The Pine Hills Land Authority, the offshoot of Albany county government responsible for repurposing the former College of Saint Rose campus paused property sales to the county until a planning process wraps up next month, the Pine Hills neighborhood association, which represents residents surrounding the 28-acre campus in the middle of the city, asked the authority to hold off on selling the properties. The group also asked county executive Dan McCoy to share details about how the county plans to use the buildings it wants to buy. Carolyn Keefe serves on the neighborhood Association's committee focused on Saint Rose. She wants the county to explain what they plan to do with the buildings, especially prominent buildings on Madison Avenue, where the Albany County Sheriff's Department has relocated some of its operation. Both Keefe and county executive Dan McCoy discussed the issue with WAMC. Here are clips of the conversations, edited for time and clarity,
"The Albany County Pine Hills land authority has agreed to our request that they pause all building sales until after the reimagined Saint Rose redevelopment process is completed. So that means they could have held a vote to sell the buildings in November, but they're going to pause until after the report is submitted from the Reimagine Saint Rose planning team, so we're very pleased about that," said Keefe. "We thank the authority for really listening to the community and to our concerns. We thank our supporters, the over 375 people who signed our petition and the 10 organizations who signed on to our statement with that request.
"In addition, we had sent our letter to county executive Daniel McCoy regarding our concerns about the buildings and about the lack of transparency around planning for this process, we think that county residents and taxpayers deserve both a full redevelopment process, but also transparency about the county's plans," she said. "Why these buildings, why these five buildings that the county has put an offer in and why now we have concerns about some of these buildings could be put back on the tax rolls.
"We have concerns about turning the campus into an office park and losing some of that vibrancy after business hours," Keefe said. "Mostly, we don't really feel like we are getting a clear sense of the vision for the county's plans for the buildings that they have already put an offer on. We're particularly concerned about the buildings on Madison Avenue, especially the Hearst Media Center, which was designed to complement the Massry Center for the Arts, as well as the administration building the former Pine Hills library and the business school. There has not been a clear articulation about the plans for those particular buildings. I know that there is a plan to move the sheriff's office into two of them, but why split them over those two buildings, and that's what we ask in the letter.
Keefe continued: "We have not heard back from the county executive or their office about our letter, but we're hoping to hear more. We do want to be a collaborative partner with both the county and the authority, but it's important that someone is asking these questions, and that we think it's really important that as taxpayers, as residents, as supporters of this project, as those physically closest to this campus, that we ask important questions and make sure that we understand what is going to happen going forward."
The Pine Hills Land Authority did not return requests for comment, but County Executive Dan McCoy emphasized that he has to consider more than just city residents who live in the Saint Rose neighborhood.
"This property is so vital. It's in the heart of the Pine Hills neighborhood, over 72 buildings, 27 acres. We prevailed in our bid. I started working immediately on how I could make this math equation work. I need to move certain things there to offset the cost," McCoy said. "These are big grounds to take care of and on top of that, they figured it'd be about $3 million a year to maintain the school. It's a lot more than $3 million. It was a miscalculation.
"I want to improve it. We're doing all that and really trying to preserve this property. So I had to move quickly and move some agencies there, because, you know, there's a lot of maintenance issues that go on, and we had to get in there," McCoy said. "Again, we're the ones that invested in this, not the city of Albany, the county. I've gone to every neighborhood meeting, and it's just not the Pine Hills people, you know, I've got to listen to Coeymans, Ravena Berne, Knox, Bethlehem, Colonie, Green Island, Cohoes, Watervliet. I got to hear from Menands, everyone else and and not just a certain neighborhood group.
"You know, they're not a driving force on this project, it has to work for the whole county," McCoy said. "I want to attract people from outside the county that want to go there, maybe get dinner. So we want to make it available and attractive to everyone. Their letter, I hear it and I go, your gripe should have been with the mayor and the Common Council that didn't step up. We borrowed money. And we're going to make this work. And I got to turn this project around quickly, because what's going on on a national level with the federal government's going to do. He's going to do. I got to make this work quickly, but I have to be thoughtful of the process too. They could have had a meeting to being to turn them properties over to us, and we all decide we're like, let's just wait until the report comes out and we got one more meeting to go. I look forward to going. I go to every meeting to listen to the residents, to hear what they have to say and be available to talk to them.
"I walked the Pine Hills neighborhood. I knocked on doors. They're glad that we're taking this project on and that we're trying to make it work. We're going to make mistakes as we go through this process. We will wait till the 18th of November to go to the board, to move everything over. And I do want to see the final report from CPL and have everyone fairly put their input in it, because I said I would listen to everyone, but I just got to remind you, this is not the Pine Hills people driving the bus. Yes, it's their neighborhood. But again, I have to listen to all the voices of the county."
The third public meeting about Saint Rose takes place this week, on Wednesday, October 29 from five to 6:30 p.m. at the Massry Center for the Arts across the street from the two previous meetings on Madison Avenue. For WAMC, I'm Cailin Brown.
