collegetown | Ithacating in Cornell Heights

News Tidbits 4/9/16: A Slippery Situation

9 04 2016

1. The town of Ithaca had their first substantive meeting about Cornell’s Maplewood Park Redevelopment, and later this month, the city of Ithaca will have their take on the 4.5% that sits within their boundaries (picture a line up Vine Street – that’s the city line). According to documents filed with the city, approvals from them will only be needed for one building. Application/SPR here, cover memo from Whitham Planning and Design here, Part I of the Full Environmental Assessment Form here, and narrative/drawings here.

From the SPR, the schedule as already been shifted slightly to an August 2018 completion rather than July – they also threw out a $3.67 million construction cost that doesn’t make much sense offhand. Edit: It looks like it’s just a basic estimate of 4.5% of the total project cost of $80 million.

The biggest change so far is a revision of the site plan. In response to community meetings, Cornell shifted smaller 2-3 story stacked flats and townhouses closer to the Belle Sherman Cottages, pulled back a couple of the larger apartment buildings, and added a new large apartment building to the southeast flank. Cornell has its goal of housing at least 850 in the redevelopment, so all design decisions revolve around accommodating those students with their families, while coming up with a design the community can live with.

The city will vote at its April meeting to defer Lead Agency to the Town of Ithaca, which will leave them with the ability to provide input, but the town board will be the ones voting on it.

OH MY GOD THIS IS WILD. Apparently, 100 percent porous pavement will cause the parking lot to collapse. Why? Well…

— Nick Reynolds (@IAmNickReynolds) April 5, 2016

I can't believe it. This one guy, with his contour map, has completely sent a Cornell project back to the drawing board.

— Nick Reynolds (@IAmNickReynolds) April 5, 2016

2. It’s not often that a project gets undone by a single public commenter at a meeting. But the Journal’s Nick Reynolds got to experience such a momentous occasion at the town of Ithaca’s planning board meeting. He documents it on his Twitter account.

Someone that I didn’t cover because it wasn’t especially news-worthy is Cornell’s plan to replace the Peterson Parking Lot at the intersection of Tower and Judd Falls Roads with a cutting-edge 100% porous paved lot and a Cornell-created soil designed to promote rapid growth of trees in high traffic areas (a new island would be built in the middle of the lot). Basically, an eco-friendly, less-invasive parking lot, if there ever could be a thing.

Then Bruce Brittain, the Forest Home community historian, completely undid the plan with a contour map. Generations ago, the property was filled with debris and garbage, even old construction trucks. And while there may be a parking lot on it now, a porous lot, which would be heavier when watered, is liable to collapse right onto the Plantations below. Meaning, no porous lot, no green showcase. Back to the drawing board Cornell.

3. Here’s a little more information on the 5-story, 44-unit/76-bedroom apartment proposal for 201 College Avenue. SPR Application here, FEAF here, project narrative here, BZA worksheet here, drawings here , letter of discontent from Neil Golder here. Looking at the drawings, there have been some slight revisions, mostly with the College Avenue entrance and the materials and fenestration at street level. The SPR gives us a $6 million construction cost, and a proposed construction time frame of July 2016 – August 2017. Units will be a mix of 1 to 4 bedrooms (24 1-BD, 12 2-BD, 4 3-BD, 4 4-BD). While the project falls into the Collegetown Form District, an area variance will be required for a front yard setback from College Avenue, which the board feels will help the street be more like a boulevard.

The city planning board is expected to Declare itself Lead Agency for environmental review at the April meeting. Developer Todd Fox hopes to have approval by the end of the June meeting. STREAM Collaborative is the project architect.

4. This week’s eye candy comes courtesy of Noah Demarest and Todd Fox (yes, they seem to be getting a lot of mentions this week). It had occurred to me that while an image of the revised 902 Dryden townhouses had been presented at the meeting where it was approved, the town never uploaded the copy. Noah and Todd were kind enough to send me a copy of the image presented at the meeting, and gave their permission to share it here. 8 new units, 26 new bedrooms. The duplex building in the middle already exists, but two new units will be built opposite a shared wall. Two three-unit clusters will be built on the east side of the parcel.

5. It’s official as of March 28th. Construction permits have been issued for Conifer LLC’s 68-unit Cayuga Meadows project on West Hill in the town of Ithaca. Expect the first construction update, and a synopsis, when the first construction update comes around, which won’t be until mid-to-late May since West Hill projects get visits during odd-numbered months.

6. Just a couple minor city subdivisions to pass along. One, an application in outer Collegetown at 513-15 Dryden Road to separate the land into two parcels (513 and 515). The lot owner will then build himself a new house on the vacant lot. CR-1 Collegetown Form District, and it looks like no variances will be needed.

The other subdivision is on the city’s portion of West Hill. The property is a vacant lot that borders Westwood Knoll, Taylor Place and Campbell Avenue. The property owners, who live next door on Westwood, want to divide the vacant lot into two vacant lots to sell for single-family home construction. Once again, it looks like no zoning variances will be needed, just regulatory PB approval.

With the consolidation and realignment of 312-314 Spencer Road mentioned last week, this makes three subdivisions scheduled this month. That’s pretty unusual, as the city typically sees only one every 2 or 3 months on average.

7. Looks like someone made a tidy profit. Local landlord Ed Cope picked up 310 and 312 E. Buffalo Street for $885,000 on the 6th. 310 E. Buffalo is a 6-unit apartment building, 312 is a parking lot. The previous owner, a Philadelphia-based company, picked up the properties for $800,000 back in October 2014. So, $85,000 (+10.6%) for 18 months of ownership. The properties are part of the East Hill Historic District, where the Philly-based firm recently had a hell of an experience because the owners before them replaced the windows without notifying the city, and that was a big no-no as far as historic districts and the ILPC are concerned. They mandated the windows all be replaced with more historically-appropriate fittings. Hopefully that came up during the sales negotiations.

