

Zoning Board delays decision on sports complex by cemetery


After an emotional public hearing Thursday, the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals tabled a decision whether to allow a soccer complex next to a cemetery for more than two months.


More than 560 people have signed an online petition opposing the complex.

At the meeting at the town Public Operations Center, children in soccer jerseys praised Nezaj, while Memory Gardens board member Andy Marino held up a photo of his deceased 2-year-old daughter and said he would get on his knees to beg the zoning board not to approve the complex.

Nezaj hired Chazen Companies to measure noise on the property and at a Rotterdam soccer facility with five games in progress. The firm measured at four different locations, two at the property line with the cemetery, said Steve Radloff, an assistant project engineer with Chazen.

The highest reading at the cemetery’s border was 46.25 decibels, less than a normal conversation between two adults.

At the soccer field, Radloff said, the highest reading was 56.4 decibels during five simultaneous youth games, still less than the 60 to 65 decibels generated by a normal conversation.

“Soccer is not offensive. Soccer is not loud,” said Brian Sipperly of the engineering firm L. Sipperly and Associates. “There are no public address systems. There is no proposal for grandstands.”

Zoning board members were not satisfied and wanted sound levels taken within the cemetery itself.

“It doesn’t give me what I wanted to see,” said board member David Vail. “What is that sound going to be at a funeral when the children are going to be playing soccer?”

Nezaj said he is willing to schedule no soccer games during a burial.

“We would reschedule the game. We would move the game,” Nezaj said. “We do it all the time.”

Andrew Carroll, director of the cemetery, said that would not be easy. Graveside services run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays, he said.

“We do 650 to 700 burials a year,” he said. “My average burials on Saturday would be four to seven. I appreciate the offer to work around our schedule but I am not sure that would be possible.”

Categories: General
Tim O'Brien

7 Responses

  1. Snapdragon says:

    Yes, just as I figured. Pack the room with kids in soccer uniforms to tug at the public’s heartstrings. I wonder what it cost Afrim for all those pizzas.

    The bottom line here is that the proposed sports complex does not conform to the zoning laws and Afrim is asking for an exception to be made. Unfortunately, it is variances like this that set precedents, and they can come back to bite down the road.

    Remember the mess of “Stonehenge”?

  2. God Help ME says:

    So lets See, its Mid September, if we delay this controversial vote for one month…wait two months, that gets us to mid-November and the election will be over. Paula sweeps the controversy under the rug, wins re-election and after that who cares what happens.

    Paula get re-elected, we all get to keep our jobs. Win-win

  3. Leslie says:

    In Ballston Spa- there is a cemetery right across the street from the high and middle school fields. This is clearly not an issue. No one is “offended” if there is a funeral and a practice.

    NIMBYs are ridiculous. Yes it is a cemetery and people are buried there and deserve utmost respect. Also, this parcel is zoned commercial or business, so someone could build a store, which is just as loud as some soccer fields.

    What do they expect? A mile buffer from any development?

  4. Z. Fechten says:

    Sorry about being off topic, but I hard something about Kmart and BK on Central being torn down for a used car lot.
    It seems like a wasted opportunity. With the Bus Plus stop there, a mixed use transit-oriented project would provide more jobs and help the village’s fiscal health more than an old economy project like this.

  5. Remember when Alb. c. was going to widen the highway for the Airport?
    People homes were taken for what?
    I heard the project is still alive, but no one will talk about it.

    Does Afrim Sports Inc., really need this space for ALL the people in Colonie or do they need it for themselves?

  6. Colonie Taxpayer says:

    Paula’s economic development plan for Coloinie is minimum wage retail jobs that simply fight for the existing economic pie within Colonie.

  7. Walt says:

    Wasn’t the Albany-Colonie ball paek right next to a small cemetary? Why all thye fuss, its not like you will be keeping the residents awake at night!