Millerton Elementary School building: Village Board discusses possible future uses

MILLERTON — Building Inspector Ken McLaughlin and Planning Board Chairman Lance Middlebrook appeared before the Village Board on Tuesday, Jan. 22, with possible plans for the former Millerton Elementary School (MES) building. Richard Lanka, of Richard Lanka & Associates, is the owner of MES, but wasn’t present at the meeting.

Located at 5833 South Elm Ave. (Route 22) in Millerton, MES was built in 1920 to serve the North East (Webutuck) Central School District. It last operated as a school in 2002, it was then leased to the North East Community Center (NECC) for its after-school, transportation and teen programs. During the 12 years that NECC was at MES, the building was also used for NECC’s High School Equivalency (HSE) English, HSE Spanish and English as a Second Language courses.

Though the school district did its best to maintain the building and its various systems, upkeep costs for the next few years ran at more than $5 million. According to the school district, those costs included $550,000 to replace the building’s roof; $300,000 to continue running the electrical system; $500,000 to maintain the boiler and heating system; and about $250,000 to maintain the sidewalks and paved surfaces around the building. 

Because the district considered the building a community cornerstone, administrators wanted to ensure it was put to good use. 

By the spring of 2017, the district was contacted by Lanka and Morgan Coy, who offered $275,000 for the building. The sale was recorded on Aug. 17, 2017.

Lanka and Coy said they were interested in different ways to develop the building; the hard part is getting redevelopment to work within the village’s zoning code. A schedule of uses lists what’s permitted on the property; if a use isn’t permitted, it’s prohibited by omission. Because MES has always been used for educational and community purposes, it can only be used for educational and civic purposes in the future. McLaughlin later said the restriction “sterilizes” the possibility of using the building for other purposes. He also said a special-use permit to allow other uses would not apply in this case.

Since MES is currently  zoned as a school in a residential district, McLaughlin and Middlebrook gave a presentation at last week’s Village Board meeting to outline possible options for the building.

 McLaughlin said they could try to find a legal use for the building that serves its permitted educational purposes. Other options would be to tear down the building or to let it deteriorate from lack of occupancy, though neither option would be in the best interest in the village.

“What we’re asking for, which seems to be popular across the country, is an adaptive reuse,” Middlebrook said.

McLaughlin and Middlebrook pointed out that the adaptive reuse method would most likely be the most efficient way to repurpose the building since it would allow for the building to be rezoned to serve a more useful purpose. 

“In this case, it’s a school building that’s never been used as anything but a school,” McLaughlin said.

On top of allowing more flexibility and control over how the building is developed, the adaptive reuse ordinance would allow the Planning Board to oversee any potential uses to determine which would benefit the village in the long run. A couple of the potential ideas for the building included converting the space into condominiums, a restaurant or a boutique hotel. 

Village Mayor Debbie Middlebrook asked Middlebrook and McLaughlin if they’d be interested in having a steering committee oversee the project to make sure it moves forward, perhaps including McLaughlin, a village trustee and a Planning Board member. She also asked if the installation of a sewer system in the village would pose an obstacle to the project. McLaughlin replied that the septic system would be part of the process; the applicants intend on having their engineers evaluate the system, he said.

At this time, the Village Board is waiting for McLaughlin to provide an existing ordinance as a template for what an adaptive reuse ordinance might look like.