In his yearlong effort to construct a soccer complex on 969 Watervliet Shaker Road, Afrim Nezaj hit another snag when the town set aside his proposal until a later date.
The zoning board was originally scheduled to hear the proposal on Thursday, Aug. 21, but pushed back the discussion until Oct. 2 to meet the requirements of a 30-day comment period between a proposal’s submission and the zoning board meeting.
Earlier this year, the zoning board had denied a variance that would allow the construction of the complex in land adjacent to Memory Gardens cemetery. Opponents of the project said they were worried the noise and traffic from the soccer complex would be disruptive to memorial services and the overall serenity of the site. Those in favor of it said decibel levels were well under the acceptable range and that there was a great need for a sporting facility of this type.
New life was given to the proposal to build the four soccer fields and an 86,865-square-foot-dome when the Town of Colonie passed a resolution creating special use permits in May. With that resolution, Nezaj no longer needs to get the parcel rezoned in order to build the complex. He only needs to meet the standards of the special use permit.
Previously, if a person wanted to open a business in a place that wasn’t zoned for business, they would have to go through the process of getting that zone reclassified. Now, if that business meets qualifications for a special use permit and the zoning board deems it an acceptable use, it will be able to move on to the next step of the process, which is the planning board.