Search Results for: Industrial Park Road

Save the Pine Bush Goes to the Appellate Division Over Butterflies in Clifton Park

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On February 15, oral argument was held in the appeal by Save the Pine Bush and 11 people who sued the Town of Clifton Park Planning Board in September 2006 after the board gave approval to seven industrial warehouses and hundreds of parking spaces adjacent to and in Karner blue butterfly habitat. The plaintiffs were all denied standing by Acting state Supreme Court Justice, Barry Kramer who granted the Town’s and developer’s motions to dismiss the case in November 2006….

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Save the Pine Bush Sues the Town of Clifton Park over Development Approval

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SCHENECTADY: On behalf of Save the Pine Bush and 11 individual petitioners, Peter Henner, Esq, filed an Article 78 against the Planning Board of the Town of Clifton Park. On August 8, the Town of Clifton Park approved a “flex-space” industrial warehouse complex on top of Karner Blue habitat. Save the Pine Bush has filed suit to stop the development by requiring a Supplemental Environmental Impact Study to be prepared, thus causing the Planning Board’s State Environmental Quality Review (SEQRA) “Negative…

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Environmental Study Requires Restoration of Karner Blue Habitat in Clifton Park

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Clifton Park, NY: Tuesday, April 25, the Planning Board of the Town of Clifton Park held a public hearing regarding a proposal to build a “7 Flex-Space Light Industrial Buildings” on Wood Road in Clifton Park. A Karner Blue butterfly site is located on the North (also sometimes referred to as the “East”) side of Wood Road, where the industrial complex is proposed. Eight people attending the hearing spoke passionately against building this industrial complex and destroying the Karner Blue…

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Petition Filed With State Dec Seeks Ruling On 1994 Protection Agreement For Karner Blue In Clifton Park

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CLIFTON PARK: A petition for a Declaratory Ruling under the State Administrative Procedure Act was submitted in January to the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation by the environmental preservation group, Save the Pine Bush together with 22 Capital Region residents asking the DEC to rule on a 1994 habitat protection agreement meant to save the endangered Karner blue butterfly and its associated ecosystem near Wood Road in the Town of Clifton Park. The petition, dated January 23, was filed on…

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Massive Empire Zone in Clifton Park’s Wood Road Corridor Set for Review

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by William Engleman In 2005,  Save the Pine Bush spoke out on land use affecting populations and habitats of the endangered Karner blue butterfly in the Town of Clifton Park.   In early January ‘05, less than a month after a building moratorium was enacted in the Town’s light industrial zone, speakers from Save the Pine Bush joined local advocates in objecting to the effects of the harmful “soil disturbance permit” granted the year before along Wood Road in the Town’s…

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Public gets say on Wood Road DCG project in Clifton Park

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  CLIFTON PARK —The Planning Board has agreed to hold a public hearing on the second phase of a controversial Wood Road development project. At the July 10 meeting, the board voted 5-1 to hold the hearing at a date to be determined. The parcel’s owner, DCG Development Company, wants approval for a 16-acre expansion of its Wood Road Light Industrial shovel ready project. The company has already developed 25 acres of the 36.6-acre site under a previous approval. The…

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Butterflies-Not Bulldozers: Keeping the Karner Blue in Clifton Park

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By Bill Engleman, Jan./Feb. 92 Populations of the endangered Karner Blue Butterfly are dispersed throughout the sand plain in Saratoga County. This sand plain, of which Albany’s Pine Bush is a major part, contains isolated pitch pine/scrub oak communities in Clifton Park, Wilton, Moreau, and other areas. In 1988, the Planning Board of the Town of Clifton Park entertained several applications for subdivision and development in the “Wood Road corridor.,” a mostly pitch pine community. This is roughly 600 acres…

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City Strangles Downtown Growth

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City Strangles Downtown Growth City Strangles Downtown Growth Yet Council Encourages Suburban Sprawl By Daniel Van Riper As far as Save the Pine Bush can determine, the City of Albany Common Council has not denied a single application by any large corporate entity that has wanted to erect buildings in the Pine Bush for more than 20 years. At the same time, both the Council and the Board of Zoning Appeals routinely turn down applications by small businesses that want…

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No dump in the Pine Bush!

