In a sharp rebuke for Niskayuna town officials, a state judge sided with activists on Monday, Sept. 17, and tossed out the hotly contested approval of a special use permit for construction of a multi-million dollar shopping mall on the site of the historic Ingersoll Home for the Aged.
The decision by state Supreme Court Judge Joseph Sise effectively sends Highland Development LLC back to the drawing board and requires them to complete a full-blown environmental impact study before obtaining a fresh round of permit approvals for the controversial Stanford Crossings project.
The ruling was hailed by Albany-based attorney Lewis Oliver, Jr., a lawyer who represented the Friends of Stanford Home, the organization that led the court fight to stop the project.
This is a victory for a small community group that fought to preserve a piece of history in their neighborhood against a developer with virtually unlimited financial resources and an arrogant town government that would not listen to its citizens, Oliver said.
Read the full story in the Thursday, Sept. 20, issue of The Niskayuna Spotlight.
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