The City of Kingston and County of Ulster are proud to announce an open community forum to be held May 9th in the City Council Chambers on revitalization plans for the an area in Midtown comprising of residential and business properties in neighborhoods on both sides of Broadway, from Albany Avenue to Garden Street, as far north as Foxhall Avenue and south to Clinton Avenue.

Kingston residents, business and property owners and community groups are invited to attend and share their ideas on a report to identify revitalization targets and strategies that could bring new funding and financing incentives to the area. This forum is being held to further the New York State Department of State BOA (NYSDOS BOA) Pre-nomination Study funding received by the Ulster County Planning Department in 2016-2017.

The NYSDOS BOA Program provides communities with guidance, expertise and financial assistance to complete Nomination Plans, which are revitalization strategies for neighborhoods or areas affected by economic distress. Through the BOA Program, these areas are transformed from liabilities to community assets that generate businesses, jobs and revenues for local economies. The program provides a neighborhood or area-wide approach, rather than the traditional site-by-site approach, focused on the assessment and redevelopment of vacant, abandoned or underutilized properties. 

The neighborhood approach enables communities to comprehensively assess existing economic and environmental conditions and needs, identify and prioritize community supported redevelopment opportunities, and attract public and private investment.

The goals of the forum are to assist communities to:

Assess the full range of community redevelopment opportunities posed by a concentration of brownfields or economic distress
Build a shared community vision and consensus on the reuse and redevelopment of strategic sites and actions to achieve community revitalization
Coordinate and collaborate with local, state, and federal agencies, community groups and private-sector partners to identify and implement solutions to improve communities
Develop public-private sector partnerships necessary to leverage investment to advance and implement development projects that can revitalize diverse local neighborhoods.

Through a community-driven process, primary outcomes include:

Effective strategies to achieve revitalization through site-specific redevelopment that specifies how areas and sites can be modernized quickly and impact the community in a positive way.
Shovel ready sites - A portfolio of sites that are at or near shovel ready and ripe for redevelopment and investment for a range of businesses and uses.
Priorities for public and private investments that lead to redevelopment and other actions for community renewal.
Addressing environmental justice issues and concerns related to negative environmental consequences.
Marketing to attract investors through materials such as site renderings, descriptive brochures, web displays, requests for developer proposals, and others to attract interest and investment.
Public and private multi-agency and private sector partnerships to leverage investments to redevelop sites, improve supporting infrastructure, and provide needed community facilities.

For More information:
http://ulstercountyny.gov/planning/ulster-county-revitalization-opportunity-areas

https://www.dos.ny.gov/opd/programs/brownFieldOpp/boasummary.html