Albany, NY

Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York’s Capital District. Roughly 135 miles (217 km) north of the City of New York, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about 10 miles (16 km) south of its confluence with the Mohawk River. The population of the city was 97,856 at the time of the 2010 census.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albany,_New_York

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Judge denies development of new Guilderland Costco and Rapp Rd. apartments | WNYT.com

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Judge denies development of new Guilderland Costco and Rapp Rd. apartments | WNYT.com

An Albany Court Judge rules the challenged approvals of a future Costco near Crossgates Mall and the development of more than 200 apartments on nearby Rapp Road “arbitrary and capricious, null and void.”

Save the Pine Bush and the Guilderland Coalition for Responsible Growth says they’re pleased to announce this court victory against the Guilderland Planning Board.

Guilderland’s Environmental Approval for Costco and Rapp Road Site Plan Approval for Apartments in the Pine Bush Ruled Null and VoidοΏ½by Supreme Court Justice Peter Lynch | Guilderland Coalition for ResponsibleοΏ½Growth

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Press Release: Guilderland’s Environmental Approval for Costco and Rapp Road Site Plan Approval for Apartments in the Pine Bush Ruled Null and VoidοΏ½by Supreme Court Justice Peter Lynch | Guilderland Coalition for ResponsibleοΏ½Growth

Save the Pine Bush and the Guilderland Coalition for Responsible Growth are pleased to announce a court victory against the Town of Guilderland Planning Board. Supreme Court Justice Peter Lynch stated in his decision that the Town of Guilderland Planning Board’s SEQRA process for the Rapp Road Residential/Western Avenue Mixed Use Redevelopment Projects “violated SEQRA procedure and the ‘hard look’ test, rendering the . . . approvals arbitrary and capricious, null and void.”

The 77-page decision meticulously reviewed the entire State Environmental Quality Review (SEQRA) that the Town of Guilderland Planning Board applied to this project proposed by Rapp Road Development, LLC (aka Pyramid). Throughout the decision, the judge noted the many places where the actions of the Board were “arbitrary and capricious” and did not take the SEQRA required “hard look” at the proposed project. 

The criticism began almost immediately, with the decision stating “On scrutiny, the record herein is replete with conclusory self-serving and equally troubling representations made by the project sponsor [Pyramid], without the support of empirical data, which, unfortunately, the Planning Board relied on. That is not the stuff that the SEQRA hard look test is made of.” [emphasis added]

The decision noted in great detail how the project would harm the Rapp Road Historic District and the Westmere Terrace neighborhood. Several times, the decision observed that the project sponsor merely stating that their proposed project was allowed by the zoning, that did not constitute a “hard look.”

The lawsuit was brought by four residents of the Westmere neighborhood and Red-Kap sales.

The Talk of Albany – The New York Times

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The Talk of Albany – The New York Times

But the changes the 115,000 residents of this city on the hilly west bank of the Hudson River talk about are removed from State Street and the Murmuring heart of state government. They are on Arbor Hill, South Pearl Street and Central Avenue and on the docks by the ice‐clogged Hudson. And, there are even signs of change, at a glacial rate, in the style of Erastus Corning 2d, the Democratic patrician who has been Mayor since 1942.

The Mayor, to the surprise of many here, has begun to respond to his critics, rather than ignore them. His response was prodded, perhaps, because one of the chief critics is a woman, who once held the title of Tulip Queen.

Mrs. Theresa Cooke, the Albany Tulip Queen 15 years ago, now appears at public meetings and holds conferences to denounce the Mayor for what she contends is “fraud” in his budget. And the Mayor seems annoyed, but not flustered.