Cayuga Heights Wants A Real Community Center

 

 

 

So the folks in Cayuga Heights are getting in on the development game. In this case, local developers are interesting in taking one of the few mixed-use areas of the wealthy bedroom community, and densifying it.

The focus of this proposal is the Community Corners area, the small, mostly commercial parcel next to the awkward intersections of Triphammer, Hanshaw and East Upland Roads. According to the Ithaca Journal, Most of the new construction would be focused on the grassy parcel at lower left, while some of the buildings already exist would be expanded upon with additional floors, such as the Island Fitness in the lower left of the commercial patch. The two parcels, although owned by separate groups (The Ciaschi Family, the same ones for whom the corner of College and Dryden is named, own Community Corners; the grassy parcel by Mark Mecenas). Notably, this building only finished renovation last year; the bank in the lead image and the two-story office building at Triphammer and Upland are only about three years old.

Incorporated into the proposal – more lower-level retail and office space, and about 100 units of housing, up to four floors in height. this would require a zoning variance, as the maximum height for Cayuga Heights is about 30 feet. The design thrown out there is from (Larry) Fabbroni Associates, who tend to be called on much more to discuss the civil engineering aspects of development projects rather than actual designs. I prefer to think of the above designs as more of a scheme than anything concrete.

Oh look, they even threw the vaguely hipster-like musician in there! How quaint!

Mecenas notes in the IJ article that build-out for this project would likely take a few years, and that’s after the village approves the zoning changes. But, a pedestrian-friendly mid-rise core to Cayuga Heights would definitely make it feel more like its own community rather than a wealthy branch of the Ithaca tree.

 

 

The EcoVillage

Although I take a lot of jabs at “hippies”, the reason I never made it to Ecovillage before now had less to do with any personal stance and more to do with the fact it was just out of my way. Rachel Carson Way lies about a mile and a half westward of Inlet Island, nestled in the hills opposite from Cornell. This means that when I past through, it’s farthest out of my way, so time often being a priority, it always sat on the bucket list. Finally, I made the conscious effort to take a trip up on my last photo tour.

Ecovillage runs on the concept of co-housing, which in many ways runs close to most people’s idea of a commune (and mentally, I still find myself referring to it as a commune). There are optional shared dinners, a community-based work system, and of course, being in tune with the natural environment. Hence, solar arrays, housing designed to minimize energy use, foods grown on the property,  and so forth. Ecovillage isn’t unique, not even in Tompkins County (White Hawk in Danby is a smaller but similar concept). But it is probably one of the best known developments of its kind.

Ecovillage began planning in 1992-1993, when stakeholders purchased a former farm with the intent of launching an eco-friendly community.  The first neighborhood, FROG (First Resident Group), began construction in 1995 and was completed two years later. The second community, SONG (Second Neighborhood Group), received site plan approval in 2001, and was built in three phases over five years. Each of these neighborhoods has 30 units with a community center. The community also has a few other bells and whistles, like a passive bus shelter, a root cellar, carports and a berry farm. The pre-Ecovillage farmhouse and barn are now a separate property holding an antique shop and the City Lights B&B.

Ecovillage is well underway with its third neighborhood, TREE. At 40 units, TREE is slightly larger than the first two neighborhoods. Construction is definitely underway, and the majority of the community should be complete before the end of the year. Also worth a quick note, a 900 sq ft “Gourd Workshop” was under construction when I passed through. More additions, like an education center and a roadside farm stand, are in the works.

If you don’t want to be a creeper like me, Ecovillage opens itself up for a free public tour at 3 PM on the first Saturday of each month. That way, you can avoid being like me, trying to take photos when kids keep wandering in front of them, and having that awkward realization that you look like a child predator.

The Storybook Cottages

Several months ago, my best friend landed his dream job in Ithaca. Within the day, he was looking for places to live. I being his roommate, and trying to be as discreet as possible given my borderline-unhealthy interest in Ithaca real estate, was more than happy to listen in and offer advice.

