Ithacating in Cornell Heights

I tend to look forward to the middle of the month, mostly because the new agendas are released for the Project Review Committee associated with the Ithaca Planning Board (and the first official news of new projects). Apart from this debatable unhealthy interest, I’ll sometimes check out the Planning and Economic Development Committee, not because it’s as interesting to me, but mostly because I’m trying to avoid another Cayuga Green screw-up from ever happening again. So, in engaging in my monthly routine, I looked to find that while nothing was posted yet for the planning board (meh, I can wait), a curious piece of news was embedded in the PEDC’s agenda.

There’s a note from the economic development planner asking for a brief revision in the description of waterfront zones. Waterfront zones are stated as five floors maximum, and in another section states a maximum height of 63 feet. She asks for it to be stated such that the building may be 63 feet max, or five floors. I like to imagine her busting out a magnifying glass for this trick.

 
Now, associated with this incredibly uninteresting detail is an interesting piece of news – the clarification was proposed because a property owner wishes to build a waterfront-zoned building within the 63′ height limit, but with more than five floors. Now, I double checked Cascadilla Landing, and the proposal calls for 5 floors maximum. So, unless something major changed, it’s not that project. This appears to be a new project, for a six-story building on/near the waterfront.

A couple of details can be gathered from this type of proposal. The project is likely six floors because 10′ is fairly standard for a residential development – anything less is rarely seen, due to material insulation/layering between floors, and some desire on the developer’s part  to have decent floor-to-ceiling space. Commercial entities generally have larger space requirements for equipment and space, along the lines of 12′-15′ per floor. So if I were a betting man, I’d wager a six story building, near the waterfront, all residential on the upper floors (the ground floor may have another use – perhaps a retail space with 12′ ceiling, for example). So in sum, I think the proposal for another large building on Ithaca’s waterfront may be in the works, and the densification of Ithaca’s waterfront continues.

It would be wrong for me to play off the projects that I write about as being all that is going on in and around the city of Ithaca. Generally, I write about the major projects. I don’t do little projects, or I gloss over steps in major projects, mostly in an effort to maintain reader interest. However, like with many things, there’s a grey area – a project of merit, of moderate impact, that is not major enough for its own entry, but would benefit from a brief mentioning. I decided to group a few of those here.

Image Courtesy of Ithaca Times

The Ithaca Motion Picture Museum – A project in the planning stages, intended as a major renovation and addition to the old Wharton Studios building in Stewart Park, which is currently a low-use maintenance facility. The circa-1890s building is but a shell of its former glory, but a local NPO seeks to invest $3.5 million into its renovation. Fundraising is ongoing, but it will be a while before any new work breaks ground.

The town of Ithaca seeks to redevelop a parcel on West Hill into an Ecovillage type of housing development. The 25.5 acres, associated with the vacant Biggs facility near Indian Creek Road, is to be sold or leased to a private developer for a ~70-unit, mixed-use property with emphasis on green living and sustainability. The preferred area of development is closer to the Medical Center, leaving a large tree buffer on Indian Creek Road itself. The proposal runs with the assumption that a developer will actually want to agree with the town’s stipulations, although residential demand has been strong enough in recent years that it just might happen.  Bids are due in October, with a starting bid of a cool $500,000.

Property of New Earth Living LLC

On the topic of green living, four new housing units are being developed as a “pocket neighborhood” on the corner of N. Aurora and Marshall Streets (three blocks north of the William Henry Miller Inn). Three new structures will be built (a revision in design dropped the number of units from five to four), and a current house will be refurbished. The project, called the “Aurora Dwelling Circle” (an oddly befitting name for an Ithaca project) and to be built by Cosentini Construction, has been virtually approved for construction as of the last planning board meeting.

Last not, for those who like big-box strip malls – the old Cayuga Mall across 13 from the Marketplace and across Triphammer from the Shoppes @ Ithaca Mall is being renovated. The old P&C space will be converted to spaces for an Agway, Jo-Ann Fabrics and Party City, which is a whole lot of non-news since I suspect the first two are just relocating from their current Ithaca-area stores.

ED. Please note the correction posted on August 11th.

Another incarnation of the Cayuga Green Condos has been proposed. First, the IJ article (for those without subscription, the Ithaca Indy provides another summary here). Now, first off, I would like to chastise the IJ for using an old image of the project – an image pulled from Bloomfield & Schon’s website of the modified third incarnation, which I include for reference below.

This is not the current proposal.

Notice that this has six floors. The revised version has four. This version also had 8000 sq ft of commercial space and 35 residential units. The revised proposal (which was only available in two thumbnail links, one of which was broken) has the same commercial space and 39 units, but less space overall – from 47,400 sq ft to 42,600. According to the IJ, development costs have been estimated to be about $8.5 million for this phase of the project.

I’m not even going to nice here. The design proposed does nothing good for the architectural pride of the development company. It’s essentially a glass box, with a little concrete filler. Boring, but okay. Even if it doesn’t have balconies, or even any shape to it apart from being a big glass box (heck, the earlier design the IJ tried to mislead people with is light-years ahead of this proposal). My issue is that it doesn’t even obscure the parking garage next to it, which overwhelms the proposed structure. It’s like they said, “hey, people will pay anything to live in Ithaca, so let’s try and squeeze as many as we can into as plain of a structure as possible” (I digress, this is the mantra of many low-brow developers, but I expected better from Bloomfield & Schon). Now, the last I checked, this was marketed as a luxury project. Nothing says luxury like being dominated by a parking garage next door. It’s just…mind boggling, in terms of planning and action. Cost of development aside, I’m having trouble imagining the developer getting these modifications past the planning board.

But, they kinda have to. In order for the developers to avoid issues with special resolutions from the city, the project needed to have financing and approval secured (i.e. construction starting) by June 30 – almost a month ago. So they’re already in hot water, and apparently, someone decided to water down the design, because I guess if you’re going to get on the bad side of city government, you might as well go for the gold. The prospects for development of this building are looking rather dim.

What a way to enjoy my morning – watching the IJ wrongfully mislead people with the incorrect design, and seeing the undersized box proposed. It’s mornings like this that I feel like I need to start drinking coffee.