Ithacating in Cornell Heights

1. We’ll start this off out in Lansing. The 153 acres of land for the Lansing town center is once again in the news. The Lansing Star is reporting that the town is once again serious about selling the land.

So begins yet another chapter in the 20-year saga of the town center land. The town bought the land from the state in 1993 for $100,000, and at the time the land was deed-restricted to recreational use. In 2012, the town paid an additional $294,800 to remove the recreational deed restriction. An article about it was published here in August 2012 (original map below; dunno where why offhand it says 156 acres vs. the 153 reported now). HOLT Architects and TWMLA were hired to draw up some overarching design themes, a Request for Proposals was issued, and three developers responded.

Calamar Enterprises’ Buffalo office submitted a proposal for a $17.4 million, 110-unit market-rate senior apartment building on 13.5 acres, and Cleveland-based NRP Group submitted plans for 80 one-story patio homes on about 15.5 acres. Calamar later re-sited their project at the town’s wish to the northern part of the land, and increased the number of units to 124. Green Square, led by David Taub and HOLT Principal Graham Gillespie, proposed 60 units of housing and 23,000 square feet of retail in 2-3 story arrangements, and civic and recreational space. Altogether, the value of the three would have approached $50 million.

However, all of this was contingent on a sewer being built, which did not happen. The developers agreed to do a package plant that would service just the town center, there was discussion of an IDA-backed tax incentive zone, and the town stood to make a hefty return on investment, but…to quote the Star, “However, the deals fell through.  Actually it seemed more like they just faded away. At least one of the developers had signed paperwork saying they intended to purchase acreage from the Town.  The Town didn’t seem in any hurry to sell the land, even with clearly interested developers.  When the developers disappeared there was no reported effort by the town to pursue the deals.”

Since then, the town continues to get a steady stream of interest, but no real idea on how they want to move forward. Like Ithaca city and town, they’re looking at the possibility of Form-Based zoning for the site, and the town hopes to issue a more specific RFP than before, incorporating revised assessment values. The most intensive approach involved the Form-Based Code and a specific RFP, the least specific is just putting up a for-sale sign ans seeing what happens. Whatever the case, the lax approach the town has taken the past few years may no longer be feasible, with the ticking tax time time bomb of the possible power plant closure looming over the town and schools’ budgets.

2. Speaking of long processes, the Old Library project has formally filed paperwork here to begin the application process for the Certificate of Appropriateness from the Ithaca Landmarks Preservation Commission. The meeting is scheduled for city hall at 5:30 Tuesday the 14th. Although it says early design review, a lot of the legwork has already been done at this point, since the Planning Board and ILPC have been conducting joint meetings with the project team over the past several months to create a design that they’re all comfortable with. However, the ILPC is likely to refine some details moving forward.

At this point, the unit mix consists of 22 1-bedroom units with about 700 SF each, 25 2-bedrooms with about 900 SF each, and 10 2-bedrooms with 1200 SF each, the extra space intended as a den or home office. The building also includes a 1,800 SF community room to be administered by Lifelong, and 3,750 SF of first floor commercial space. The total facility size comes out to about 85,600 SF, and parking for 25 cars and at least 12 bikes, and another 34 bike spaces for the community room. Exterior materials include brick, limestone, and a couple forms of fiber cement, including wood-textured fiber cement.

3. The STREAM Collaborative House at 228 West Spencer is up for sale. The house has its own website here. The 1,152 SF, 2-bedroom net-zero energy house is listed at a price of $305,000. For more info on the house, Noah Demarest was kind enough to give a construction tour of the house while it was underway, and the blog post I wrote up afterwards can be found here.

4. It’s pretty clear at this point that the Evergreen Townhouses project at 1061 Dryden is evolving into the next hot-button development issue out in Varna. The Times has their interview with the angry neighbor here, and more info can be found in the town of Dryden’s April planning board meeting minutes here. So far, the only image of the townhouses themselves has been a perspective that only shows massing – 2 stories, gabled roofs.

Also of note is the town of Dryden Planning Department’s recommendation to the town board (and the planning board’s approval) for an increase in density in certain areas. The change in code affects parcels zoned rural residential, with municipal water and sewer access. The density would be increased from 2 units per acre to 6 per acre. Looking at the zoning map and the sewer map, that would primarily affect the corridor from Varna to the 13/366 intersection, and a rural swath just north of Dryden village near TC3. What this would do is allow 1061 Dryden Rd to withdraw PUD application, and apply for a special use permit (SUP), which are generally easier to obtain.

On a side note, googling Tiny Timbers brings up a Times editorial, written by the Times, that argues against Tiny Timbers for not fitting in with the appearance of Varna. Actually, it kinda takes everyone to task, from developers to town government to residents. But, to make one counter-point regarding mixed-use, commercial services need a certain amount of traffic (not necessarily vehicular) to thrive. If the population base within a certain radius isn’t there, the risk is too great for someone to put their money on the line and hope that they can somehow draw in customers. If Varna wants a mixed-use center with shops and cafes, they’re going to need the population to support it. Some think that will include 1061, some (probably more) think Tiny Timbers, but if there’s no “push”, the ball won’t be rolling.

5. A couple of minor things to note in sales. The 4,200 SF former “Imperial Buffet” property next to the Shoppes at Ithaca Mall has sold to a Syracuse-bsed LLC (Watersprite LLC, established 2004) for $590,000 on Friday the 10th. I personally will always remember this place as being the only place my mother was comfortable with eating in Ithaca because she hates eating out, and felt everything else was “snobby and expensive”.

Meanwhile, the 12-bedroom, 2,837 SF house at 201 College Avenue, the property subject to a heated debate between Neil Golder and Todd Fox, sold for $2.65 million on Friday the 10th, which seems outrageous except that it’s becoming the norm for inner Collegetown transactions – Novarr picked up 5,500 SF 215 College for $5.3 million last year. There will be no delving into that debate again this week, but the city uploaded 580 pages of documentation here, and my colleague Mike Smith is preparing a story for the Voice.

6. Houses of the week. This pair of duplexes are being built on Birdseye View Drive near Ithaca College. Each house has a 4-bedroom unit and a 2-bedroom unit; recent advertisements on Craigslist (since expired, so no link, sorry!) have them $750/bedroom. The developer is the owner of Mahogany Grill downtown, who also happens to be a part of the business team renovating the former Lucatelli’s into a new restaurant, a Tapas and pasta restaurant called Mix Social Dining after the chef’s wife.

These photos are a couple weeks old now, but the one on the right looks nearly complete, while the one on the left was still in the (wood) framing and sheathing stage. Based off the rough window and door openings, they are not exactly the same, but expect them to look similar.