MCKOWNVILLE — Plans for a Jewish Synagogue and community center on Fuller Road have come under fire by a neighborhood association which cites water runoff problems and says that the plan is simply too big for the residential neighborhood.

Proponents say the Shabbos House serves as a religious focal point for the University at Albany nearby.

The 10,000-square-foot plan for the Shabbos House, which has been in limbo for the past three years, was reviewed by the town’s zoning board Wednesday night because the applicants are applying for a special-use permit and a parking variance.

Currently, a smaller Shabbos House stands at 320 Fuller Road, near the intersection with University Drive West. The plan is to tear that down and build a new, larger home.

The Shabbos House was founded by Rabbi Yisroel Rubin in 1976 on Fuller Road. The house doubled in size in the early 1980s and Rabbi Mendel Rubin and Raizy Rubin became the directors of the house in 1997.

The house primarily serves students at the University at Albany through the university’s Jewish Student Center, but the Shabbos House is open to anyone in the Jewish community. It provides a place for study and worship as well as traditional and Kosher foods to its members and guests.

The town has appointed Boswell Engineering to review the plans for construction and the Shabbos House has hired Hershberg and Hershberg as the engineers for the two-story project.

A letter-writing campaign, both for and against the project, has sent dozens of letters to Town Hall.

The McKownville Improvement Association, one of the oldest neighbor associations in Guilderland, which frequently fights to preserve its residential neighborhoods, is opposed to the project because of four basic issues:
— An "oversized non-residential building in a residential area";

— Limited parking spaces;
— The destruction of a "useful" residential building; and
— A "high-maintenance" water system.
The association’s president, Donald Reeb, sent letters to residents, stating that the Shabbos House proposal does not fit in to the "residential community of small lots and small homes" on Fuller Road.

Reeb said that most single or two-family homes on the road are about 1,500-square-feet, compared to the proposed 10,000 - square - foot Shabbos House.
"The association has asked if they could reduce its size,’ Reed said yesterday. "The idea of a Synagogue in McKownville would be wonderful."

Reed suggested that a site such as the former Denney’s on the corner of Western Avenue and Church Road would be more appropriate for such a large project.

However, a department head from the University at Albany sees it differently and has described the project as an asset to the community.

Herman Prins Salomon from the University’s department of languages, literature, and cultures, wrote letters to Supervisor Kenneth Runion and Zoning Board Chairman Peter Barber.
"Their home serves as a religious focal point for the student community, providing meals on the Sabbath and holy days to students who participate in the religious services, and even to some who don’t," Salomon wrote. "The back yard of the ‘Sabbath House’ contains an essential part of the Jewish religious panoply, making it such an attractive focal point for the students and an asset to the whole neighborhood."

At a website for the Shabbos House, www.shabboshouse.com, dozens of testimonials from university alumni and others can be found. Construction plans, donation opportunity, and descriptions of the house can also be found on the site.
"I knew I could always bring my friends here to Shabbos House, because no matter how they dressed, how little they knew, or how irreligious they were, I could always count on Rabbi Mendal for a warm welcome," wrote Marc Hanono, from the class of 2000. "Not many people can look deep inside people and ignore what they see on the outside. You were almost like a father to me during my years in Albany, and I will never forget the lessons you taught us about being Jewish."
Another testimonial reads, ""Throughout my life I have felt very close to Judaism, but not until I became a member of the Shabbos House "family" did I really understand what it meant to be part of services, or Friday night dinner, or holidays, and all the other times we shared over the year."

The university has offered 30 parking spaces to be used for the proposed Shabbos House where Rabbi Rubbin currently lives with his wife and five children, ages 2 to 10.

Donald Cropsey, the town’s chief building inspector and zoning administrator, doesn’t see a problem with parking, he said, but water runoff has been problematic,

Albany County denied the plan’s original proposal to hook into the municipal system to control water runoff, said Cropsey.

The new site plan calls for a water recharge basin, he said.
"They have resubmitted their storm water plans. That was one of the big issues," Cropsey told The Enterprise on Monday. "One of the primary issues is the drainage"the county won’t allow the drainage to go into the system."
Cropsey said retention basins are quite common in the area. The system holds runoff water over a period of time and then slowly "re-percolates" the water back into the ground, he said.
Reeb contends that the water system would have to be monitored regularly and that it could lead to problems where water runoff and flooding is already a serious issue. He is urging residents to contact town board members and write to local newspaper editors on the issue, because it "is an election year," he said.