and Members Albany City Re: Hopi St proposed subdivision application
Planning Board
This statement is in opposition to the Hopi St subdivision proposal to build 6 housing units on the 2.6 acre parcel at the foot of Hopi St, opposite Zuni St.
I respectfully ask the Planning Board to DENY this application for the following reasons:
1. The site is a relic landfill and not suitable for building quality homes that will attract buyers seeking to buy such homes.
2. The costs of site remediation as conditions stipulated in the now expired 1999 conditional approval of this Board make it highly unlikely that the developer would make a profit on the proposed 6 units of housing.
3. The site is essentially a cul de sac at the juncture of two narrow lanes (streets) that poses problems for traffic flow, emergency vehicle access, and snow plowing. Approval of said application would only accentuate those problems.
4. Neighbors complain of insufficient pressure in the water and sewer systems that now exist.
5, New Scotland Avenue is already a busy commuter road at morning and evening rush hours. This makes egress from narrow tributary lanes such as Hopi St hazardous as it is. 6 more housing units and 12 or more vehicles would only increase traffic flow problems, thereby increasing the risks of accidents. Traffic on New Scotland Ave/Rd routinely exceeds posted speed limits.
The City of Albany is faced with a need to maintain or increase a declining population base; and to maintain and improve the city property tax base.
The answer is not to build substandard housing on marginal sites, like this relic landfill, or that being built as an extension ofBuckingham Mews on Krum Kill Rd at Friebel Lane, that on Bender St, or the subdivision proposed for the steep slopped, wooded ravine, containing two small wetlands and a tributary of the Normans Kill, on Krum Kill Rd, opposite Ohav Shalom.
Such clustered or townhouse units do not readily find buyers. They only diminish the residential integrity and quality of life of the single family zoned neighborhoods wherein they are located. This, in turn, rather than increasing the city property tax , erodes that property tax base, which supports city schools and city services.
Such housing units would best be built mid town or downtown on the large city inventory of vacant lands/buildings.
In sum, Smart Growth Planning can be achieved by (1) maintaining and improving residential integrity and quality of life in existing Uptown single family residential zones and 2) steering the cluster, townhouse type housing to the those vacant lands and buildings in the city inventory, which are in walking distance of places of employment.
This Smart Growth Planning strategy (1) maintains the Uptown property tax base (2) adds new housing to the city property tax base in mid and downtown as well as rejuvenating those neighborhoods and (3) reduces the increasing traffic flows on main corridors like New Scotland, allowing workers to live in city neighborhoods and walk or take a bus to work.
Smart Growth Planning far exceeds the current piecemeal approval and construction of substandard housing units on marginal sites, which is currently underway along the Upper New Scotland Ave/Rd and Krum Kill Rd corridors.
The Planning Board should DENY the Hopi Rd subdivision, as well as the proposed "town house or condo" proposals at Whitehall and New Scotland and the 7.2 acre wooded, wetland site on Krum Kill Rd.
Thank you. Joseph P Sullivan, President
Buckingham Pond/Crestwood
Neighborhood Association Albany
3/7/07 Tel /Fax 438 5230
NOTE: See also Letter to Mayor Jennings
http://bpcnanews.blogspot.com/2007/01/january-26-2007-hon.html
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