ALBANY — The city wants to expand its rapidly filling dump onto 10 acres it had already dedicated to the Pine Bush Preserve. "We hope that people would be reasonable and know what we are up against," Mayor Jerry Jennings told the Times Union editorial board on Wednesday. "I know some people are going to fight us on this." During his State of the City address last week, Jennings said the city wants to expand the Rapp Road facility near…

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Town of Colonie Planning Board

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Whereas, the applications and permitting to construct and operate an expansion of the City’s existing landfill located on Rapp Road in the City of Albany, together with mitigation related to the expansion, referred to as Eastern Expansion, is before the Common Council for deliberation; and Whereas, since 1990 there have been multiple expansions of the Rapp Road landfill, duly requiring the Common Council to approve certain financings, permitting and other actions attendant to these expansions to support construction and mitigation;…

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Returning to flight Efforts of New England biologists help usher in rebirth of the endangered Karner blue butterfly

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CONCORD, N.H. – Two biologists crawled through a field thick with blueberry, black chokeberry, and scrub oak, searching for butterfly eggs the size of pinheads. Suddenly, one of them, Steve Fuller, thrust a hand into the air. “Found one!” he shouted. As his colleague, Heidi Holman, ran to his side, Fuller opened his hand to reveal a tiny white egg of the Karner blue butterfly, clinging to a twig. Eight years ago, it was impossible to find any sign in…

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Returning to flight

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CONCORD, N.H. – Two biologists crawled through a field thick with blueberry, black chokeberry, and scrub oak, searching for butterfly eggs the size of pinheads. Suddenly, one of them, Steve Fuller, thrust a hand into the air. “Found one!” he shouted. As his colleague, Heidi Holman, ran to his side, Fuller opened his hand to reveal a tiny white egg of the Karner blue butterfly, clinging to a twig. Eight years ago, it was impossible to find any sign in…

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Michael Breslin Speaks

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Michael Breslin Speaks   Michael Breslin Speaks by Ehren Evans Albany County Executive Breslin spoke at August’s lasagna dinner. It was an exciting opportunity for members of Save the Pine Bush to learn more about county government and the county executive. Mr. Breslin said his stint as county executive is the best job he ever had. He set up a program where parking places could be turned in for free bus passes and if you didn’t have a parking space,…

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Save the Pine Bush

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Proposed Hotel in the Pine Bush     Hotel Update: Oral Arguements in the NY Court of Appeals Tuesday, September 15 at 2:00 The Court of Appeals is next door to Albany City Hall. This is an extremely significant case, and could, if we win change who has standing in SEQRA cases. Click here to read Amicus briefs Read attorney Steve Downs’ commentary about the hotel case here. Action Alert! Hear the Oral Arguments in the NYS Appellate Division Friday,…

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Unhealthy Choice

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Thanks to anthrax, our new national hobgoblin, the federal Centers for Disease Control have been in the news a lot these days. Yet a report released by the CDC late in 2001 on a very different public health menaceÑurban sprawlÑhas gone largely unnoticed. According to the striking findings of the report, ÒCreating a Healthy Environment: The Impact of the Built Environment on Public Health,Ó unless you are U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, sprawl almost certainly poses a far greater…

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Taking Lyme Fight to the Field

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by William Engleman CLIFTON PARK: Representatives of three area environmental organizations and Town residents called on the Clifton Park Town Board to save the Karner Blue butterfly populations in the Town’s northeast corner, during the Town Board’s first regular meeting of the year, held on Monday evening January 3, 2005. Eight speakers, including representatives from Save the Pine Bush, Audubon Society of the Capital Region and the Hudson-Mohawk Group of the Sierra Club called on the Board to reverse the…

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Woodsfields Estates – Houses that Should Not Be Built

