NOTE:  If you live, own or work in the City of Troy, please sign our petition. We will be submitting signatures collected up until 7/10/2021 with our official Pos Dec request.  We encourage residents to keep signing!  Additional signatures will be delivered during public comment at the next City Council meeting on this project (date tbd).

Dear members of the City of Troy City Council,

We are writing in regard to the proposed 2nd Avenue Apartments Project (the “Project”) at Troy's Native Forest (1011 2nd Avenue) in Lansingburgh by the applicant Kevin Vandenburgh and a Positive Declaration of Significance (“Pos Dec”) under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (“SEQRA”). The Positive Declaration states that as Lead Agency for the SEQRA review you will be conducting public scoping, which will include a public comment period.

Upon reviewing the Environmental Assessment Form (EAF) as a record before the City Council as Lead Agency, we have identified a number of significant potential impacts. Therefore, as required by 617.7(a), the Board issue a Positive Declaration and the preparation of a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for this project.

We also request a public comment period of 90 days on the Draft Scope for the Environmental Impact Statement (“EIS”) and to hold a public scoping meeting to allow for greater public participation. By doing so, this will ensure that no potentially significant adverse impacts are left out of the DEIS and all environmental concerns are adequately addressed as required by SEQRA.

The Scoping process is particularly important for a project as complex and multi-faceted as this one.  For instance, the Project has the potential to impact aspects significant to the National Register eligible archaeological site on the project location, including the topography, individually archaeo-sensitive sites, as well as the adjacent National Register site.

The project additionally will significantly impact and adversely alter the neighborhood character of this quiet single-family residential neighborhood, including view scape, noise impacts, health and stress-related impacts of increased traffic, risks to the resident's welfare through increased risks for accidents on the road leading through the neighborhood to the property. The visual context and community character of this district will no doubt be impacted.

Affordable housing issues also need to be thoroughly studied in the context of the number of units that are proposed to be been created, as do property and rental impacts on the neighborhood as associated with the density change, neighborhood character change and loss of green-space, which are all known to adversely impact rental prices and property values. Additionally, analysis must include the market demand for high-end apartment units as proposed in the project in the context of all available county, region, state and HUD data and the affordability of the rentals in the context of the Area Median Incomes earned in the area of significance.

Finally, with the proposed construction of a marina/boat dock with 40 boat slips, impacts on the Hudson River, on its aquatic ecology as well as on the integrity of the Superfund Site and the potential disturbance the contaminants-containing sediments must be analyzed.

For these reasons and more, a Positive Declaration in SEQRA and a public comment period of 90 days on the Draft Scope for the Environmental Impact Statement (“EIS”) is important for this Project. We also request that you hold a public Scoping meeting to allow for greater public participation, helping to ensure that there are not any potentially significant adverse impacts left out of the DEIS and all environmental concerns are adequately addressed as required by SEQRA.

Thank you for your consideration of our request, and a response would be appreciated. We look forward to participating in the SEQRA review of this Project.