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Developers present 81-unit Post Nickel Place; ZBA declines to be SEQR lead, asks for DEC remediation records
Summary
Community Builders and Unity House reintroduced an 81-unit mixed-income redevelopment of a DEC brownfield at 244 1st Street; the board declined to act as SEQR lead and requested more documentation on DEC cleanup, remediation depth, and health-and-safety plans before decisions.
Community Builders presented Post Nickel Place (PLZBA 20250036), an 81-unit mixed-income redevelopment proposed for the former Seward equipment site at 244 1st Street. Jesse Badis, senior vice president for development at Community Builders, said the site is nearly 2 acres, is under a brownfield cleanup agreement with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), and that the project aims for a 'track 1' cleanup involving excavation and removal of contaminated soils.
Kelsey Carr of LaBella Associates described three variance requests: a use variance to allow multifamily dwellings where the 2023 rezoning (Recode Troy) changed the parcel to business development; an area variance for a 27-foot setback on Ida Street where the intensity zone requires a 10-foot maximum; and a roof-form variance to meet the code’s intent through color and material changes rather than traditional roof interruptions.
Board members pressed for detailed DEC documentation, remedial-action plans, and waste-characterization work that would specify contaminant types and excavation depths. Badis said the project team has completed remedial-investigation work and a remedial-action plan and will provide DEC decision documents, but those final items were not yet in the board’s packet.
Deputy Chief Jared Behringer of the Troy Fire Department expressed operational concerns about concentrating large affordable-housing developments in one site and said similar projects have generated high volumes of emergency calls elsewhere in the city; he recommended denial of the variance unless design or tenant mix would better match surrounding neighborhoods. Neighbors and a planning-process participant urged the board to honor Recode Troy zoning decisions and questioned whether commercial or light-industrial uses were preferable. The board declined to declare itself lead agency for SEQR due to insufficient information and directed the applicant to supply DEC and remedial documentation and coordinate lead-agency determination with the planning board.