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by Lynne Jackson Seventy- five houses are proposed for this 100 acre site in the western most part of the remaining Pine Bush in Guilderland, the last parcel of the largest roadless area in the Pine bush. This proposal, named “Woodsfields Estates” after what it will destroy, is part of the largest roadless area remaining in the Pine Bush in Guilderland. The Planning Board of the Town of Guilderland is the Lead Agency for the Woodsfields Estates proposal and will…

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Save the Pine Bush Sues Albany Common Council Over Illegal Office Complex

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Save the Pine Bush Sues Albany Common Council Over Illegal Office Complex   The Portland Plan – A Better Way To Grow By Daniel Van Riper Back in 1979, the City of Portland, Oregon and some nearby municipalities drew a line around their developed areas. They mandated that all new construction must take place inside this line and all undeveloped land outside must remain farmland, greenspace or preserve. Twenty years later, planners Martin Hull and Marian Hull traveled all the…

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Save the Pine Bush

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Vote Primary Day – Tuesday, September 15, Noon to 9:00 pm   ALBANY: Six candidates for Albany City-wide races came to speak at the August Save the Pine Bush dinner. Four city-wide seats are up this year (as well as the entire Common Council). Running for Mayor – Corey Ellis; for treasurer – Kathy Sheehan; for Common Council President – Carolyn McLaughlin and Lenny Ricchiuti; and for auditor – Leif Engstrom and Darius Shahinfar. Jerry Jennings, running for his fifth…

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The Pine Bush Makes the Grade Sierra Club Included the Pine Bush in America’s Wild Legacy 52 Places: A Sierra Club Report

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The Pine Bush has been identified by the Sierra Club as one of the fifty-two most exceptional places in the United States that must be preserved. The report says the following: All across America, communities are working to protect our public lands from threats like oil and gas drilling, unchecked development, irresponsible recreation, logging, and global warming. In order to save what remains of our nation’s wild legacy, the Sierra Club has launched a campaign to protect fifty-two of our…

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Save the Pine Bush Barred from Court

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by William Engleman SCHENECTADY: Save the Pine Bush is considering an appeal of a recent State Supreme Court ruling dismissing a lawsuit brought against the Town of Clifton Park Planning Board and DCG Development Co. Save the Pine Bush and 11 citizen-petitioners sued the Town of Clifton Park Planning Board over site plan approvals for a 142,000 square foot flexspace warehouse project on land along Wood Road in the Town’s northeast corner. In dismissing the case, a State Supreme Court…

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Integrating the Landfill into the Pine Bush or What do you do with a Landfill?

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by Lynne Jackson ALBANY: Dr. George Robinson gave an excellent succinct speech about landfill reclamation at the January Save the Pine Bush dinner at the First Presbyterian Church. Dr. Robinson, an associate professor of biology at the University of Albany, started by talking about the history of landfills. He mentioned many historic buildings, such as the Imperial Palace in Peking, are built on landfills. Landfills, explained Dr. Robinson, are land forms. They are highly engineered, and have about a 25-year…

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The Patroon Creek and the Pine Bush

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by Lynne Jackson ALBANY, NY: Dr. George Robinson shared his adventures studying and speculations about the mysterious Patroon Creek, Albany’s only remaining above-ground creek at the November SPB lasagna dinner at the First Presbyterian Church. The Patroon Creek begins in Lake Rensselaer, which is in the Pine Bush. The creek is fed by water filtered through huge amounts of sand of the Pine Bush which means that the water is of good quality. This is an unusual situation, because, unlike…

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Exploring Bus Service to the Pine Bush

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Exploring Bus Service to the Pine Bush Exploring Bus Service to the Pine Bush by John Wolcott One can reach the Pine Bush from Albany by bus. However, it is, at one point, difficult and unsafe. At another point, it is awkward, and, as yet, uncertain. A couple of weeks ago, I tested part of the bus system in person. I took the Number 12 Crossgates bus to Wall-Mart on the Washington Avenue Extension. This is the nearest stop to…

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Earth Day Lasagna-Wasserman Headlines Gathering Of Activists

