Carver Cos. proposes land swap for wind projects

In exchange, a state-owned, industrially zoned property to the west along River Road that was supposed to become a dump for the city of Albany will be rezoned under a designation for recreational areas.

The result would be a reduction in the overall amount of industrially zoned land in the town, but neither plot hosts any industry. If the rezoning is approved and the manufacturing moves forward, the resulting projects would reshape the stretch of the town north of the port along the Hudson River.

Such developments are being watched closely by environmental advocates like Riverkeeper, which is concerned about how the offshore wind industry will impact the Hudson.

Carver Cos. told the town it is looking to pursue three major projects related to offshore wind turbines. One of the projects, which manufactures steel components for the wind turbine bases, is already underway.

Under Coeyman’s comprehensive plan, the town is supposed to try to balance industrial, environmental and residential concerns by directing industrial development to existing industrial areas and to maintain a buffer from residential areas.

Nick Laraway, the chief operating officer at Carver Cos., told the town’s Planning and Zoning Board this week that the company needed the space as it prepares to undertake as many as three projects related to offshore wind construction. Most of the land under consideration to be rezoned as industrial was previously mined or used for industrial purposes in the 20th century, Laraway said.

“Overall, we feel the project we are presenting is consistent with the comprehensive plan. It would reduce the industrial footprint in north Coeymans by 230 acres,” he said in a meeting earlier this week.

During a Town Board meeting last month, Supervisor George McHugh told Laraway the town is not looking to expand its industrial footprint.

“But what we do have we want to build it out and certainly make the best of it,” he said.

Laraway said the proposed rezoning and related projects would not impact a 54-acre plot of land at 47 Bronk Road that his father, Carver Laraway, bought and cleared earlier this year.

The company wants to use the land north of the port, which is owned by LaFarge Holcim and Powell, as parking and a storage facility for wind turbine blades manufactured by LM Wind Power that would be shipped out of the port to sites in the Atlantic Ocean. The company’s plans include an 80-acre campus with 450,000 square feet of buildings on land owned by LaFarge Holcim.

“We’re not looking to go further north and build a bunch of buildings,” Laraway told the town’s combined Planning and Zoning Board. “We’re looking to use that basically as an accessory to the manufacturing buildings we’re proposing on Holcim’s land.”