project map | Ithacating in Cornell Heights

Ithaca Projects Map

5 01 2016

Soft roll-out on this little project, but one that will hopefully be useful. New for 2016, the Ithaca Projects Map. The map can be reached with this link, or by clicking the label next to the Welcome tag at the top of the blog column.

Taking a page from Jason Henderson over at Ithaca Builds, the map is color coded by for-profit (red), not-for-profit (green) and public projects (blue). A couple further details –

~Single family home and duplex sites are not included. There are well over 100 houses under construction in Tompkins County in a given year. Given their number and individually limited impacts, it wouldn’t be a good use of time to try and track them.

~For now, I’m leaving off recently completed projects. I’m also leaving off informal rumors or projects still in the early stages of development. The map only shows formal proposals, approved projects, and projects currently under construction. If a project is confirmed to be cancelled (ex. INHS’s Greenways, Collegetown Crossings on South Hill), it will be removed from the map.

~The information presented when you click on each polygon is a brief project description, the developer, and the project status. Links are provided to background reading on a given project.

~ Disclaimer: While I make an effort to make sure everything is accurate, there are possibilities that renders are outdated (old versions) or something may otherwise be incorrect. If you have questions or comments, leave a comment or shoot an email to ithacating*at*gmail.com.

Now for part II – clearing out my photo stash. Sometimes, I end up with photos that I never use, mostly massive single-family homes in established subdivisions. Along with modulars on the fringes of the county and the occasional large-acreage stick-built, these homes make up the large portion of the new single-family home builds in Tompkins County. Not the most environmentally friendly, and questionable urban/land planning, but it’s what zoning allows and what’s easiest to build.

There’s a few for reasons for that – on the builder/developer’s end, the Return on Investment (ROI) tends to be greatest on luxury home builds, and land’s cheaper in rural areas. On the municipal/community end, one-lot single-families don’t need board review unless they require zoning variances, and as a general rule of thumb, smaller projects, more rural projects, and projects targeting wealthier buyers face less neighbor opposition (the wealth effect is somewhat muted with rentals).