Rivers Ledge gets green light in Niskayuna

NISKAYUNA — The town has granted final approval for construction of a housing project on riverside land that, for decades, was the site of an auto scrapyard.

Rivers Ledge will eventually consist of 260 apartments on 21 acres at 2837 Aqueduct Road. The first phase will comprise 160 units — 16 buildings with 10 apartments each. The second phase, with 100 units, will focus on senior housing and include some retail space. The numbers and details might change after review by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Town Planner Laura Robertson said.

The total price tag is about $26 million.

“It’s a good project,” Robertson said. “It’s exciting to see them start.”

The project has encountered some delays since developers Peter Luizzi and Saverio Minucci first proposed it in January of 2016. Environmental review was necessary because Williams Auto Parts had operated on the site for more than a half-century. But tests eventually showed the ground to be fairly clean.

Later, the project’s sewer design was changed. Town sewer lines don’t reach the site, so it will use the city of Schenectady’s sewage treatment plant. Instead of a simple gravity-fed line called for in the original design, Rivers Ledge will use a low-pressure pumped line designed by Niskayuna firm Environment One.

It was that last change that brought the project back before the town, which already had approved the site plan with the gravity system. 

The revisions were reviewed, and the town Planning Board on Monday again granted final approval, unanimously.

A manager at Peter Luizzi Contracting did not return a call seeking comment for this story about when construction would begin. Cleanup of the former auto parts business began earlier this year.

Robertson said construction could start this season.

“They’re really trying,” she said.
 

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