ALBANY COUNTY — More than 75 labor leaders, community groups, and elected officials — including Guilderland’s supervisor — signed a Feb. 26 letter on Senator Patricia Fahy’s letterhead, urging Governor Kathy Hochul to support a bill that would allow 7 acres of the 27-acre Wadsworth Laboratory property on the Harriman campus to be developed for mixed use.

Fahy had held a press conference in a parking lot on the campus on Jan. 13 to push her plan.

The $1.7 billion Wadsworth project has already been approved and takes up less than a tenth of the 330-acre campus.

Like Fahy’s Senate bill, the Assembly bill, backed by Gabriella Romero and John McDonald, also calls for the creation of a master plan for the full redevelopment of the Harriman campus.

The bulk of the letter consists of a list of correspondence, beginning in September 2021, detailing efforts to transform the campus.

The last item in the list says, “In January 2025, the final SEQR scoping document was issued that repeatedly ignores all public comments and letters submitted as part of this process.”

That State Environmental Quality Review document, however, concludes that the proposed project “has been designed to avoid significant adverse impacts” and “would not result in significant adverse impacts in any of the technical areas analyzed.”

The Feb. 26 letter says, “An astounding 63% of the City of Albany’s properties are considered tax exempt, including the Harriman State Office Campus. Encouraging spinoff development on these acres can also help to alleviate Albany’s unique tax burden as the state’s capital city. Additionally, encouraging greater walkability and multi-modal transportation will reduce the need for additional parking spaces, stimulate the local economy, and incentivize needed private sector investment.”

The office campus at the west end of Albany was planned in the 1950s by Governor W. Averell Harriman, for whom it was named. It was built in the Albany Pine Bush next to the Albany Country Club, where the university’s uptown campus is now.

Bordered by a ring road, which divides the campus from surrounding neighborhoods, the complex was meant to be accessible to state workers, many of whom lived in the suburbs. The first building, for the Department of Civil Service, opened in 1956.

Building continued apace throughout the 1960s. Then, in the 1970s, under Governor Hugh Carey, many state workers were relocated from suburban to urban settings. This continued through the Mario Cuomo and George Pataki administrations.

The Feb. 26 letter stresses, “Please note, these repeated requests to prevent another 1960s-style design will not impact the footprint of the Wadsworth Lab design nor cause any delay as we are all eager to see shovels in the ground as soon as possible. A 21st-Century design limits the number of surface-level parking spaces, reserves dedicated space for new housing stock and small businesses and reconnects the Harriman Campus with the surrounding neighborhoods as critical components of this project.”

A little over half of the seven acres allotted for the Wadsworth project would be for the labs themselves “with the rest of it going to parking lots,” Fahy said at her January press conference.

She described the campus as “some of the worst of a 1960s design … the vast majority of it is already composed of parking lots.”

The point of the proposed legislation, said Fahy, is to “really think more boldly” rather than thinking of it “as just a one-off” for the labs. “Even the tiniest part of a ring road could free up dozens of acres for this pro-housing agenda that we all know is needed.”

The lab is projected to be finished by 2030 and other development, including commercial, retail, and residential space, could be built along with it, she said.