For what it’s worth, the parking lot is zoned R-3a – a 4 story building with 35% lot coverage. Since it’s in a historic district, a hypothetical proposal would likely look a lot like its neighbors.

11-24-2012 171

8. And another big sale this week, on Friday – the house at 210 Thurston sold for $2.5 million to the Alpha Chi Omega sorority. The house had been on the market since last November for $2.75 million. This actually sold relatively quick, given its large size and fairly unique nature. The seller purchased the property for $677,500 in December 2011, and renovated the property for use by the Cornell wrestling team.

Alpha Chi Omega has occupied the house at 509 Wyckoff Road for a number of years, but did not own the property – the owner, who picked up the property in 1971, is a business partner of Kimball Real Estate.

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Tags: 201 college avenue, 902 dryden, affordable housing, collegetown, Cornell, dryden, ithaca, maplewood park, senior housing, STREAM Collaborative, student housing, varna, west hill
Categories : affordable housing, construction (planned), Cornell, environmental issues, ithaca, news, senior housing, student housing, Tompkins County, urban planning

News Tidbits 4/2/16: The Walls Come Tumbling Down

2 04 2016

1. Demolition and site prep work has begun for the Hotel Ithaca’s new 5-story addition. The work appears to be right on schedule, since a March construction start had been planned. The $9.5 million, 90-room project replaces a two-story wing of rooms built in the early 1970s. Hart Hotels of Buffalo hopes to have the new wing open for guests this fall. NH Architecture of Rochester is the firm designing the project, which received some “sweet burns” when it was first presented with cross-hatched panels and “LEED-certified stucco”. Eventually, the planning board and developer settled on a design after review, and the project was approved late last year.

For those who like to see walls a-tumblin’, the Journal’s Nick Reynolds has a short video of the demolition on his Twitter feed here.

2. Looks like there’s a little more information about the 16-unit “small house” subdivision planned in Varna. A Dryden town board document refers to the document as “Tiny Timbers”. Which is a name that has come up before – in STREAM Collaborative’s twitter feed.

https://twitter.com/streamcolab/status/673601010313641984

https://twitter.com/streamcolab/status/657329991827509248

Making an educated guess here, STREAM is working with landowner and businessman Nick Bellisario to develop the parcel. It would also explain the huge mounds of material that had been on the site as of late – compressing the very poor soil so that something could be build onto it, even if they’re merely “tiny timbers”. It doesn’t look like these are more than one or two rooms, with an open floor plan on the first floor and either a room or loft space above.

At first impression, these are a great idea – relatively modest sizes tend to be more environmentally sensitive, and with the subdivision, it’s likely they would be for-sale units with a comparatively modest price tag. On the other hand, tiny houses are something that a lot of local zoning laws don’t accommodate well (minimum lot size, minimum house size, septic), so that would be something to be mindful of as the project is fleshed out more and starts heading through the town’s approval processes.

3. Here’s some good news – the initial reception to Visum’s 201 College Avenue project was favorable. Josh Brokaw at the Times is reporting that apart from debates over a more distinctive roofline and setbacks from the street (which is more ZBA than Planning Board), the board was supportive of the project.

Meanwhile, as for something they were not in support of, the possibility of removing the aesthetic parts of site plan review as a benefit to affordable housing incentive zoning was not something that sat well with them. One thing that does get missed in the article, though, is that that benefit would only be in areas with form zoning guidelines for building appearance and siting (right now, that’s only Collegetown).

4. Never a fan of being scooped, but the Journal’s Nick Reynolds broke the news of a 3-story, 39,500 SF outpatient medical facility planned for Community Corners in Cayuga Heights. Owner/developer Tim Ciaschi (who also did the Lehigh Valley Condos on Inlet Island) will build-to-suit for Cayuga Medical Associates, with design work by HOLT Architects.

In most towns, this would be fairly cut and dry. But this is Cayuga Heights, which probably has the most stringent board in the county. The village routinely says no to anything that could draw students in (mostly housing, but historically it also included taverns and restaurants), and people prepare multi-page tirades against two-lot subdivisions, let alone what happens when a sorority tries to move in. In the project’s favor are its distance from homes and its modest densification of Community Corners, which the village has been slowly migrating towards in the past few years. The board’s raised concerns with not enough parking, so a traffic study was included with the March materials. We’ll see how this all plays out, a medical office building might work well with Cayuga Heights’ older population.

5. The city decided to take action on the owner of the Dennis-Newton House by fining him $5,000 for building code violations. Steven Centeno, who picked up the property from the Newtons in 1982, was initially charged with over 11,000 violations, and pleaded guilty to 35 counts. According to the city, Centeno was ordered to make repairs in 2012, and got the building permits, but never commenced with repair work. If he fails to bring the property up to compliance within six months, a further fine of $42,000 will be levied. This is not unlike the case last April where the city fined lawyer Aaron Pichel $5,000 for code violations on 102 East Court Street, the “Judd House”. Work on that property is underway.

6. Likely to be some bureaucratic progress on the Maplewood Park redevelopment next week. The town of Ithaca will be looking at declaring itself Lead Agency for environmental review of the 500-600 unit project. designs and exact plans are still in the formative phases, so no new news on those quite yet. In order to build the new urbanist, form-based project as intended, Cornell will be seeking a Planned Unit Development (PUD), which will give them flexibility in how they can lay out the site. The portion in the city of Ithaca, the two buildings towards the northwest corner (boundary line goes down Vine Street), will be built as-of-right, and it looks like a sketch plan will be presented for the city’s portion during their April Planning Board meeting.

