Westminster is a congregation deeply committed to building a community whose purpose is to serve Jesus Christ in the city. We see our location as a unique gift. We are situated a block away from the state capitol of New York.
We are located in a diverse and vibrant urban neighborhood. At a time of polarization in government, media and religion, and when public discourse is increasingly shrill and uncivil, Westminster attempts to be a wide tent under which diverse ideas are not only tolerated, but welcome.
Save the Pine Bush has their monthly dinner at the rented-out hall below the church. It is accessed by going to 85 Chesnut Street. There is off-street parking next to the church for church functions and the dinner.
State Supreme Court Justice Peter Lynch was unsparing when he ruled last week that the environmental review of apartments and a Costco store proposed for Guilderland was far from thorough.
Judge Lynch, in a highly detailed 77-page ruling on a lawsuit brought by town residents, knocked the developer, Pyramid Management Group, for keeping its plans for the massive new development a secret, and criticized the Guilderland Town Planning Board for cutting corners as it undertook the state Environmental Quality Review Act process
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.
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.
Charlie Touhey, whose proposed office complex at 300 Washington Ave. Ext. was voted down by the Common Council last summer, is proposing yet another development for his 12-acre site in the Pine Bush. There is a twist to this one, though.
Usually, developers never want the neighbors to know what they are doing. In all my years of working for Pine Bush preservation, not a single developer ever voluntarily notified the neighbors about a proposed project. This time was different.
Last summer, Mr. Touhey said that if he didn't get his office complex, he would build low-income housing. The residents of the Dunes housing development took that as a threat, as houses with significantly lower value would lower the value of their houses.
