Creating an environment to attract more high-tech businesses to the Colonie area was the main point of discussion at the Comprehensive Plan’s Review Committee’s second meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 27, with all members agreeing that it was not properly addressed in the original 2005 plan.
We need to get caught up. We don’t want to keep seeing these high-tech businesses going up to Malta and bypassing us here, said Councilman Dan Hornick. `The question is, how can we make this happen as quickly as possible?`
Chris Bette, a member of the committee and co-owner of medical office realtor First Columbia, said there needs to be a restructuring of the Planning and Economic Development Department, echoing statements from last month’s public meeting, at which time he said it was the first place businesses go when they are looking to locate in Colonie.
He said that with no designated broker to reach out to, businesses may end up going directly to the supervisor when looking to build in the area.
`The reality is that someone needs to be receiving these folks, and they need to be in the loop with the Town Board, the planning board and the IDA [Industrial Development Agency],` he said. `This person could be the face of Colonie, and that person must talk definitively about what the town wants.`
Much emphasis was made that such a person would need to know exactly how a business would fit the needs of the town and whether it would fit Colonie’s image.
`How do we know the town needs a new hotel? Do we really want a Wal-Mart behind Angio Dynamics?` asked Gary Rinaldi `When there are businesses you don’t want, you’ve got to say no.`
Jack Fahey said the town does a fine job when it comes to the planning, but more needs to be done on the economic development portion. He pointed to Wolf Road’s economic boom and attributed its growth to Colonie Center mall.
`They [Colonie Center] were tax exempt for the first 10 years,` he said. `In these economic times, I don’t think the public will be receptive to tax breaks. I think we have to be very careful how we write those rules and guidelines so it’s not open to so much interpretation.`
Also at issue was whether the different neighborhoods in the town should be kept unique or become more uniform as one `Town of Colonie.`
`We need to have some type of comment on that. We have some very distinct neighborhoods in this town,` Hornick said. `Do we keep the neighborhoods as distinct as we do and try and celebrate it as an identity of the town or do we make it all as one Town of Colonie.`
The discussion then led to whether each portion of the town should have the same rules and regulations. Rinaldi said that each community needs to be looked at `architecturally` and whether a business that is moving into there would fit the image.
`A business needs to get into that community based on its look or feel,` he said. `No one town includes just one similar looking neighborhood. The City of Albany is really the City of Colonie, let’s be real.`
He said the town would need to look at an area like West Albany and be able to promote the best parts of that area.
Fahey said it would be hard to take `the older parts of town and make them look newer.`
`We need rules to apply to the whole town instead of some historical and cultural areas instead of saying some areas are not equal to others,` said Kathy Ordway. `There needs to be architectural review to make sure crap isn’t going into these parts of town and that what’s going in there fits.`
The next two meetings planned are for Nov. 10 and Nov. 17. Building Department Director Mike Rosch said there are tentatively two public meetings scheduled ` one at Town Hall on Dec. 8 at 7 p.m., and one at The Crossings on Dec. 14 at 2 p.m.“