A FEAF is included in the meeting agenda, but since the project will have to undergo a Environmental Impact Statement (much more detailed than a FEAF), it’s not very descriptive.

7. Ugh. I give credit to the town of Ithaca’s planning board for trying to accommodate a solution where the 170-year old house could at least be moved to a different site. I’m disappointed in both the town of Ithaca’s Planning Committee (members of the town board) and the Iacovellis, neither of which seem to be devoting much thought to an amenable solution. The town’s planning committee chair is hell-bent on keeping students out, and the Iacovellis are now trying to rush the demo permit since they feel their livelihood is threatened. This is an unnecessary loss due to intransigence.

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Tags: 201 college avenue, cayuga heights, collegetown, Cornell, dryden, historic preservation, hotel ithaca, ithaca, maplewood park, news, varna
Categories : collegetown, construction (planned), Cornell, hotels, ithaca, news, student housing, Tompkins County

Collegetown Terrace Construction Update, 3/2016

26 03 2016

So there are really two sets of photos here. The first set contains photos that I’ve taken from outside the fence. The second set of photos are from inside the fence, and come courtesy of Nick Robertson and Jocelyn Garrison at Welliver, the general contractor in charge of the project. Their photos are much more visually telling than mine, and a big thanks goes out to them both.

Currently, work is focusing on drilling piles, and forming and pouring the foundation walls. In some sections, foundation walls are being formed. Concrete pours as liquid and dries into a hard solid; forms are a solid barrier (typically wood or durable plastic) that simply forces the concrete to dry in the shape it’s supposed to. After the concrete has been poured and dries into the desired shape, the forms are removed and moved down to the next section. Work on the foundation walls appears to be progressing from west to east along the excavated and pile-driven footprint for building 7.

If you look closely at the Welliver photos, you can see the steel wire mesh that will be embedded in the concrete and provide stability for the walls. The additional steps on the forms may have to do with stepping the foundation up along the slope of the site.

Set two:

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Tags: collegetown, collegetown terrace, construction, ithaca, news, photos, student housing, welliver
Categories : collegetown, construction, ithaca, news, photos, student housing

News Tidbits 3/26/16: Big Plans and Small Town Intrigue

26 03 2016

1. Starting with with the new project of the week. In case it was missed, the write-up for the new 5-story apartment building proposed for 201 College Avenue can be found here. 201 College is being proposed by Todd Fox under his new development entity, Visum Development Group; Modern Living Rentals will continue to exist as a rental property management company. Excluding perhaps a small question with where the average grade is to determine the 70′ max height, is looks like the proposal fits the MU-1 zoning; and apart from a couple of the usual grumblings against students and/or density, there isn’t likely to be too much of an issue with the proposal. Noah Demarest of STREAM Collaborative is responsible for the design, which will make be faced with colored metal panels.

On a related note, the Journal broke this before the Voice, and it appears they may have used to the city’s Site Plan Review pre-application as a source. That’s not online for public viewing; someone would have had to give it to them. Which seems a bit dodgy, given one of the goals of the now-mandatory pre-application is to offer initial thoughts to make sure a project is palatable, and to avoid another public controversy like State Street Triangle.

2. Meanwhile, the other partner in Modern Living Rentals, Charlie O’Connor, is pursuing a small project of his own on the other side of the city. O’Connor has submitted subdivision plans to merge two lots at 312 and 314 Spencer Road, and subdivide two legally-buildable lots from the merged property for a total of three, one of which will contain the existing houses. The new lots would be on vacant land behind the existing houses, which are currently owned by the Lucatellis (the same folks who ran Lucatelli’s next door). O’Connor would be purchasing the home and land pending approval of the subdivision. Each of the two new lots would then be developed into a 2-family home. Noah Demarest of STREAM Collaborative is handling the application. Drawings can be found here.

3. The Biggs Parcel will be put up for sale. As the county notes in its press release, the county administrator has been given permission to procure a realtor and market the property on the condition that any offers from the Indian Creek Neighborhood Association and/or the town of Ithaca be entertained (though not necessarily selected). The ICNA had offered some unknown amount for the property, which they have sought to keep undeveloped, but the offer was rejected. Previously, the site was the location of a proposed 58-unit affordable housing development, but the project was discontinued when more extensive wetlands were discovered on the property.

One of the big sticking points has been whether or not the 25.5 acres would be taxable – the county wants to sell to a private owner that will pay taxes, but proposals to preserve the land often dovetailed with plans to donate it to an organization like Finger Lakes Land Trust, which would render the property tax-exempt. The land had been valued at $340,000 before the discovery of the additional wetlands, and the reassessment value will become available on May 1st.

Realtors will apply to the county to list the parcel, and a realtor is expected to be chosen by the county by May 4th.

4. A large property in Trumansburg village noted for development potential has sold after being on the market for two and a half years. Local architect Claudia Brenner picked up the 19.27 acres in two adjacent parcels for $240,000 on the 22nd, about 25% off its original $300k asking price. 18.77 acres is registered to 46 South Street, the other 0.5 acres is a small L-shaped lot between 209 and 213 Pennsylvania Avenue. The previous owners used the property as cropland, and it had been in the same family since the 1940s.

In an email, Brenner said it’s too early to comment, but that future plans are being considered. The site has the village’s R-1 zoning, which allows home lots as small as 15,000 SF (~0.35 acres), and small scale multi-family residential and commercial services.

5. Talk about big delays. Tompkins Financial will be pushing their $26.5 million project back a whole year, according to an interview a Cornell Sun staffer conducted with JoAnn Cornish, the city’s planning director. The project was supposed to start this quarter and be completed in Q1 2017. Now it will be completed in Q1 2018.

