Demolition delays could serve as economic wet blanket, attorney warns.
A state Supreme Court judge issued a temporary restraining order Tuesday barring demolition of two Washington Avenue buildings near the Capitol as the Historic Albany Foundation started a legal effort to save them.
But an attorney for the Fort Orange Club, the 129-year-old Washington Avenue landmark that hopes to use the space for additional parking, dismissed the significance of the order, noting the private club has no plans of razing the buildings until its own dispute with the city is resolved.
The club sued the city Friday after officials declined to immediately issue a demolition permit and instead forwarded its request to the Planning Board. Without a permit, the club cannot legally tear down the 19th-century office buildings at 118-120 Washington Ave. Hours after the order, the Common Council’s planning committee unanimously forwarded the ordinance – which would require Planning Board review of all non-emergency demolitions not in historic districts – to the full council for passage on Monday.
But the committee’s approval came with an amendment that would also impose a moratorium on all non-emergency demolitions between the date of the ordinance’s passage and the date it becomes effective, 30 days later.
An attorney for the club, however, warned lawmakers that the proposed ordinance is not only illegal under state law but would act as a wet blanket to economic development at a time when the city can ill afford it. “This is a heck of a thing in this economy and in this city to be doing something like that,” the attorney Bob Sweeney told the committee.
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