Like other municipalities across the state, Kingston is looking for housing answers. First-time homeowners struggle with soaring home prices, which have skyrocketed since 2021. Our “empty-nester” homeowners feel the strain as well, as downsizing costs increase. Our renters, half of whom are moderately or severely cost burdened by their housing, need no reminder of our current crisis. We are not alone in this. New York’s Regional Plan Association finds that New Yorkers need 800,000 more housing units by 2032 to keep pace with demand. Those findings might not make you think of municipal zoning, long considered the bureaucratic backwater of local government, but they should.

Minimum parking mandates, minimum lot sizes, excessive setbacks, outdated regulations, and prohibitions on multifamily development impact all of us by artificially driving up housing costs. Our City now has the chance to take decisive action to address this by adopting a new zoning code.

The proposed reforms, developed with input from seasoned urban planning experts and residents who participated extensively in the process, find support from advocates across the political spectrum. The resulting code resurrects some things that have worked for Kingston in years past, like neighborhood corner stores that promote walkability and economic vitality. An excellent retrospective published by the Friends of Historic Kingston (“ Mom and Pop Stores in Kingston, NY”) will help you get a sense of what we used to have and what our 1960’s-era zoning allowed us to lose.

The most important zoning reforms are housing related. For example, the new code will legalize accessory dwelling units, a field-tested method of building that helps seniors who want to live near their loved ones. The code will make it easier to build duplexes and triplexes, options particularly attractive to families just starting out. The code also includes a mix of mandates and incentives to stimulate affordable housing creation and streamline approval processes. These and other changes will encourage incremental, smaller types of mixed-use development, ensuring that future growth positively contributes to the City’s historic and much-loved urban form.

Two additional features are critical to this reform effort. The first, ending excessive parking mandates for new development, will not prevent developers from including parking in their projects. It, however, will increase housing affordability, support small business development, and protect our environment. Data from other New York municipalities that have already ended their parking mandates proves this.

The second, introducing short-term rental regulations, will limit the amount of whole-unit rentals to no more than 1% of the City’s total residences, ensuring that the overall impact on the City’s available housing will be negligible. This commonsense approach to regulating short-term rentals is consistent with both our city’s housing emergency and the law.

I often wonder: will my son or daughter be able to afford to live in Kingston if they choose to? What about their classmates? On the current trajectory, that answer is uncertain. Kingston will change. As it does so, we must ensure that our city can evolve to meet the needs of tomorrow’s residents as well as today’s.

On February 13, the City of Kingston Common Council will host a public hearing to get your feedback on these long-overdue reforms. Further details on how to have your voice heard are available on: engagekingston.com/kingston-forward . No zoning code is perfect, but we cannot forsake this opportunity to make substantial improvements by searching for perfection or demanding the impossible. With continued community input, Kingston can and should adopt this code that promotes sustainable, responsible growth.

--Bartek Starodaj is Director of Housing Initiatives for the City of Kingston