6. A few months ago, the Summit Enterprise Center proposal in Danby was described in one of the weekly news roundups. Docs filed by STREAM Collaborative’s Noah Demarest on behalf of owner David Hall call for modifications of a Planned Development Zone for the property at 297-303 Gunderman Road. Danby’s PDZ is not unlike the city’s PUD and town of Ithaca’s PDZ, where the form and layout is regulated rather than the use. The original PDZ for the property dates from the mid-1990s.

Well, after months of vociferous debate, the project has officially gone into bureaucratic Hell, complete with political turmoil and accusations a-flyin’. My colleague Mike Smith has the full story on the Voice. Rather than rehash Mike’s detailed explanation, let’s just leave it at this – Summit probably isn’t moving forward anytime soon.

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Tags: 201 college avenue, biggs parcel, collegetown, ithaca, news, tompkins county, tompkins financial corporation hq, trumansburg
Categories : collegetown, general housing, ithaca, news, student housing, Tompkins County

News Tidbits 3/19/16: A Taxing Problem

19 03 2016

1. Apart from controversial presidential endorsement, Congressman Tom Reed paid a visit to the development community last week at the Boiceville Cottages project out in Caroline. According to Dan Veaner at the Lansing Star, the meeting was touted as an opportunity for developers, builders and contractors to express their concerns with onerous government procedures, specifically the local level.

Bruno Schickel, speaking at the event, noted that Boiceville could only have been done in Caroline because the 3,000 person town has no zoning (but they do have some type of commission that acts as a planning board). The lack of layers and conflicting comments from different interests allowed Schickel to get the latest 75-unit expansion approved in just two meetings back in 2012, something that he notes would have likely taken two years in other municipalities.

Then there’s this quote from another developer.

“After the site tour Reed spent time chatting with builders about regulations, mandates and costs that prevent some projects from ever being built. One developer told Reed about an incident that killed a project before it even got started.

‘I tried to build a mixed use residential retail commercial building and I needed more residential units to make the economics work for lending,’ he said. ‘I wanted six more apartments and the Town of Ithaca wanted an environmental impact statement. the deal with these impact statements is that you pay an expert $20,000 so he can produce a 50 page report. They look at it and read it and if they don’t like it they want to hire their own expert and they make the developer pay for it. I backed out right away. I pulled the plug and walked out of the meeting.'”

In case anyone was wondering, that was Evan Monkemeyer and his never built College Crossings project on the corner of 96 and East King Road. Which, to be honest, didn’t get re-approved because the window of opportunity closed as soon as the town updated its Comprehensive Plan and decided it wanted dense mixed-use. It’s an uncomfortable situation for all parties.

Obviously, there are two sides. Schickel is a very thoughtful and responsible builder/developer, but others may not be, which is why guidelines need to be in place. But, having watched the battles over affordable housing, and seeing the battles over wind and solar power now erupting in the western half of the county, it does give pause. I never thought I’d hear Black Oak investors such as County Legislator Dooley Kiefer and Caroline town board member Irene Weiser described like greedy Wall Street corporate villains, but that’s the current state of affairs. Using the same point from last week, the county can’t afford to be self-defeating, and having too many rules and regulations can keep a lot of good things, like green energy and affordable housing, from happening. The big, hotly-debated question is, where is the balance?

On a final note, the Star confirms that Schickel will finish build-out of the late Jack Jensen’s Farm Pond Circle project in Lansing, as soon as the Boiceville Cottages are finished later this year.

2. It’s that time of the year for property re-assessment. The county gives a rundown of their process and goals for this year here. Most places handle assessment on the city/town/village level, so being that Tompkins County is solely responsible here makes it unique in the state.

The report notes that high demand and low supply has kept sales prices on an uptick, and as those get factored into assessments, the values of property are due to go up as well. There aren’t as many sales as in the mid 2000s, but county home values are appreciating at an uncomfortably fast clip – median price went up 4.2% in just the past year, much greater than wage growth. The Voice has gotten some emails from people extremely upset that the county is doubling their land value, and there have been similar emails getting shared on neighborhood e-mail listserves, so there will probably be a story coming out on that soon.

Certain areas are facing certain challenges. For example, Collegetown’s land value is so high that it’s often worth more than the building that sits upon it, making much of the neighborhood a redevelopment target. Fall Creek is seeing home value appreciation much faster than the rest of the county, making it ground-zero for rapid gentrification. The county’s not pulling these values out of the ether; assessments are based in part on what people will pay for similar neighborhood properties. Fall Creek is walkable, centralized and a strong fit to the rustic, crunchy vibe buyers are often looking for in Ithaca. There are signs that the North Side and South Side neighborhoods are seeing similar impacts, but they’re not as noticeable because those neighborhoods were traditionally less well-off, so the gross home values aren’t as high, even if they’re appreciating at similar rates.

Out in the towns, the county feels Caroline is being under-assessed, which they hope to change in 2017, and there have been wildly high-priced sales in Ulysses that the county attributes to “excited” lakefront buyers. About the only area where the county is concerned about falling land values is Groton, where poorly-maintained properties are taking their toll on the tax base.

On the commercial end, Commons businesses and county hotels can expect a 5% assessment increase.

3. Looks like the town of Ithaca released their annual planning board summary. Only 15 new of modified proposals were reviewed in 2015, down from 27 in 2014, and 32 and 41 in 2012 and 2011 (2013 is excluded for some reason). Nevertheless, the town’s planning department has been busy trying to translate the 2014 Comprehensive Plan into form-based zoning code, at least some of which they hope to roll out this year. A couple sources seem to have taken to referring to it as the “Ithacode”.

Also in the pipeline – reviewing Maplewood (with the city as secondary), reviewing Chain Works (with the city as primary), and possibly, Cornell rolling out plans for East Hill Village (early design concept shown above), the first phases of which are expected to be unveiled within the next year.

