Plan, there have been near-tragic incidents and further deterioration of the structure,” said Noble. “If we look at the portion that was damaged beyond repair and quickly removed at 300 Wall Street, we can see the real benefits of removal. The building’s façade has been fully repaired and returned to its former glory. I look forward to seeing all of the façades and storefronts similarly restored.”