LESS CLEANUP FOR MORE DEVELOPMENT.(MAIN)

Byline: RAYMOND HERNANDEZ New York Times

ALBANY -- Environmental activist Aaron Maier surveyed the abandoned industrial plant that blights his poor Arbor Hill neighborhood here on the banks of the Hudson River. The lot, vacant but for an abandoned factory building, was overrun by weeds, and the soil was soaked with toxic chemicals.

A few years ago, he would have called for the standard environmentalist's prescription: Clean up the property thoroughly, no matter what the cost to business or government. But today, Maier is convinced that that approach has frightened off potential developers and left old industrial tracts like the one here orphaned. He believes it would be easier to attract a developer if the law didn't require that the land be cleaned to a pristine …