RESOLUTION NUMBER 89-112.09R (MC)

A RESOLUTION REQUESTING THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT ALBANY, THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, THE NEW YORK STATE DORMITORY AUTHORITY, AND OTHER INVOLVED AGENCIES OF GOVERNMENT TO REFRAIN FROM BUILDING STUDENT HOUSING ON AN APPROXIMATELY ELEVEN ACRE SITE ADJACENT TO TUDOR ROAD IN THE CITY OF ALBANY

WHEREAS, the University at Albany has a large student population and many of the students come to the Unversity from outside of the Capital Region therefore requiring local student housing, and

WHEREAS, the University has a capital plan which calls for the building of a campus dorm to house five hundred students, and

WHEREAS, one of the primary locations proposed for this large student dorm is an approximately eleven acre plot of land located adjacent to Tudor Road in the City of Albany, and

WHEREAS, the City of Albany is impacted in many ways by the University, providing to it fire and safety services, EMS services, streets and traffic services, water and sewer services, and other necessary services.  Despite the impact and service provided, the University is largely autonomous. It does not pay real property taxes and is not requred to comply with local zoning and planning laws, and

WHEREAS, the resident neighbors of the University have expressed serious concerns regarding the impact of such large proposed student dorm on their neighborhood, and

WHEREAS, there are many genuine concerns over locating such a large facility at this site including the section of Western Avenue in proximity to the proposed site for this student dorm, has been the location of numerous accidents in recent years, including three fatalities, the development of this currently wooded approximately eleven acre area would cause additional storm water runoff into an area of Western Avenue which is already prone to flooding, the closest sanitary sewer line to the proposed site is only a twelve inch diameter pipe, the combined downstream storm water capacity is already inadequate to handle the current overflow, causing sewer back ups even in down stream areas remote from the University Campus, the existing conditions already necessitate a SPEDES permit for the overflow discharge of sanitary sewerage into the Krumkill Creek at the City of Albany's Woodville Pumping Station, and the additional sewer use from the project would potentially violate the consent order between the City of Albany and the Department of Environmental Conservation regarding combined sewer overflow levels, and

WHEREAS, the University has already been designated as its own lead agency in determining whether or not to conduct a full SEQRA environmental review regarding the proposed construction project, and

WHEREAS, the ideal of a University is to foster cooperation and understanding between academia and its host community, and

WHEREAS, the Common Council appreciates the recent efforts of the University to consider alternatives to this location and to take a closer look at the impacts of the proposal

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Common Council of the City of Albany calls upon the State University of New York at Albany, the University of the State of New York, the New York State Dormitory Authority, and all other involved governmental agencies, to refrain from building the proposed student dorm on the approximately eleven acre site adjacent to Tudor Road in the City of Albany, and to consider other sites which will have less negative impact on the City of Albany and its neighborhoods.