One of the places he checked out was The Boiceville Cottages (I’ve always assumed this is pronounced like “Boy-ss”, like the Boyce Thompson Institute on Cornell’s campus).  As multi-unit housing goes, they’re quite unusual. In general, housing is set up in single-unit cottages, clustered in groups of three. More recently, a few three-unit buildings, ans a church-like meeting house have been erected. Perhaps the most obvious detail – the colors. It’s like someone looked at a bright cheery children’s storybook and went to town.  Apparently, such tales were at least part of the inpsiration for their appearance, with the intricate eaves and vivid paintjobs.

The project is a little out of the way, about a mile south of the Caroline town hall and Route 79. So it took me a little while to swing out for a visit, and see them firsthand (my friend settled in Eastern Heights. Boo). This development further caught my attention because of the expansion underway. The Boiceville Cottages development was first initiated in 1996, and from what I can tell, it took about ten years to build the first 24 units.  Around 2007, a second phase was initiated, with 36 units. As of last year, this phase is complete (so, they definitely picked up the pace on construction…). Recently, they were granted approval for the construction of 75 more units, doubling the size of the complex.

When I finally made it out that way a few weeks ago, I was going around taking photos, when an older gentleman in a pickup stopped and asked if I could be helped. Generally, I’m extremely cautious when I go on photo tours – on previous occasions, both Ithaca and elsewhere, I’ve been threatened with the law and with violence, so I regard every interaction where I have a camera in my hands with extreme prudence.

The gentleman turned out to be the builder/developer, Bruno Schickel. About a month earlier, I had asked if there were any renderings or site plans online (the answer at the time was “only what’s on the website”; the link above is a site plan from a town review of the project). So I wasn’t a complete stranger. We chatted politely for a couple minutes, I told him how I thought he had a unique and creative development. He invited me to check out a display unit (which due toa long to-do list, I politely declined). All in all, I’m glad I did not get chased off the property, and my thanks to Mr. Schickel for  tolerating this random guy taking photos of his property.

Motivation for New Construction: 2012 Census Estimates

With over 2,500 housing units planned within the  county, and only so many increasingly spendthrift college students to exploit, local developers kinda need further justification to launch into such a building boom. The census is certainly supportive of their plans.

Following the new April 2012 census estimates (file here), from April 2010 to July 2012, Tompkins County has likely added another 990 residents, bringing the local population to 102,554. Interestingly enough, Tompkins and the bordering counties serve as a little growth pocket in otherwise declining upstate New York – Broome County, home to Binghamton, lost the most residents of any county, with about 2,540 shipping out, a drop of 1.3%. The largest increases upstate came in from Jefferson County (home to the growing Fort Drum), and Saratoga County (home to the very large and very new computer chip plant), with Tompkins in third with 1.0% growth. Given the 4.5% growth of the last decade, Tompkins is on par with its growth rate in the 2000s.

I should issue the token disclaimer that there are estimates, and the actual numbers can be a surprise when they come out in 2020. For instance, it was thought in the 2000s that Onondaga County/Syracuse lost 4,000 people over the decade – they gained 9,000. And I’m not sure how much I believe the rapidly suburbanizing Dutchess County, which hasn’t lost population since the 1890s, is believed to have lost people over the two year span. For Tompkins County in 2010, the original estimates were too high by a little over 200 (an error of about 4%).  Also, perhaps this comes as no surprise, the New York portion of the New York metro added about 160,00o people, cementing their belief that they are the center of the world and the rest of us just live in it.

Two of the numbers I like to throw around for a housing unit is that Tompkins averages 2.4 occupants for non-college housing, 2.0 for college housing. If we use that 990 figure, it can be broken down to 413 traditional units or 495 college student units – and that’s additional units required in two years, in a county already experiencing a housing shortage.  I’d say builders have all the justification they need for development in the near-term.

 

Can a Polluted Past Have A Future?

Image Property of Welch Construction Inc.

Real estate in Ithaca is a fairly warm as markets go (I refuse to call it hot). But there are still some gaping issues in the metro market.  One of the biggest examples is one that can be seen from just about any southward vantage point above the lake lowlands – Emerson Power Transmission.