4. The townhouses at 902 Dryden Road in Varna have been approved. The Dryden town board voted 4-0 to approve the project at their meeting on the 17th. The 8 new units and 26 new bedrooms should begin construction this July and be completed by June 2017. Local company Modern Living Rentals will be developing the site, and the townhouses (no updated render, sorry) are being designed by STREAM Collaborative.

Also relevant to the Varna discussion, the planning department memo notes a pre-application meeting was held for a proposal to subdivide and build 16 “small homes” at the corner of Freese Road and Dryden Road currently owned by Dryden businessman Nick Bellisario. No other information is currently available about the project.

5. Let’s wrap this up with a look at the city of Ithaca Planning Board agenda next week. Quick reminder, the general order is: sketch plan, Declaration of Lead Agency, Public Hearing, Declaration of Environmental Significance, BZA if necessary, prelim approval, final approval. Here’s the formal rundown:

Site Plan Review
A. 210 Hancock – project update, no decisions
B. 424 Dryden, rear parking lot for 5 cars – prelim and final approval
C. Hughes Hall Renovations, Cornell University – Determination of Environmental Significance, prelim and final approval
D. Ag Quad Renovations, Cornell University – Determination of Environmental Significance, prelim and final approval
E. The Cherry Artspace, 102 Cherry St. – Declaration of Lead Agency and Public Hearing

F. Sketch Plan – 301 E. State Street, the Trebloc Building.

Don’t know if this is a continuation of State Street Triangle or something else (it would be a surprise if someone could create a new plan in such a short time), but we’ll find out on Tuesday. Zoning is CBD-120, meaning commercial or mixed-use, no parking required, up to 120 feet in height.

G. Sketch Plan – 201 College Avenue

201 College Avenue sits on the corner of College Avenue and Bool Street in inner Collegetown, and is presently occupied by a well-maintained though unremarkable 12-bedroom student apartment house owned by an LLC associated with the director of a local non-profit recreational center. The property is currently assessed at $545k. Zoning for the property is Collegetown MU-1, allowing for a 5-story, 70′ tall building with no on-site parking required. A quick check of neighboring properties indicates that the owner only owns this property, so whatever is planned will likely be limited to just this house.

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Tags: 201 college, 902 dryden, boiceville cottages, collegetown, Cornell, downtown ithaca, ithaca, news, politics, tompkins county, varna
Categories : academic buildings, collegetown, construction (planned), Cornell, general housing, ithaca, news, student housing, Tompkins County

News Tidbits 3/12/16: After Much Discussion, Even More Discussion

12 03 2016

1. The community meetings have begun for Maplewood Park’s replacement. The Cornell and Professional Graduate Student Assembly (GPSA) held a discussion with the developer EdR and project architects Torti Gallas this past Monday. According to the Sun, some of the features planned in the new graduate housing development include-

“[S]omething like the Big Red Barn but on a smaller scale as a community room so you can open it up and have events…there will also be a business center for group projects and work. We are also planning an outdoor recreational space like tot lots for people who have families and volleyball courts.”

Concerns about affordability were raised, but the developer said that rent prices are still being sorted out. From the meeting, the four big goals of the project are “affordability, walkability, sustainability and community,” with streets that also serve as public gathering spaces, and a variety of unit sizes and types. Definitely something to keep an eye on as plans are fleshed out.

On the bureaucratic end, the Maplewood Park sketch plan is set to be presented to the Ithaca town planning board next Tuesday by Scott Whitham of Whitham Planning and Design. A sketch plan has no votes involved and is merely an informational session, and an opportunity for the board to give preliminary thoughts and input. The board will also be hearing a much less interesting proposal for a new bus shelter in B Lot.

2. Looks like Kraftee’s in Collegetown will be shutting its doors. According to the Cornell Daily Sun, the book and apparel store, which opened its Ithaca location in 2002, will be closing for good at the end of the month. Owner Pat Kraft did have plans to move the store into the first floor of the Dryden South mixed-use project currently under construction at 205 Dryden Road, but now with Cornell’s new Executive MBA building underway on the lot next door, he plans to “explore other more complementary uses for the commercial space.” Since the project is in MU-2 zoning, Kraft is legally obligated to have “active use” commercial on the 2,400 SF first floor: hotel, bank, theater, retail, and/or food service.

3. The city’s CIITAP production at the Wednesday PEDC meeting was productive. The board seemed comfortable with the pre-payment option preferred by the IURA. The question now comes down to what length abatements to offer. The 10-year has strong support, but there was discussion on whether or not to offer the 7-year option (only used once by the Hotel Ithaca) and the 12-year option with the enhanced benefits. So while this a few months of discussion left ahead of it, there’s a better idea of what the revised CIITAP will look like. For the record, the 1% fund payout would be based on hard construction costs only, not soft costs. So for example, the Marriott currently underway, it would have paid 1% of $19 million instead of $32 million (would it have still moved forward? Dunno).

20150727_145641

4. Also at the PEDC meeting, the development policy topic du jour finally moved forward – incentive inclusionary zoning. Discussion on the law here, and a primer on the topic here. So, stemming from a debate with the Times’ Josh Brokaw on Twitter, my initial reading of this law was mandatory. But I was mistaken, it’s voluntary and the city will want a couple years to gauge its effectiveness.

The Sun writeup is here, but eventually you;ll be able to find live video archived from the meeting here. I think Mayor Myrick pretty much nailed it with this quote –

“This proposal is an opportunity for those of us who claim to care about affordable housing but oppose large-scale subsidized housing.”

The unpleasant truth is, classism reared its ugly head during the 210 Hancock debate, and thanks to the online petition, everyone saw it. After all the prep and community meetings that went into the project before it was even proposed, there were still people who said it was unsafe, uncivilized, would breed trouble, that the residents would cause crime, they’d all be on welfare…pretty unnerving commentary from a community that considers itself progressive. Abhorrent as it is, these comments aren’t going to go away. Many of these folks are older, some have been here for decades, and they’re set in their beliefs. It’s regrettable to say this, but the more subtle and intermixed the affordable housing is, the less likely it is to face neighborhood opposition.

