The Planning Board tabled a recommendation to the Town Board that mitigation funds collected for the Lisha Kill-Kings Road area be used for other town recreational facilities after the neighborhood association expressed concern over the state of a pocket park.
A further study of the Lisha Kill-Kings Road area showed that the mitigation funds, collected from anticipated residential development impact on the area, could be used for other recreational facilities in the Town of Colonie beyond the designated area, such as existing parks and the town’s golf course. However, Susan Quine of the Birchwood Neighborhood Association questioned the language of the resolution.
Findings found in 1996 identified the need for recreational facilitates in the area in anticipation of residential development. “These pocket parks have not been constructed nor has a continued demean for them been identified,” according to the resolution.
A condition of new subdivisions in the area was a pocket park around the 34 Denison Road area, about a mile from Route 7, which has yet to be built, said Quine.
“It leads one to believe that there’s no need, that this pocket park is not needed anymore,” Quine said. She said that an applicant could use the language of the resolution to say that the money should not be used to build the park in the subdivision.
Joe LaCivita, Director of the Planning Board, assured that the pocket park was in the final stages to be approved. “The pocket park does exist, and it will remain where it is,” he said.
Quine also said the Birchwood Neighborhood Association was requesting the recreation funds stay within the neighborhood, rather than be used for other parks, or the town’s golf course, which was a drive away from the area.
With a yogurt shop and new Starbucks going in on Route 7, more bike traffic from kids would be seen in the area. Joggers and bikers need safer paths, Quine said. However, town engineer Joe Grasso said that the final decision for what improvements the mitigation funds go toward was ultimately in the hands of the town board.
