On December 24, 2019, the applicant, Rapp Road Development, LLC (a.k.a. Crossgates Mall/The Pyramid Companies), submitted the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) to the Guilderland Planning Board. 

After resisting a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request to release the DEIS submitted on January 10, 2020 from an attorney representing a Western Ave business owner and now also residents of Westmere Terrace, the Town of Guilderland finally posted it on their website at this address: https://www.townofguilderland.org/planning-board/pages/environmental-impact-statement-rapp-road-residentialwestern-avenue-mixed-use

At the February 12, 2020 meeting of the Guilderland Planning Board, the board accepted the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) as complete and decided that the public comment period would officially commence on February 20, 2020 after the latest updated version of the DEIS was posted on the Town's website, which happened on February 19, 2020.

The Planning Board also scheduled a public hearing for the DEIS to be held at their March 11, 2020 meeting starting at 6:00 PM.  However, notice for the public meeting was not published in the Altamont Enterprise until February 27^th, so the public hearing for the DEIS is was rescheduled for March 25, 2020 at 6:00 PM.

But before the public hearing could occur, the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis caused everything to be shut down and so that March 25 public hearing could not occur.

On March 26th, 2020 the Pyramid companies, with full knowledge of the Town of Guilderland because the notified them before starting, proceeded to clear cut the proposed site of the Costco.

The Guilderland Planning board finally met again on April 22, 2020 at that meeting they rescheduled the public hearing to be virtual on May 13th at 6:00pm and rescheduled the deadline for comments to May 26th, 4:30pm.

Everyone who cares about the Pine Bush and the over development of Rapp Road, the Mall Ring Road and Western Avenue should plan to attend this public hearing on May 13th and send in written comments.

To assist you with sending comments we have created these 3 "Sign and Send" Pre-written Comments that you can use:

• Sign and Send a Lead Agency Comment for Rapp Road/Costco DEIS 
• Sign and Send a Guilderland Impact Comment for Rapp Road/Costco DEIS
• Sign and Send a Environmental Impact Comment for Rapp Road/Costco DEIS

Feel free to send one, two or all three letters and you can customize them if you wish to do so.

Take a look at the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS)

You can review the DEIS here:
https://www.townofguilderland.org/planning-board/pages/environmental-impact-statement-rapp-road-residentialwestern-avenue-mixed-use

The DEIS is a long document.  However, it is readable in small bites.  Start with this two-page overview:
Rapp Road Development, LLC Letter to Planning Board on DEIS

Next read the DEIS itself which is not that long.  
Draft Environmental Impact Statement

On page 7 the DEIS is a list of all the appendices; choose the appendices that interest you the most.

Review the maps for the DEIS which can be found at:
Draft Environmental Impact Statement - Figures

Comments on the DEIS can be sent up until April 10 to Kenneth Kovalchik, Town of Guilderland Planner:
By email: kovalchikk@togny.org
By postal mail: Kenneth Kovalchik, Town of Guilderland Planner, Guilderland Town Hall, P.O. Box 339, 5209 Western Turnpike Guilderland, NY 12084 

Save the Pine Bush and the Guilderland Coalition for Responsible Growth are raising money to hire experts to review the DEIS.  Please donate to the GoFundMe:
http://www.rapproadgofundme.org

Or, send a check made out to Save the Pine Bush, and mail c/o Lynne Jackson, 223 S Swan Street, Albany, NY 12202.

Please come to the hearing, and please make comments on the DEIS.

Summary of the project from Scoping Document for Environmental Impact Statement and other history of this project

The Draft Scoping Document for Environmental Impact Statement (see below for explanation of these terms), the applicant, Rapp Road Development, LLC (a.k.a. Crossgates Mall/The Pyramid Companies), proposed development on Rapp Road and Crossgates Mall Ring Road that includes:

• 312 Apartment Units and ±3,900 SF of commercial space within three 5-story buildings and three 2-story buildings on a currently undeveloped ±19 acre site on Rapp Road (Site 1 on map below).  
  • The first phase of all the proposed development would be 222 Apartment Units and ±3,900 SF of commercial space with two 5-story buildings and three 2-story buildings.
• A ±160,000 square feet retail building and associated fueling facility (i.e. a gas station) on a currently partially undeveloped ±15 acre site at the corners of Rapp Road, Crossgates Mall Road and Western Avenue (Site 2 on map below).  
  • We now know this site will be for a Costco Wholesale.  More information to come on this.
• 115,000 SF of retail space, 50,000 SF of office space, and 48 multi-family apartments on a currently partially undeveloped ±11.34 acres between between Site 2 and the existing hotel site on Crossgates Mall Road and Western Avenue (Site 3 on map below).  

The Guilderland Planning Board on August 14, 2019 correctly issued a State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) Positive Declaration for the project which means an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) must be prepared to analyze the potential, significant and adverse environmental impacts of the project and how those impacts can be avoided or minimized. (Presumably this could include not doing the project at all).

The first step in this State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR) after a positive declaration was to create a “Scoping Document” that outlines the topics and analyses of potential environmental impacts by the project to prepare the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS), which is the first version of the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS).  

The Guilderland Planning board accepted the “Scoping Document” at their meeting on October 23^rd with little public discussion of the specific public comments made or details changes to the “Scoping Document”.

For a full outline of the process, see the section titled “Environmental Impact Statement Process” on the dedicated page for this project’s Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the Guilderland’s town website: https://www.townofguilderland.org/planning-board/pages/environmental-impact-statement-rapp-road-residentialwestern-avenue-mixed-use

Currently the details of this project are now spread across 4 different pages on the Town Website:

1. The original project page: https://www.townofguilderland.org/planning-board/pages/rapp-road-apartments-site-plan-and-subdivision-plan
2. A page dedicated to the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS): https://www.townofguilderland.org/planning-board/pages/environmental-impact-statement-rapp-road-residentialwestern-avenue-mixed-use 
   • This page now has links to all the parts of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS)
3. The agenda page for the September 25, 2019 Planning Board meeting: https://www.townofguilderland.org/planning-board/agenda/planning-board-meeting-agenda-22
4. The agenda page for the October 23, 2019 Planning Board meeting: https://www.townofguilderland.org/planning-board/agenda/planning-board-meeting-agenda-23

Lastly, here are links to some awesome work by Andy Arthur for the Save the Pine Bush group:

• Interactive Google Map of properties around Pyramid to show who owns what: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1A8cz64hjrEwhjdOF5DSAfoQ2u8R9M3wJ&usp=sharing
  • You can click on the individual parcels to bring up 2019 tax roll
  • If you find any errors on this, please let us know and we will forward to Andy, but it is pretty darn accurate and an unbelievable resource for us. 
• Spreadsheet of Pyramid Corporation Properties - Lands Owned, Land Uses: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16zQ7peadh7PSYWonyVAz6CuFUy8A_RQN31D_e5HMVDs/edit?usp=sharing
  • If you click on the statistics page, you will find a great summary of land use and the entities used by Pyramid to own the properties.
• Potential Routing Rapp Road Bypass based on rumors we have heard of meeting between the City of Albany, Daughters of Sarah and Pyramid: http://andyarthur.org/data/Rapp%20Road%20Bypass.jpg
  • This rumored bypass is included on page 4 of the DEIS Appendix I.

 (Thanks again Andy for all this great work!!!)

We know this a lot of information to take in and it can be overwhelming, but we urge you to stay engaged with the process and we will keep you posted on updates with our email list.

Thank you in advance for helping to protect this property and surrounding neighbors from this development which will affect everyone in Guilderland and the City of Albany.