Apartments are rising along Fifth Avenue immediately north of downtown Troy as part of the 52-unit Kings Landing II development.

Troy is experiencing a remarkable and encouraging boom in apartment construction, while Albany isn't. What gives?

Well, let's start this story with the happy side of the equation. As first reported by the Albany Business Review, Troy has seen more than 2,300 new or renovated residential units completed within the last year or in the pipeline — an impressive number in a city of 50,000 people.

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Most of those units are apartments being built downtown or in its vicinity. About 1,500 are new, and roughly half will rent for the prevailing market rate, with the rest designated as affordable housing.

A mere seven miles to the south, more or less, Albany has few market-rate apartments under construction or planned, a stark shift from recent years. There could be a few reasons, including the city's intensified problems with violent crime in recent years or the general difficulties urban employment centers are having in recovering from the pandemic.

But the most significant culprit, says Mayor Kathy Sheehan, is the city's ramped-up inclusionary zoning law. Passed in 2023 despite the mayor's veto, it requires larger rental projects to set aside 7 to 13 percent of units for affordable housing, depending........

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