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Earth Day Lasagna-Wasserman Headlines Gathering Of Activists Earth Day Lasagna Wasserman Headlines Gathering Of Activists By Daniel Van Riper Five prominent and hard-working environmental activists addressed the Earth Day special lasagna dinner on April 24th at 1st Presbyterian Church in Albany. Some 80 attendees packed the room and listened intently to each speaker in turn. Here’s the lineup, in order of appearance: Lee Wasserman Everyone was curious to see and hear the very serious challenger for the job of congressional…

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Don Reeb — The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

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by Tom Ellis   ALBANY, NY: Retired University at Albany economics professor and McKownville Improvement Association president Don Reeb was the speaker at the November 18 SPB dinner.  Don spoke about SUNY Poly — formerly College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE): The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.  Don is 82 years old.  He said the neighborhood contain 900 houses and the neighborhood association has a $300 annual budget.  He said only forty percent of registered voters in county legislature districts 3 and 4 voted in November.  He makes…

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Bakken Crude Oil Rail Shipments in Decline, But Surplus Tank Cars a Problem

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by Tim Truscott   As most people in the Capital Region know, Albany became a hub for crude oil shipments by rail when the Bakken crude oil began flowing from North Dakota. It was perhaps the third largest Bakken crude oil hub in North America and was dubbed by some as “Houston on the Hudson”. But rail shipments of Bakken crude seem to have fallen off in recent months, as East Coast refiners are now not taking in as much…

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Public Advocate Dominick Calsolaro

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By Tom Ellis ALBANY, NY: Former Albany First Ward Common Council member Dominick Calsolaro spoke at the June 18 SPB dinner about Environmental Issues in Albany.  He began thanking SPB President Rezsin Adams for her many years of friendship.  During the US-Vietnam War, he said, Rezsin often came into his family’s restaurant.  Dominick spoke about the many issues he worked on during his 12 years on the Albany Common Council, some of which he continues working on. He said the big issue in…

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Press Release from Sierra Club and Save the Pine Bush

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  Notice of Intent to File Lawsuit Issued by Environmental Groups and Concerned Residents Regrading Significant Ongoing Harm to Karner Blue Butterflies in Clifton Park Industrial Project Alleged Two Capital Region environmental groups and local citizens have issued a letter to the Secretary of U. S. Department of the Interior, the Commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and other parties providing notice that they intend to bring a lawsuit under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA)…

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Composting of Food Waste in Charleston, South Carolina

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by William Engleman   CLIFTON PARK, NY: At the Wood Road “south” habitat site of the Karner blue butterfly in the Town of Clifton Park in 1978, there were thousands of Karner blues, according to a study done by researchers John Cryan and Robert Dirig, who discovered this site in 1975. In 1989, Dr. Dale Schweitzer estimated that these two sites plus another nearby site located south of Ushers Road which he discovered, contained about 600 Karner blues that year. He…

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Habitat Restoration and Mitigation Project: How it Fits in to the Preserve Goals for Restoration” Neil Gifford Gives Save the Pine Bush Dinner Talk in March, 2011

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by Grace Nichols ALBANY, NY – Neil Gifford, Conservation Director at the Albany Pine Bush Preserve, has been working in the Pine Bush since the early 1990s. He describes the mission of the Albany Pine Bush Commission, a body representing the many different governmental interests in the Pine Bush land, as “to preserve the pitch pine/scrub oak barrens” as authorized by Environmental Conservation Law Article 46 (1988) in which the legislature declared it is in the public interest to protect…

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Dr. George Robinson Sheds Light on Landfills, their Possibilities and Problems Post-closure.

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by Grace Nichols Dr. George Robinson is a professor in the Biodiversity and Conservation Policy graduate program at the University at Albany. He is very knowledgeable about landfills, as much of his work has involved transforming old landfills into positive open spaces which can meet the needs of local wildlife and local communities. Dr. Robinson’s students have traditionally used the Pine Bush as a place to conduct studies; Dr. Robinson maintains a good relationship with the Pine Bush Commission which…

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Last Chance to Say No to Besicorp!

