A Vision For Fishkill Avenue

Committee completes study of Beacon corridor
After nearly two years of work, the citizen committee studying the Fishkill Avenue corridor in Beacon this week released a 26-page final report whose broad range of recommendations spans zoning, viewsheds, housing and transportation and is supplemented by more than 100 pages of maps and appendices.
Appointed by Mayor Lee Kyriacou in January 2024, the committee was asked to develop concepts and proposals for the northeast section of Beacon, an area that includes Fishkill Avenue (Route 52), Fishkill Creek, residential neighborhoods and former industrial sites. If constructed, the Beacon-to-Hopewell Junction rail trail would follow the dormant Metropolitan Transportation Authority rail line through that part of the city and toward the Town of Fishkill.
"This has been a forgotten area of Beacon," said Pam Wetherbee, the City Council member who represents Ward 3, which includes the corridor. "There's so much potential. It's really like a hidden gem."
Committee members met monthly, and in March held a public workshop attended by about 80 people. Committee Chair J.C. Calderon, who presented the report to the council on Monday (Nov. 24), said he saw the group's work as a "forensic study" of conditions in the 1.2-mile stretch from Blackburn Avenue (at Ron's Ice Cream) to Prospect Street (at Industrial Arts Brewing Co.).
The report isn't meant to be "definitive or final in its recommendations," he wrote in the introduction, but a tool for city leaders, present and future, "to envision a future that encompasses the best interests" of Beacon.

Thirty recommendations are spread across numerous categories, some sorted by location, others by topic. Timing runs the gamut, from short-term suggestions that can be taken up in 2026 to longer-term issues that the city will address as it refines a vision for the corridor.
Some the city has already taken up. To encourage pedestrian-friendly growth around Fishkill Avenue, the committee earlier this year suggested "quick fixes" prohibiting new self-storage facilities, drive-thrus, gas stations, car washes, auto lots and repair shops. The council banned drive-thrus citywide in May and regulated self-storage facilities in June.
Below are notable recommendations; some have been shortened due to space limitations.
Industrial corridor (Fishkill Avenue east out of Beacon)
Have industrial property owners improve the character of their sites with enhanced landscaping and alternative fencing without chain link or barbed wire.
Remove self-storage facilities as a permitted use and consider restricting other "low-value or nuisance" uses.
Evaluate the addition of employment-generating or green-manufacturing uses.
Mixed-use corridor (State Street to Blackburn Avenue)
Create a new Fishkill Avenue zoning district or extend the General Business district.
Support uses such as office, retail, multi-family housing, restaurants, recreation and health care.
Prevent over-concentration of any single use.
Prohibit fast-food restaurants and self-storage businesses.
Limit or gradually phase out autocentric uses.
Allow buildings up to four stories, provided that the fourth story is recessed to reduce visual impact. Consider limiting height to three stories in viewshed areas.
Evaluate Tallix and The Yard sites for infill development.
Groveville (the historic neighborhood east of the train tracks)
Implement a Groveville Historic District.
Upgrade roads to city standards with sidewalks and trail connections.
Improve Groveville bridge to enhance pedestrian and bike access to Liberty Street.
Integrate housing through higher-density infill development while balancing open space preservation.
Housing
Retain multi-family housing as a permitted use within the mixed-use area and permit multi-family for future redevelopment proposals for the Tallix site.
Regarding affordable housing, the group said that Beacon's existing requirement to designate 10 percent of new developments (of 10 units or ...