COLUMN

Press Ahead With Railyards,

Or Oneonta, DRI In Doubt

Editor’s Note:  This is a comment on the DGEIS on the redevelopment of Oneonta’s D&H railyards, after the plan was pummeled at a March 5 public hearing at Foothills.  Al Colone is founding president of Oneonta’s former National Soccer Hall of Fame.

By AL COLONE • for Hometown Oneonta & The Freeman’s Journal

Dear Mayor Herzig and Common Council members:

The 270 acres of the former D&H railyards are the most important real estate within the boundaries of the City of Oneonta.  I’ve often said the land in question and its relationship to the city is analogous to the core of an apple; and since the 1960s a gradually rotting core.

I believe that unless and until something meaningful happens there the rot will persist, having a dire impact on the rest of the fruit: Oneonta, its City center, its neighborhoods and its allied assets.

What happens there will determine the future of our community and the surrounding area. Will development there bring growth and much-needed prosperity, or will Oneonta continue to flounder, sadly without fulfillment of its incredible potential?

Please accept this email letter as a formal comment in support of your ongoing processing of the Generic Environmental Impact Statement.

I urge the Council to approve the GEIS review of the IDA’s 90 acres of the yards, as prepared by Delaware Engineering, understanding that this action is a very preliminary and necessary first step in any future development.

I believe it’s very premature to try and confirm or finalize a development-site plan and/or an energy program, knowing those important determinations are really in the hands of others: committed private developers and state agencies.

It’s outside financial resources that will answer those issues.  Nothing will happen in a major capital way on the 90 acres for several years, unless you have a major private investor in your back pocket, or anticipating a $40-million grant from New York State, or some combination.

For the what it’s worth department, here’s my advice on an incremental strategy going forward:

• Have the IDA apply for $651,450 grant to clear and seed the 50 non-wetlands acres of the IDA’s 90 acres, improve the existing Roundhouse Road with cul-de-sacs at each site entrance, name and install “project” signage in appropriate high-visibility locations. There are some very creative rail-themed names that could be considered!

• Immediately put a recruiter on the road to evaluate potential capital prospects, to define and refine  development concepts, and to sign prospect commitments towards future capital construction and operations at the former rail-yard site.  For the record; I continue to believe food, beverage and innovation have the greatest economic growth potential for both the railyards and DRI zone.

• Other action towards addressing future private site development.

Good luck in moving the railyards’ projects forward:  The economic future of the community and area is in your hands.  Best wishes!