RENSSELAER – The gondolas envisioned carrying 900,000 passengers annually across the Hudson River have glided into the city Planning Commission review process that will determine if the $25 million proposal will fly.

Representatives of Albany-based Capital Gondola in their application for the Capital District Gondola told the Planning Commission that they have secured up to 80 percent of the funding for the project from private sources. They further indicated they are applying for grants to cover the remaining construction costs, Charles Moore, the Rensselaer director of planning and development, said Tuesday.

“They’re still planning it. They want it to go ahead,” Mayor Daniel Dwyer said.

“It’s all private funding. They’re going for a grant,” Dwyer said, confirming what the Planning Commission was told.

If fully funded, the application states, the first gondola would cross the river between Rensselaer and Albany sometime in early 2020 “making the Capital Region a national leader in this rapidly emerging urban access technology.”

On Monday night, the Planning Commission assumed lead agency status for the state environmental quality review of the project. Rensselaer will have control over the review process. Eleven of the property parcels impacted by the gondola project are in Rensselaer and the other nine parcels are across the river in Albany. The project needs a special use permit.

Capital Gondola is currently negotiating to secure the air rights and easements it needs to erect the towers and lines and to have the gondolas pass overhead, according to the application submitted to the Planning Commission.

The Site Development Proposal outlines how the gondola system operate and the route between the two cities. There will be a 4,500-foot aerial gondola between the two cities with 11 towers, ranging from 40 feet to 133 feet high, to support the gondola cables, the application states.

“The proposed gondola would extend from the Rensselaer train station to cross the Hudson River and land downtown in the Times Union Center area. There will be stations to get on and off at each end of the tramway,” according to the application.

“The gondola service will consist of 26 cabins that will each carry up to eight people, providing ADA (American with Disabilities Act), carriage and bicycle access as well. Two 5,000-square-foot stations will be developed, one at the CDTA/Amtrak Rail Station in Rensselaer and one in downtown Albany,” the application said.