COLONIE — Developers of The Summit at Forts Ferry were cited by town officials for failing to properly control storm water runoff.
The inspection preceding the citation was prompted by a video posted on social media by John Drake, a Catalina Drive resident who has closely scrutinized the project, which backs up to his cul de sac.
The video, posted on Tuesday, Aug. 13, depicted the aftermath of a storm that caused a stream of muddy water to run off the site and onto Catalina Drive.
“This was a normal 15 minute summer rainstorm, and it flooded Catalina Drive with muddy water in less than 15 minutes. Clearly the Summit at Forts Ferry team has major water management issues that need to be addressed,” Drake wrote on Facebook. “The Summit team knew they had an issue based upon the need to pump water out of the site back on July 24th and 25th, and the fact that there is standing water in the easement whenever there is any rain.”
The citation, addressed to J. Luke Construction and dated Wednesday, Aug. 14, said issues of non-compliance include:
• Sediment laden water leaving the site and impacting Town of Colonie storm sewer and right of way.
• No control outlet in the north easement section of the site allowing sediment laden water to leave the site.
It states the company must stabilize soils that have not been worked in the past 14 days, regrade and enlarge perimeter berm as noted in past inspections and to clean up the mess.
In the letter, the town gave the company five days to comply with the demands.
The project, which includes a two-story, 30,000 square-foot office building and a three-story, 62-unit senior housing apartment building, has been heavily scrutinized since it was first proposed by the Nigro Group in 2006.
The West Latham Neighborhood Association challenged the validity of the building permit based on the belief the town had changed the buffer to 300 feet rather than the standard 100-foot buffer between commercial and residential. The town, though, could find no evidence of the change and the buffer now is 100-foot.
The project went dormant for a few years and was brought back to the table in early 2017 as a 110-unit senior apartment building and would have required Planned Development District designation. It is currently zoned Office Residential, which allows a 235,000-square-foot office building.
Prior to the final design, Nigro proposed a 47,000-square-foot, three story office building but scaled it down to the current 30,000-square-foot office building.
The 13 acres of land is transitional in that it is surrounded by Wade Road and large retailers, hotels and health care buildings on one side and well-kept single family home neighborhoods on the other.