The crowd inside a Saint Rose auditorium filled three tiers Wednesday as hundreds of neighborhood and city residents are eager to hear what’s happening with the more than 20-plus acres of campus in the heart of the capital city. Some buildings are already occupied, and preparations are underway to enable other buildings to be put back on the tax rolls as housing stock.
Carolyn Keefe, a Pine Hills Neighborhood Association board member, said she was encouraged by Wednesday’s turnout to discuss how the former college campus might be redeveloped.
“Everybody is concerned about the future of this campus, literally everyone. They may have different perspectives on how that should happen and what should happen first, but they are all engaged and concerned,” Keefe said.
Keefe said the timeline is a quick one - the Albany County Pine Hills Land Authority, which owns the campus, intends to release a report in November based on three community meetings and other factors - so community engagement will be key.
"I think this project has a lot of potential to provide a lot of benefit for people throughout the neighborhood, the city and the county. And we just hope that everyone gets and stays engaged with this process over the next few months and that everyone makes their voices heard.”
Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan on Thursday said she was encouraged by reports about the heavy attendance, and emphasized that economic rejuvenation will be central for the city’s success.
“The college had a tremendous economic impact in the City of Albany. The students that were there had buying power, the faculty, the staff. And what I have said from the very beginning is that I think that the goal should be to replace that economic impact. It’s upwards of $150 million of economic impact that the college had. And so, looking at how you are able to generate similar economic opportunity and economic activity is really important. Whether that is a combination of private sector, potential reuse for education and certainly looking at the opportunities for housing,” Sheehan said.
To facilitate the redevelopment, the city approved and recently submitted a request to the state Department of Environmental Conservation to reverse some zoning restrictions and amend the city law which now categorizes the property as ‘institutional.’ Moving forward, the updated zoning designation would allow for one- and two-family homes and other apartment-type housing to be available on campus.
"We have a horrible housing shortage in the city of Albany," said Sheehan. "To be able to quickly, convert some of that campus from what had been one- and two- family homes, back to one and two-family homes, would be something that I would be looking for and is sort of that low hanging fruit that should be happening quickly.”
Nick Mazza, chairman of the Albany County Pine Hills Land Authority, said the community meeting was intended to serve as a listening session so that the authority and its supporting entities could collate the various ideas city residents have in mind.
"From what I heard a lot, concern about the neighborhood that the neighborhood doesn’t get over-commercialized, that the buildings at the campus get re-used, and there’s opportunity for public use, and green space and walking and business development, and most importantly, the discussion about housing," Mazza said.
Marggie Skinner, a 56-year neighborhood resident, was buoyed by the “hundreds of people” at the meeting .
“I ‘m actually very encouraged by the process as it has been playing out. Initially when Saint Rose said they were closing, I was nervous," said Skinner. “But this is really reaching out to get ideas from the neighbors. They have an organization with tried and true processes like this. And this turnout tonight like this with hundreds of people and each one of us has the opportunity to write down our ideas and they actually seem to be listening.”
Land authority Chief Executive Officer Kevin O’Connor, who served for years on the college’s Board of Trustees, said the plan for the campus should be informed by the “hopes and aspirations” of people in the community.
“You cannot go ahead and just do what you think is the right thing, because it very likely will be different than what others think. And we want to get all of this information and synthesize this through our consultants and have it inform the master plan for the campus,” said O'Connor.
Keefe, who also serves on the neighborhood association’s committee on the Saint Rose project, emphasized the importance of input from community members at the next two meetings, first on Sept. 25 and then again on Oct. 29.
Cailin Brown contributed to this story.
