In their first meeting open to the public, Colonie’s Comprehensive Planning Committee met on Wednesday, Sept. 15, to discuss, amend, review and prioritize plans to push the infrastructure in the town forward.
The comprehensive plan was created in 2005 based on the general plan in the Town of Colonie. The plan required a review every five to 10 years to see if the goals set out in the plan were being met.
Town of Colonie Supervisor Paula Mahan appeared at the beginning of the meeting to outline her push for transparency in the operation of town government. She stressed the importance of meeting every five years to discuss the comprehensive plan instead of every 10 years.
If we don’t monitor the process, then it doesn’t work, said Mahan. `If changes need to be made, we must identify them. It things are going well, we need something to gauge them on and need to set a benchmark.`
Planning and Economic Development Director Joseph LaCivita suggested the committee look into bringing in Tech Valley jobs in 2010, something he said was not included in the 2005 comprehensive plan.
Committee member Chris Bette, of First Columbia, which develops commercial real estate and medical office space, said he felt there was no involvement from the Planning and Economic Development Department in economic development. LaCivita agreed, but said he, Mahan and a couple of board members have been working to accommodate high tech businesses that will lead to the creation to an economic development plan.
`It’s not just me, as planning and economic director, it is actually board members, the supervisor and the assistance of [former planning department director] Jean Donovan,` he said. `We’re trying to put together overview of a first time economic plan before the town.`
Town Board member Dan Hornick said the committee is looking at other communities in the area that have already brought in high-tech businesses as examples as to how to properly execute the same plane in Colonie.
`We’re gathering information from there, as well, to make Colonie more shovel ready for greater high-tech businesses,` he said, adding that there was development in Albany as well as a tech park being built in Malta while Colonie developed it original Comprehensive Plan. `We’ve got to get ourselves up to speed. We’re gathering ideas from other existing zoning laws as to what we can be including.`
Hornick also said once the committee gets back to discussing economic development, planning for high-tech businesses should be top priority.
A request for someone within the town to attract these high-tech businesses was brought up by Bette. He said the town currently works through a real estate broker who is not specific to Colonie.
`I thought we would be more focused on how does the town compete against all these different municipalities to attract these businesses and not rely on a real estate broker who will show them the whole Capital District,` enquired Bette.
LaCivita said he and the supervisor spoke with agencies such as Colonies Industrial Development Association and the Local Development Corporation, and requested that the boards become `more active.` He said a future meeting will focus on providing incentives to high-tech businesses to attract them to the area.
`All you have is me saying, ‘I can give you mortgage tax relief and sales tax relief,’ and they’re just saying, ‘Bye,’ because they can get so much else somewhere else,` said LaCivita.
Bette suggested getting the Colonie Chamber of Commerce to help out.
LaCivita said they have reached out to Mark Eagan of the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce, but they have not yet spoken with Tom Nolte of the Colonie Chamber of Commerce. He said they contacted Eagan so they could pick his brain on some of Albany’s success in bringing in high-tech businesses.
`I think it would be nice to see this concept of that relationship between the chambers and the town enumerated in some way as part of that plan,` said Hornick. `I think that is critical.`
Gary Rinaldi, a resident of Colonie on the committee, said the town may have to consider doing a lot of rezoning to bring in some of the businesses.
`Seems to me that as you start planning through what you’re going to do on a townwide basis and as you start identifying areas for certain types of business, to do that you’re either going to have to get more precise in what you’re zoning is going to be or more precise in what your use is going to be of that particular piece of property so that you can bring that together,` Rinaldi said. `If you’re going to bring somebody in who wants to locate 400 employees in here on a certain type of business, you want to be able to demonstrate that this would be a good place for that business and this is a place where zoning and everything follows through.`
LaCivita said that if rezoning was to happen, he needs to know what people like Bette and his brother, Kevin Bette, need to shop around for high-tech businesses.
`We need to be able to accommodate,` he said, adding that Colonie is smack dab in the middle of high-tech business development. `Railroad Avenue is prime for development. The only thing holding Railroad Avenue back is small parcels, so anybody that comes in would have to assemble a larger parcel to accommodate a larger building ` not very easy.`
The 3:30 p.m. meeting lasted an hour and a half with 10 members of the community in attendance.
The next meeting will take place on Oct. 27 at 3:30 p.m. at the Public Operation Center.“