Along with the removal of parking requirements and +1 floor option in certain neighborhoods, the reduced site plan review option (only affecting the plan layout and design, not the environmental aspects) was judged to be the most appealing by developers. To be fair, a project redesign based on board input can be expensive, so reducing that prospect in neighborhoods with pre-established form guidelines (currently only Collegetown, but the Waterfront is likely to have its own form-based hybrid code in a year or two) is a big positive.

The PEDC voted to circulate the law for review, with only 1st Ward Councilwoman Cynthia Brock dissenting. There will be more typed about this law as it moves forward.

5. For this week’s eye candy, here’s the latest revision for Travis Hyde Properties’ DeWitt House senior apartment project at the Old Library site. This was the version presented at the March 8th meeting. HOLT Architects has been tuning in to both the ILPC’s and the Planning Board’s comments (the two have been conducting joint meetings to avoid extra bureaucracy and contradicting each other) and is trying to hem down the general design idea such that SEQR and SPR and the rest of the approval process paperwork can begin.

As can be seen, the design is quite a bit different from the original plan with the “dorky roof” as one county legislator called it (for the record, I liked the dorky roof). This is an idea of where the design is going, but not the final revision, since the ILPC and Planning Board still plan on commenting further. For those still simmering over the decision last summer, just remember that even if the Franklin/STREAM proposal for condos had been selected, the ILPC and Planning Board would have had a heavy hand in that design process as well. The design for DeWitt House will continue to evolve, and updated images will be shared as they become public.

20160219_145406

6. Meanwhile, out in Lansing, lawmakers are under pressure because NYSEG cannot accept any new gas service requests because the current pipeline is fully tapped. About half of homes nationally and many commercial and industrial structures use natural gas an an energy source, so this could potentially put the kibosh on a lot of home and commercial construction. Definitely not welcome at a time when the town and village are at high risk of losing their biggest taxpayer.

NYSEG is still actively pursuing construction of a new gas pipeline from Freeville, one that has garnered considerable opposition from Dryden and some eco-activists. The environmental advocates have pushed for renewables, but the recent opposition to the Black Oak wind farm in Enfield, and to solar panels in Ulysses for the Sciencenter have created yet another complication to the county meeting its green energy goals, let alone overall energy needs. The area can’t afford to be self-defeating.

The Lansing Star is reporting that NYSEG has obtained about half the easements it needs, and could eminent domain the rest as a last resort. It’s a tense and complicated situation.

20160219_175040 20160219_175113

7. Wrap this up with a quick house of the week update on INHS’s 203 Third Street affordable home project. These photos are a couple weeks old now, but most of the trim has been attached with the exception of the porch, and with that, finish-out of the interior and landscaping, this 2-bed, 1.080 SF house will be good for sale. INHS is asking $129,000 from qualified moderate-income homeseekers (buyers making 70-80% of Area Median Income, I think offhand), and is expected to change hands this summer. Claudia Brenner did the design, and Rick May Construction did the buildout.

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Tags: CIITAP, collegetown, Cornell, DeWitt House, downtown ithaca, dryden south, inclusionary zoning, ithaca, maplewood park, tompkins county
Categories : collegetown, construction (planned), Cornell, ithaca, news, senior housing, Tompkins County

News Tidbits 3/5/16: Here Comes the Papierkrieg

5 03 2016

1. Let’s start off with something that led to a couple of worked up messages and emails to the Voice inbox – a potentially controversial revision to the Chapter House proposal that would replace the north eave of the building with a wall (bottom image). In the documentation, there’s no written explanation as to why the change is being requested from the approved plan (top image); but I wonder if it has to do with fire safety regulations or zoning issues between the Chapter House and the rebuild being prepared for 406 Stewart next door. Architect Jason Demarest is working on both projects for their respective owners (400-404 Stewart’s Sebastian Mascaro and 406 Stewart’s Jim Goldman), so he’ll be representing both projects at the Landmarks meeting next Tuesday the 8th at 5:30 PM. Also on the agenda are a couple of minor renovations, discussion about potential work to The Nines at 311 College Avenue, and discussion of an expansion to the East Hill Historic District. This might just be for the Orchard Place properties that are locally historic but not nationally recognized, but we’ll find out for certain next week.

2. Some of your might be wondering what happened with the 902 Dryden vote. Well, the vote still has yet to be taken. Moldern Living Rentals was still work on the last details of the Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan for runoff (SWPPP), so the town of Dryden won’t be taking a vote until their March meeting, which has yet to be posted to their website (most likely it’s Thursday the 10th, or Thursday the 17th). The next-door neighbors still took time out to call the 40% downsized project a travesty and that it wasn’t shown in the 2012 Comprehensive Plan. Veering into editorial territory, my original comment from last month still stands:

“[A] master plan is not an exact thing; if it shows for three sets of five townhouses on a parcel, that’s not what may necessarily may happen. It just indicates the kind of density and scale of development the plan deems appropriate. 902 Dryden isn’t drawn on the master plan, but the plan welcomes the idea of townhouses on Forest Home Drive, which 902 abuts. So a vote in favor of the 8 new townhouses is, indirectly, a vote of support in the Varna Master Plan.”

I would give more weight to Todd Bittner’s objective concerns about stormwater than subjective comments of character, especially when they’re from someone who said they were disgusted by the thought of rentals. When Bittner checks out the revised SWPPP, if it looks acceptable, I think the project should be approved.

