Two proposed housing projects were presented at the Oct. 19 Kingston Planning Board meeting: 10 units at 350 Broadway with three being affordable and a Milestone Development project, partnered with RUPCO, at 111 Schwenk Drive to create a 135-unit all-affordable housing project.

Diane Chen, the applicant for the Broadway project, came with her general contract builder, Michael Shiloh. The previous owner of the building had approval for seven units and a commercial storefront, but Shiloh said the property would never qualify for a building permit because the two adjacent lots did not allow for proper fire egress. Shiloh said he and Chen also found the second and third floor roofs were in “total need of replacement.”

After consulting with their local architect, Shiloh and Chen decided to remove the structure down to the second floor, rebuild and renovate, which led to the proposal for 10 units. The rear of the property did not have an easement for trash removal on the deed, and Shiloh said in the “worst case scenario,” they can walk through the ground floor corridor and put the garbage in the front when the garbage dumpster comes.

Shiloh also plans to move a specific area of the property currently used by a homeless person closer to the street to serve as a wind entry for a future retail space when Chen decides to rent that portion out and “eliminate the homeless person sleeping there.”

As for the Schwenk Drive project, developers plan to demolish the existing structure, a car dealership that was Romeo Kia before closing for good, to construct a fully affordable building, from studio to three-bedroom apartments. The developers also plan on using a sustainable building method with hybrid cross-laminated timber (CLT) construction and geothermal heating and cooling systems.

Because the site is located within a floodplain, the finished floors will be raised five feet above the ground plane. The project also includes 100 parking spaces, with electric vehicle (EV) charging stations and bike parking.

Kingston Planning Director Suzanne Cahill asked for more visual simulations, both day and night, and from various vantage points, to better assess the building’s impact on surrounding buildings. The planning board was specifically concerned to see how the building, which would be six stories, would look from the lower-scale North Front Street buildings.

The planning board moved to approve the Broadway project pending the submission of final documents and signatures, while the Schwenk Drive project will receive a public hearing on Nov. 16, with developers hoping to close on the project in about a year. Shiloh told the planning board that he planned on applying for permits for the downstairs space that was already permitted, will finalize the drawings with the architect and do the roof “sooner rather than later.”