New dorms to be built

Plans for a new student housing complex are detailed in the Final Generic Environmental Impact Statement released by the University at Albany.

The statement, titled “SUNY Capital Project Plan” details the new student housing facilities with construction slated for June 2010.

The facilities will be equipped with “approximately 500 apartment-style beds” and 350 parking spaces, according to the statement.

On Sept. 17, 2009, a public meeting was announced and held by UAlbany with residents of the Tudor Road neighborhood and other residents to discuss the new dorm project.

Approximately 70 people attended.

A second meeting was held on Oct. 29, 2009, which approximately 50 people attended, according to the statement.

The dorms were initially expected to move to the wooded southeast corner of campus near Indian Quad, but this was met with angered response from some residents in the Eagle Hill neighborhood, specifically those of Tudor Road who felt the project was encroaching on their homes.

Other residents voiced their concerns about sanitary wastewater transmission, flooding background noise and traffic.

Steve Sokal who lives on Tudor Road and is seven-year resident of Eagle Hill said storm water runoff — a problem the city of Albany often faces throughout the year — is something that should be looked at when bringing the dorms to his neighborhood.

“It all boils down to …water issues concerning runoff and sanitary sewer capacity on 11 acres of land that the university is proposing to construct on that right now is undeveloped,”
Sokal said.

   To address resident concerns, the university looked at doing ... selection option was made available in the project on the neighboring Harriman Office Campus after the university acquired 3.3 acres of land there.

The change in sites could not be made as the university said in order for the dorms to meet the needs of Eagle Hill residents it would need a total of 11 acres from the 330-acre Harriman Campus.

According to the impact study, the additional 7.7 acres of Harriman Campus would be needed to “fully locate” the facilities.

Peter Wohl, president of the Harriman Research and Technology Development Corporation rejected the proposal in a letter dated Jan. 12, 2010.

University officials said the Harriman Campus was the only option available that would move the housing project farther from Tudor Road homes.

UAlbany spokesman Karl Luntta said, “Our FGEIS was released … we expect to begin in late spring in the southeast site of the uptown campus. The southeast site continues to remain a viable option for the new dormitory, and that is where we will build the new residence halls.”

Sokal believes more consideration should be given to the situation.

“It something we had not bargained for,” Sokal said. “We’re happy to be next to the university, we like what it does for the city. Here you would be taking up the woods and there would be almost no buffer. There would be no screen from the five-story towers materializing in our backyards.”

“The university and the Harriman Campus were built on a summer golf course and … the original design was to keep UAlbany in the center of that land, apart from roads and apart from the neighborhoods in order to minimize impact,” Sokal said.

“That is really challenged now when you put two five-story towers immediately adjacent to this residential neighborhood. It significantly changes the character of the neighborhood.”