The Monday, August 3, 2026 meeting of the Albany Common Council began with a Planning, Economic Development, and Land Use Committee session, followed by a caucus and the regular council meeting. The committee reviewed two Board of Zoning Appeals appointments, both receiving unanimous favorable recommendations. During public comment, several residents advocated for a ranked choice voting ballot initiative and addressed neighborhood concerns. The full council passed multiple resolutions, including reappointments, street renamings, and a request for 2027 budget documents.
Did you have your hand raised? Oh, okay, okay, gotcha. Okay, hello everyone. Good evening. Welcome to the Monday, August 3rd Planning, Economic Development, and Land Use Meeting. I'm Deborah Zamer, the chair. We are joined by committee members Tom Howie, Alfredo Ballorin, Lomenzo Jones, Arthur Lumpkin, our staff, Brian Jimenez, Carly Johnson, Robert Wenner. And we have two items on the agenda tonight. First, is there any public comment, Carly? Okay. So our first item we're going to take up is resolution. I got everybody introduced. Okay. Our first item is resolution 78726R, a resolution of the common council consenting to the reappointment of Serena White Lake to the Board of Zoning Appeals. We are joined by Miss White Lake. Would you mind coming up and having a seat? If you wouldn't mind just giving us sort of a brief introduction, how your time has been on the Board of Zoning Appeals and why you would like to continue with your work. Okay. Hi, I'm Serena Joyce White Lake from City of Albany. I've been a member of the Board of Zoning Appeals since 2017. And I enjoy serving on the board because we make important decisions about giving variances to different businesses or entrepreneurs or homeowners who want to build in the area, or they need a variance for very many different reasons, and we as a board have been able to work together collegially and effectively. And so those are the main reasons why I want to continue to serve the city as a member of the Board of Zoning Appeals. Councilmember Howie. Thank you. Thank you very much. Any other questions? I'll just ask you briefly if you don't mind. What in for your next term? Do you do you have a is there a challenge or a goal or something that you are hoping to accomplish that either hasn't been wasn't finished yet in your first term or might possibly in the future require some policy change, some law change. I don't mean to put you on the spot. But if there is anything, I'd be curious to hear. Well, I feel as though the board has been operating very effectively. So I would say in terms of going forward, I now that I've been on for several years, I'm definitely more confident when it comes to asking drilling questions of the applicants who come before us because they do submit their presentation beforehand and then we review it beforehand. But sometimes when they're in the hot seat, right, they can they can kind of clam up a little bit. Um I think it's important to, while the public is in attendance and while we're live streaming and all of that, to make them explain, even if they're explaining it again in the public forum why they need this variance and making them go through each of the considerations that they take. Because in the past, I've kind of just um hearkened to my previous analysis of the project, but I think it is important to make them say it again in the public forum. And so I think that going forward I will continue to have our or do more in terms of asking more of those specific drilling questions for our applicants during our um meetings, our BZA meetings. Thank you. No, that's a great answer. I mean, it's a it's basically what you're saying is um you need the experience of a term in order to know sort of what direction to go and the and the and the right things to ask and how to ask them. So thank you. Um we appreciate your service, and um thank you very much for your time. Thank you. We're also joined by council member Sergio Adams. Sergio, I know you're just coming in, but do you have a question at this point from Ms. White Lake? Uh good evening, thank you, Ms. Lake, for joining us. Um thank you for your continued service on serving on the Board of Zoning Appeals. Uh my question refers to the um upcoming meetings for the BZA and the meeting minutes.