2007 was supposed to be a landmark year for the landmarked Kingsbridge Armory. In the fall of 2006, the city finally announced the release of a request for proposals, a key development the community had waited — and agitated — years for.

Three firms did put in bids and the city was supposed to pick one last July, but the decision was postponed until October, which came and went with no action, as did November and now December.

Two weeks ago, the Norwood News asked a spokesperson for the city’s Economic Development Corporation when the city would announce its chosen developer. “Soon, and I can’t be more specific,” was the terse reply we got back.

But community activists who pressed the city to act probably won’t be quite ready to break out the champagne even when a developer is announced. That’s because the Department of Education threw cold water on their campaign to include public schools in the redevelopment. A proposal developed by the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition with the Richman Group, which is now a collaborator with the Related Companies – one of the firms in the running — had called for four schools or 2,000 school seats at the armory. The RFP cut that in half, calling for about two schools and 1,000 seats at the armory.

And in June, in response to a letter from City Council members, Deputy Chancellor Kathleen Grimm said that demographic trends made more schools in the area unnecessary. A survey done by Council Member Oliver Koppell over the summer, however, revealed significant overcrowding at area schools.

Grimm did hold out faint hope for one school at the armory, but until some of the 1,700 seats the city removed from the capital plan in late 2006 are replaced – perhaps in an amendment in February or in the new capital plan next fall — redevelopment will proceed without schools.

The Coalition and the Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance (KARA), an umbrella group of community institutions it organized, are demanding a seat at the negotiating table when the city picks a developer. KARA wants the developer to sign an agreement guaranteeing that the project is built by union members who are community residents. It also wants living wage jobs for employees of businesses in the revamped facility.

Whether or not these community hopes for the armory are realized will probably be known by this time in 2008.