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Last Chance to Say No to Besicorp! Last Chance to Say No! No to what could be the biggest and ugliest industrial complex ever built on the banks of the Hudson River: a papermill and cogeneration plant called Besicorp, to be sited in the City of Rensselaer, next to the historic Fort Crailo neighborhood and directly across from Albany’s waterfront. How? By sending written comments before October 10, 2003 to: Administrative Law Judge P. Nicholas Garlick NYS DEC Office of…

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Building called threat to butterflies

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by: DENNIS YUSKO Staff writer CLIFTON PARK — A 142,000-square-foot facility proposed by DCG Development along Wood Road would further undermine the area’s endangered Karner blue butterfly habitats, town residents and area environmentalists told the Planning Board. DCG wants to build a warehouse or a light industrial space on 37 acres its owns between the east side of Wood Road and Route 9. "We don’t know who the tenants are at this point," said Gordon Nicholson, who represented DCG at…

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Save the Pine Bush Court Cases

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Save the Pine Bush has been in almost litigation to preserve the Pine Bush since February 6, 1978. With the advent of PDF documents, it is now possible for Save the Pine Bush to inexpensively give the public access to our lawsuits. Click the links to download the files. Some are quite large, please be patient. Decision in Save the Pine Bush’s lawsuit against the City of Albany over the proposed landfill expansion in the Pine Bush. We lost. Lawsuits…

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Sprawl Costs Money

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by Lynne Jackson ALBANY: Dr. Gary Kleppel, professor of biology at the University of Albany, outlined the economic and environmental costs of sprawl at Save the Pine Bush’s June veggie lasagna dinner at the First Presbyterian Church in Albany. Dr. Kleppel opened his presentation by challenging conservation groups with the most important mission, “curbing urban sprawl.” What makes urban sprawl particularly important now is the increase in the technology sector which will lead to a proliferation of development. One of…

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Bonding that threatens historic Stanford homestead

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Bonding that threatens historic Stanford homestead Stanford Home Hearing Information Hearing Notes January 23 Hearing Canadians are Coming! Archeological Information Photos – Outdoor Photos – Indoor Bonding Editorial Preservation   Donate Contact   December 15, 2006 Dear Concerned Citizens, Friends of Stanford Home, Health Care Advocates, and Niskayuna Neighbors, Bonding that threatens historic Stanford homestead on State Street and Balltown Road, and its parkland, is going forward. As soon as this coming Tuesday night, the Schenectady County Industrial Development Authority…

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The City is Selling 363 Acres of Land in Coeymans

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by Tom Ellis About 25 years back, Albany politicians made a foolish decision to purchase a large property in Coeymans (ten miles south of Albany), hoping to site a regional landfill there to replace the Rapp Road Landfill that DEC was then threatening to soon close. Albany took many years purchasing the property, eventually spending more than $5 million for 363 acres. During that decade city officials apparently never carefully examined the site to see if it was suitable for…

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November SPB Dinner Speakers

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Now We’ve Got A Bond Act: Jeff Jones of Environmental Advocates By Daniel Van Riper Jeff Jones, of Environmental Advocates, speaking at the November lasagna dinner at !st Presbyterian Church in Albany, had an interesting story about the origins of the Bond Act, which, of course, is now in effect. Earlier this year, Environmental Advocates (EA), along with several other groups, issued a well documented “report card” on Governor Pataki’s environmental record. As in most areas of his failed administration,…

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Save the Pine Bush Court Cases

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Save the Pine Bush has been in almost litigation to preserve the Pine Bush since February 6, 1978. The seven cases we have litigated in courts since 1997 can be found on NY Supreme Court’s Web Civ by searching “Save the Pine Bush”. Court YearFiled Index Number CaseStatus Plaintiff FirstPlaintiff Firm Defendant FirstDefendant Firm Justice Albany Supreme Court   1997  7685-97  (0007685/1997)  Disposed  Save The Pine Bush  Lewis B. Oliver  Guilderland  Dennis C. Vacco  GEORGE L. COBB   Albany Supreme Court…

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