On another note, 1401 Dryden, the Storage Squad project (pictured above), seems to have lost a lot of its charm after getting caught in red tape last fall. The owners had to squeeze into a smaller area to satisfy the revised, expensive SWPPP. They’re hoping to hide most of it with landscaping.

3. Just a quick update on the Travis Hyde Properties Old Library proposal. The ILPC and Planning Board had their joint meeting, project team partners HOLT Architects and TWMLA landscape architects have incorporated their comments, and here is the current product. Sorry, no renderings, just site plans. Previous plan here. Overall, the site layout hasn’t changed too much, a courtyard and green space will be next to the DeWitt Park Inn, and the building is set back to maintain rhythm with its neighbors. The exterior is supposed to have more projections and recesses, the top floor set back 6 feet, and incorporation of balconies on the upper floors (not sure how this will affect the plan for the inverted roof). Unit count is 21 1-bedroom, 24 2-bedroom, and 9 3-bedroom, 54 instead of the original 60 (39 1-bedroom, 21 2-bedroom). The addition of 3-bedrooms is surprising for senior apartments; from what I’ve been told, typically the large majority of demand is with 1 and 2-bedroom units. The Planning Board and ILPC have another shared meeting at City Hall on the 8th.

4. The Chain Works review process is chugging along. At its meeting on the 8th, the Planning Board’s special meeting will decide whether the Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement is ready for public review (not expected to be controversial). Then on the 9th, Cornish et al. will be giving a report to the Common Council’s Planning Committee about the timeline and current status. Another staff progress report will be presented at the Planning Board meeting on the 22nd, and the next day on the 23rd, the city CC and town board Planning Committees will meet review proposed draft PUD zoning for the massive mixed-use project. With adequacy being agreed upon, the project can begin project review 15 or so days later; first public meeting is tentatively scheduled for March 29th.

The city just uploaded the comments of reviewers on the DGEIS – most are relevant, some are pretty good suggestions and critiques. Then there’s “Reviewer 3”, most of whom’s comments were put aside as they’re not relevant to adequacy. Those are but a preview of the potential flare-ups to expect at the public meeting.

5. Stumbled on this by chance, but it seems to verify initial suspicions from a few months back; a project proposal goes with the sale of multiple parcels of land totaling 9.2 acres off Park Lane and Slaterville Road in the town of Ithaca. The property, for sale at $995,000, is being marketed by Carol Bushberg Real Estate, which doesn’t have the render on their listing page or their Youtube video, but they do on facebook. The conveyed plans call for a 26-lot subdivision, and given the proposed lot lines, it doesn’t look like it would be affected by the town’s moratorium on 2-unit structures, because each unit has its own lot even though some of them share a wall. It also meshes with the town’s Comprehensive Plan, which calls for 2-4 units per acre in this area (in the site plan, it’s just under 3 per acre). So to all you would-be home developers, here’s an opportunity.

6. Speaking of the 2-unit moratorium in the town of Ithaca, it looks like that’s going forward to the Town Board to schedule a public hearing. The Planning Committee decided it was a good idea. The documentation says it would last at least a year, by which time the town hopes to have its new form-based, anti-student special zoning in place. Editorializing again, I still oppose this proposed law not because of the issue with low-end student housing, but because it’s too broad, affecting the whole town. The last 2-unit approved in Ithaca town wasn’t a student special – it was a 3-bedroom house with an accessory 1-bedroom apartment off Calkins Road. The husband and wife building the house will be living in the larger unit. I don’t think the whole town should be subject to a law that’s only been written to address a South Hill issue (the law’s language claims it’s a concern in East Ithaca as well, but I haven’t seen or heard of a new student-oriented rental in East Ithaca in at least the past few years). Anyway, whether for or against it, comments can be sent to Town Clerk at townclerk@town.ithaca.ny.us. The town meeting will be at the town hall on Monday the 7th at 5:30.

7. Here’s a preview of next week’s mid-week post: A look at some of the affordable housing proposals and plans that applied to the city for grant funding this year. INHS applied for their owner-occupied townhouses, the Boggs/ Fernández proposal for 402 South Cayuga is there, Habitat’s duplex, 304 Hector, and a new plan by a private citizen for an owner-occupied affordable duplex behind the house at 622 Center Street in the South Side neighborhood. Keep an eye out for that Monday night or Tuesday morning.

8. From the other news outlets now; the Times is reporting that the sketch plan for the Maguire auto dealership proposal for the Carpenter Business Park actually had a warm reception from the Planning Board. In particular, board stalwart John Schroeder was impressed with the sidewalk along 13 (which would help transition the Waterfront and nearby environs to mixed-use) and public amenities. The board is cognizant of the site’s issues and the city’s hopes for the area, so those do play into the thought process – perhaps part of it is that Maguire’s jobs and features could work as a draw for mixed-use development of nearby parcels that don’t have so many issues. The board’s role stops at this point, with the just passed TM-PUD now front and center – unless Common Council okays the project, it won’t be back again. But Maguire did ask for a letter of support if the board was willing; we’ll see.

9. Meanwhile, the Journal is reporting that Texas Roadhouse will be opening May 23rd. No doubt the relatively dry and mild winter helped keep this project moving along (February construction update here). The 7,163 SF restaurant expects to hire 170 to 200 employees, of which 80 will be full time. That number astounds me just a bit because I worked at a steakhouse in high school, and although we were maybe half the square footage, we only had a staff of about 40. Even in Ithaca’s crowded restaurant scene, there aren’t many options for the red meat lovers that don’t cost an arm and a leg, and chances are good this will appeal to a different crowd than most, and be something of a draw from the nearby rural areas. Best of luck to them and their staff.

