Senior living project opposed
Advocates push to preserve Pine Bush as developer is looking to build new facility
The 43-year battle to preserve the globally rare ecosystem of the Albany Pine Bush continues as the developer of senior living facilities wants to build on 11 acres of the preserve’s ecosystem. The Save the Pine Bush group plans to speak out against the development at a Town Board meeting Tuesday, July 13.
The project, originally slated to break ground in 2019, was delayed for several reasons, including pandemic ripple effects, said the developer, but is now back on track, this time with a new twist — the senior living facility will be affordable living units for seniors, financed under the state’s NY Homes and Community Renewal program.
The new effort fulfills a great unmet demand in the town for seniors, said Town Supervisor Peter Barber. “The town is getting older and we need to provide more affordable senior housing. We need to make it affordable for people who are middle class,” Barber said.
The developer, Tim Cassidy of Senior Consulting LLC, is donating almost 40 acres of the 50-acre plot to the Pine Bush Preserve. That is a move the Pine Bush Commission and the town supervisor see as a fair compromise, but the Save the Pine Bush group feels is wrong.
“It doesn’t matter if it is senior living, or affordable housing, or expensive housing … it should not be built in the Pine Bush ecosystem,” said Lynne Jackson, a longtime volunteer with Save the Pine Bush. “We will lose 11 acres ... which is a lot.”
The preserve is full of sand dunes, pitch pine trees, Karner blue butterflies, turtles, snakes, salamanders and many more rare species. It is considered a globally rare ecosystem because of the endangered species it is home to. Just last month a rare plant that hadn’t been seen in the area since the 1920s was rediscovered.
For Jackson, this discovery further shows the importance of preserving every acre of the ecosystem.
“If we allow our ecosystems to be what they are supposed to be, we can avert this catastrophic decline in the variety of species (on Earth),” Jackson said. “Sometimes I think environmentalists are the most selfish of all because we know if we don’t have an environment you can’t have people. No matter how divorced people are from their environment, you can’t have humans without an ecosystem. Humans don’t live in a vacuum.”
The volunteer group has fought legal battles to protect much of the Pine Bush dating back to the 1970s. Their ultimate goal, as well as the state-created Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission’s goal, is to preserve all of the remaining Pine Bush.
Currently 3,350 acres exist in the preserve, but there is 5,400 acres total of ecosystem that could be added to the preserve, said Chris Hawver, the executive director of the commission.
Originally, the commission was hoping to buy the parcel that the affordable senior facility is being built on.
“I first walked on the property in 1994 with one of the owners of the property … We have never been able to come to an agreement,” Hawver said. “We can only buy property from a willing seller but only at fair market value … They didn’t agree with the appraisal, they wanted considerably more, so we couldn’t acquire the property.”
“(The land) is recommended for full protection, we would like to see it protected in full,” Hawver said. “But there is nothing to force a property owner to sell to an organization like the commission.”
The project was originally approved in 2015, meaning environmental impacts were already assessed and approved in 2015, Barber said. The area of the land that is most highly recommended to be protected, including the majority of the ravine and west part of the land that is adjacent to the preserve, is what is being donated, Hawver said.
“Is it the best scenario? No. Is it the worst? No. Is it a reasonable in-between? Sure,” Hawver said. “Quite often when you have property owners that have ravines that aren’t protected people dump in them, yard waste, there is no protection, there is issues with erosion… This way we will be able to protect the ravine just like we protect the rest of the preserve.”