A church is born and controversy is buried

ALBANY The lot at the corner of New Scotland and Hollywood avenues is a dirt-caked space, devoid of a building, a parking lot, even grass.

Instead, it is filled with construction equipment and piles of dirt ranging in height from a couple of feet to more then 20 feet tall, all of which is enclosed by dusty chainlink fencing.

But at Friday evening's groundbreaking ceremony, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormons, envisioned the new 13,000-square-foot building that will be the church's Albany Second Branch in the space.

The groundbreaking comes after months of controversy involving the city's Planning Board regarding the demolition of the former St. Teresa of Avila Middle School. But Friday's event was devoid of acrimony.

"We look forward to being here, and we look forward to meeting our neighbors," LDS Gospel Doctrine teacher Robert Blanchard said to the roughly 70 people assembled before him. "We love you and look forward to having you be our friends and neighbors."

The ceremony included a speech from longtime neighborhood resident and city councilman James Sano, who was among those who questioned the demolition of the former building and the construction of a new one.

"Who's to say what's coming isn't as good, or better, than what was here before?" he said. "It's nice to see the energy these people bring."

After the site and old building were sold to the LDS church for $1.34 million in 2010, the proposal to raze the building was unanimously denied by the Planning Board, which cited the church's own findings that the cost to reuse the building would be "nearly identical" to the cost to demolish it and build in its place.

Sano said the questioning was never based on religion but was instead in defense of the demolition ordinance already in place.

The church subsequently filed a lawsuit in March 2010, charging that the board had wrongly denied permission to demolish the building. The suit was upheld by Supreme Court Justice Richard Platkin in October 2010. He ruled that the board's claims that the building was integral to the Helderberg Neighborhood "lacks rational basis."

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A church is born and controversy is buried