New frontier for growth
By CHRIS CHURCHILL, Staff writer
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Geography has isolated Rensselaer County from decades of development in other parts of the Capital Region.
Its rugged hills make large-scale construction and the extension of sewer lines difficult and costly. And the Hudson River, a barrier more psychological than physical, has led many in the Capital Region to consider the nearby county a distant locale.
As a result, developers mostly looked away, building instead in Colonie, Guilderland, Clifton Park and elsewhere. From 1960 to 2000, Rensselaer County grew by just 10,000 people, to a population of 152,000.
Now, though, with shopping centers and housing developments stretching north to Wilton and the suburbs between Albany and Schenectady largely filled in, builders are taking a fresh look at Rensselaer County, remembering just how close it is to Capital Region employment and residential centers.
It is, after all, right across the river from Albany.
Residents say the county's development boom really began about a decade ago, with the opening of Exit 8 from Interstate 90. New Route 4 shopping destinations -- including the region's first Wal-Mart -- quickly followed.
Yet Rensselaer County development shows signs of intensifying even as the economy slows nationally. As several of the county's larger employers continue to expand developers are preparing to build a slew of new projects.
A Pennsylvania-based developer, for example, is planning two Route 4 shopping centers in North Greenbush that together would include a staggering 480,000 square feet of retail space -- about half the size of Colonie Center.
Just up the road, GE Healthcare is building a $165 million center at the Rensselaer Technology Park where 150 people will work.
In East Greenbush, the Nigro Cos., a local firm, is planning The Village at Tempel Farm, planned to include 400,000 square feet of retail space, including a Lowe's home improvement store and, possibly, a Kohl's department store; an 84-room Marriott; a 70,000-square-foot office building; three restaurants; and 324 apartments.
There are other projects in the works, including large housing developments in Brunswick; riverfront high-rises and a marina in the city of Rensselaer; a plan for new offices, hotels and more along the Troy waterfront; and a $150 million arts center on the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute campus.
"We've created a buzz," said Robert Pasinella, director of the county's Economic Development and Planning Department. "Developers are seeing that the river is not a barrier anymore."
A frequently heard prediction is that development will follow Interstate 90 toward rural areas. "Schodack is clearly the next step for growth," Pasinella said.
Some residents, though, are not welcoming the change. They fret about traffic, particularly along Route 4, and fear the character of the county is too quickly shifting, that commercial development is coming on too fast.
"If we wanted to live in Colonie and Guilderland, we would have. But we consciously chose not to," said North Greenbush resident Betsy Belle Eadie, who lives near the Route 4 shopping sites.
She added: "We know change is coming. But there is wise development, and then there's development that's greedy and is only being done to make developers wealthy."
Too much of what's planned, she believes, falls into the latter category.
Rensselaer County is a diverse place. It has two dense and sometimes gritty cities along the Hudson River: Troy and Rensselaer. But they quickly give way to farmland and bucolic rural scenery.
The bulk of the growth is planned in the suburban towns in the county's southern half -- East and North Greenbush, Schodack, Sand Lake. It's the area closest to downtown Albany.
East and North Greenbush, in fact, are some of the Capital Region's fastest-growing towns: Among municipalities with populations larger than 10,000, only Clifton Park, Wilton and Malta have grown faster since 2000, according to census bureau estimates.
"This area is definitely seeing much more development pressure," said North Greenbush resident Mary Jude Foley, whose hay farm sits near new upscale housing developments. "Just driving along the road, I see the changes," she said.
But as the suburbs grow, the county's largest population center shrinks: The city of Troy has lost 1,200 people from 2000 to 2006, the bureau says. The city of Rensselaer had relatively flat population growth.
Some in the county fear a Rensselaer County future of disproportionately poor urban cores flanked by increasingly faceless suburbs of ubiquitous subdivisions, strip malls and office parks.
"Instead of development in areas that are now open space, why not have a regional, unified policy that would direct growth back into the cities?" asked Brunswick resident Joseph Durkin, a lawyer and 13-year resident of Rensselaer County.
Durkin is a member of Brunswick Smart Growth, which has sued to halt several large housing developments planned there. The group estimates that, collectively, the housing would add about 2,000 residents to the town of nearly 12,000.
But there are signs of revival in the county's cities: There are plans for residential towers along the water in Rensselaer, and the new life in downtown Troy could be aided by a developer's plans for a Hedley Park District of new offices, hotel space and residences.
Among the Capital Region's four core counties, only Rensselaer County lacks an enclosed shopping mall. It also has the lowest annual amount of retail sales.
It could be argued, then, that the commercial development planned for the county means it is simply pulling even with the rest of the region.
Is Route 4 becoming Balltown Road in Niskayuna or Wolf Road in Colonie, two roads with high concentrations of commercial development? William Madsen, vice chairman of the planning board in North Greenbush, said the fear of becoming another Wolf Road is often mentioned by development-wary residents.
But Madsen added that with gas costing more than $3 per gallon, many county residents no longer want to drive across Albany County to shop. They want to be able to buy a pair of pants near home, he said.
Rensselaer County residents note that while they often crossed the river to shop, others in the Capital Region have been less willing to do the same.
"People thought this side of the river was just the end of the world," said Jim Greenfield, the town historian for North Greenbush.
Developers say people seem more willing to cross the bridge. Still, most of the Rensselaer County retail developments aim to attract shoppers who live nearby; most of the planned stores are chains that are widely available elsewhere.
John Nigro, the developer behind the Tempel Farm plan, is warning that developers are likely to curtail retail building in Rensselaer County if the pace of residential growth doesn't pick up.
Many observers believe that employment growth at places like the Rensselaer Technology Park and the University at Albany's east campus will bring more housing development and continued growth overall.
"Historically, people had the perception that we were 1,000 miles away, even though we were just over the river," said Foley, the North Greenbush farmer, who is also a Planning Board member.
But now, she said, "anybody that has a large piece of property has had somebody come knock on their door."
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories...date=2/24/2008