Remarks by Michele Hirsch
7 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 1
“Thank you, Madam President. I rise in strong support of this moratorium on the North Front Street parking lot, and I thank my colleague Alderman Tierney for authoring it. It is not a decision made lightly, but it is a necessary step to restore the balance in our city. Time and time again, the administration has offered up city-owned property to developers without consulting the council first. We are the legislative body of Kingston, elected to represent the voices of our constituents, and it is fundamentally wrong for major decisions regarding public land to be made entirely behind closed…”
“Thank you, Madam President. I'd like to make a motion to suspend the rules to enter into a discussion about adding one more task force member.”
“Yes. Thank you again, Madam President. So I am looking to add one more TAB, task force Member based on a letter that the Council received this morning from our sustainability coordinator Julie noble she is asking that we. TAB, place our environmental specialist on the task force as they were one of the authors of the. TAB, Kingston green energy plan of 2025.”
“I just would like to add that our task force will be bringing in outside experts. So I don't believe that they're going to be relying on this one particular person, but I believe that they will bring value to the task force.”
“Alderman Michelle Hirsch, would you like to make a motion? Yes, thank you. I'd like to make a motion to amend Resolution 168. To add? Yes, to add one more task force member.”
“Thank you Madam President. I want to say that I obviously am in support of this resolution. This issue we've worked on closely together alongside each other to ensure our city proceeds with clarity and careful planning. As we look across Ulster County, we have watched neighboring communities struggle with the complex issues surrounding battery energy storage systems or BES as it's been known. Kingston's current land use regulations were not written with utility scale battery storage in mind. If we do nothing, we risk having outside projects dictate the terms of our development. By passing…”
“I would actually like to make a motion to send this Local Law 11 back to committee as it ties into Resolution 161, which is also going back to committee. Thank you.”