10. Let’s wrap this up with House of the Week. Quick update on Zac Boggs and Isabel Fernández’s 201 West Clinton Street carriage house. Fully shetathed (Huber ZIP system panels), fully roofed and shingled, and fully fitted with windows, the exterior work left will focus on exterior siding attachment and refinishing the original 1960s garage to match the historically-inspired vertical addition. The exterior calls for sawn board-and-batten wood fitting, though it’s unclear if it will be unpainted wood, or painted yellow. The 1 bedroom, 520 SF space looks like it could be ready for occupancy by late spring.

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Tags: 902 dryden, affordable housing, chain works district, chapter house, chapter house rebuild, collegetown, dryden, inhs, ithaca, moratoriums, news, old county library site, south hill, student housing, varna
Categories : affordable housing, collegetown, construction, construction (planned), ithaca, news, senior housing, student housing, Tompkins County

209-215 Dryden Road Construction Update, 02/2016

3 03 2016

First progress report of many. As Collegetown projects go, Novarr-Mackesey’s plan for 209-215 Dryden stands out for a number of reasons.

For one, it calls for a six-story plus basement, 76,200 SF academic/research building to be 100% occupied by Cornell University’s Executive MBA program. No residential or mixed-use to be found here, and given its primary occupancy of office workers and Executive MBA students (who tend to be older, deep-pocketed and will only be coming up from New York a few weeks of the year), not the typical Collegetown crowd either.

For two, this is one of those rare occasions where a Collegetown building under construction is not designed by local firm Jagat Sharma. ikon.5 Architects of Princeton, a John Novarr favorite, penned the steel-and-glass box with its multicolored steel mullions.

By the city’s estimate (from the Site Plan Review form), the construction itself will cost $12 million. From construction loan paperwork filed with the county in December, the total cost, including hard and soft construction costs, will be $15,912,823.33. Wells Fargo Northwest is the lender.

In September, the county approved a payment-in-lieu-of taxes (PILOT)-like tax abatement, taxing the finished building at $5.2 million plus 2% per year. The amount is still more than the ~$1 million value of the original, unimproved properties on the site, and it comes with a 50-year guarantee that Cornell won’t be able to but the property and make it tax-exempt, something that was hinted at a few times in the TCIDA application.

209-215 Dryden will host about 420 Cornell MBA students and staff when it opens in late Spring 2017, later increasing to 600 as Cornell fills out the rest of the square footage. The basement and first three floors will be dedicated classroom/academic space (including 90-person LGI classrooms), and the upper three floors will be office space. A large three-story atrium will mark the building’s primary entrance. At opening, it will be fully leased by Cornell, but only 70% occupied. Sounds like plenty of short-term flex space.

Since December, the site has been cleared of weeds and any remaining debris, and it looks like foundation prep work (excavation) might be starting on the far side of the property away from the streets. Some steel H-beams have been brought to the site, possibly for use in shoring up the site along the excavation perimeter. The H-beams are drilled or driven in at regular intervals, and hold the soil back while the foundation is excavated. A pile driver, tubular piles, an excavator, and a Dynapac compaction roller are on-site. So, the primary duties at hand appear to be excavation of the new building’s foundation, and shoring up the soil surrounding it so that the site remains stable while that work is going on.

As the signage on Novarr’s corner building suggests, Hayner Hoyt Corporation of Syracuse will be the general contractor.

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Tags: 209-215 Dryden Road, academic buildings, collegetown, construction, construction (planned), Cornell, ithaca, photos
Categories : academic buildings, collegetown, construction, construction (planned), Cornell, ithaca, photos

205 Dryden Road (Dryden South) Construction Update, 2/2016

2 03 2016

The street was closed off when I stopped by the Dryden South mixed-use site to take a few updated photo. From the flatbed of a semi, loads of wood were being craned into the project site. Asking one of the construction crew walking nearby, he said they were wood form to be used in concrete pours. Forms provide stability and shape while the concrete hardens, and they provide support to the steel reinforcing rods (rebar) embedded in the concrete. Some of those rods can be seen poking out of the concrete pillars in the photos below; they’ll tie into the walls as they’re built up.

Most of the current work appears to be focused on the first level, where the new Kraftee’s bookstore will be located. The ground-level exterior walls (Concrete Masonry Units [CMU] from the looks of it) have been built out and the interior walls are being assembled. It shouldn’t be long before Dryden South really starts to move skyward. The six-story building is expected to open for occupancy before classes start in August.

LeChase Construction is the general contractor, and local firm Jagat Sharma is the architect.

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Tags: collegetown, construction, dryden south, ithaca, photos, student housing
Categories : collegetown, construction, ithaca, photos, student housing

307 College Avenue (Collegetown Crossing) Construction Update, 2/2016

29 02 2016

307 College Avenue, also known as Collegetown Crossing, is nearly topped out. Structural steel has reached the sixth floor, and it looks like a few crossbars towards the front and top of the building are all that’s needed to declare the project fully framed-out. Once that happens, the crane can be dissembled.

Most of the building is wrapped in translucent plastic sheets as early interior work progresses through the cold Ithaca winter. Since this still early on in the interior construction process, workers will be doing things like sprinkler pipe fittings and erecting metal stud walls, maybe even fitting plumbing risers and pipes in some of the more advanced parts of the building. A peek from the back shows that the structural steel has been sprayed with fire retardant.

Developer Josh Lower of Urban Ithaca hopes to have the building open by late July/August (and signs of a warmer and drier than normal spring ahead would help keep things on schedule). Hayner Hoyt Corporation of Syracuse is the general contractor for the $10.5 million mixed-use building, and Jagat Sharma is the project architect. Apartment rents for the 44 units are expected to be in $950-$1250/bedroom range. Grocery co-op Greenstar will occupy either a 3,200 SF space on the first floor, which will also host two smaller retail spaces, a laundry room and a fitness center. A pocket park and pedestrian walkway connecting College to Linden is being built as part of the project.