The property started as Morse Chain, which dates back to 1880 and began the manufacture of automobile chains in 1906.  Morse Chain was acquired by locally prominent BorgWarner in 1929, and the facility continued industrial production until BorgWarner built a new facility near the airport in 1983, selling the factory to Emerson Power Transmission. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, several chemicals were used for “cutting oils”, removing oils from the manufactured automotive gears, shafts and chains at the tail end of the process. One of those was trichloroethylene, or TCE. TCE is a known carcinogen, and I’ll come back to this in a moment.

Unfortunately, the era of traditional manufacturing was fading in the Ithaca area. Emerson Power Transmission moved about 40 of its corporate senior staff to a suburban Cincinnati facility in 2007 (and I remember reading about it while a student at Cornell). The death knell came in August 2009, when Emerson announced it was closing up shop in Ithaca, putting 228 people out of work (the factory had over 500 people on site as recently as the mid-2000s, and had received tax incentives not long before closure). The closure was recent enough that this blog was already going, and the original entry is here.

At first glance, the property would appear to be potentially salable. It’s a large property in a well-populated and growing area with a substantial uptick in the real estate market. However, there’s one very, very big issue – the TCE contamination.

Although TCE use stopped by the late 1970s, the damage was done, and unknown quanities of it leaked into the groundwater and sewers. The site was declared contaminated by the state in 1988.

Since then, it’s been a series of long and contentious debates about who to hold responsible for what degree of clean-up. The city, the state DEC, and BorgWarner and Emerson had volleyed back and forth on who pays for what. 35 years after the chemical usage is stopped, yet nearby sewers have had to be replaced, soil tested constantly and excavated if contaminated, and groundwater / vapor testing in nearby properties. Essentially, a major environmental headache.

Although the brunt of the burden has fallen on government and Emerson to clean up (BorgWarner gets blame but seems to carry little if any of the cleanup cost), the site has been marketed for sale – $3.9 million for 94 acres plus structures (note that just the groundwater is contaminated, not the structures themselves – this isn’t Ithaca Gun). It was no surprise that with the remediation and continual testing, the site has been a tough sell.

All the more interesting, then, that the local chamber of commerce announced at a recent luncheon that someone is agreeing to purchase the property. Emerson’s in the final steps of reviewing the offer.  The property could be host to a variety of activities – the IJ article mentions a possible small business incubator like the one at the South Hill Business Campus (itself a former factory). Given the location, any number of industrial or commercial applications are possible, maybe even partial/total tear-down and redevelopment. The biggest obstacle apart from the lingering environmental concerns might be the fact that the property is split along the city and town of Ithaca, so both would have to accept any proposed redevelopment.  But still, any progress on the looming, decaying facility would be one of the surest signs of a “reinvention” of the area.

Holochuck Homes Does A Belly Flop

Well, as I said not too long ago, not all projects can be expected to succeed. Here’s this little gem from Edelman RE:

“Location, Location, Location! 106 LOTS APPROVED SUBDIVISION!Project is situated in heart of the Fingerlakes, minutes to the city of Ithaca and home to CORNELL UNIVERSITY and ITHACA COLLEGE. Dynamic LAKE views, abutting forever wild Black Diamond Trail compliments this rare opportunity. Adjacent to hospital and other professional services. Buyer has option to use designated plans or to use their own. This is your great investment!”

I thought about this for a moment. What project do I know that was approved for 106 units and abuts the Black Diamond Trail, and is close to the medical center? It’s not like there were many choices.

The project was finally approved last April after jumping through a larger number of bureaucratic loops, mostly because it’s in one of the most rapidly developing parts of the county. Among the requirements for approval including an unrestricted bus pass for each unit, and that 10% of the clustered one-and-two story townhome units be made affordable. So now, no units, no extra traffic…and no affordable housing, no extra tax income, and rising real estate prices and property taxes for an area that does not have enough supply for demand. At the very least, a waste of time for a lot of stakeholders in the project.

For the record, the land, project, and all its approvals, could be yours for a cool $7.75 million.

From Suburbia, A Town Center

Image Property of HOLT Architects

Just about any reasonably-sized city in America has its suburban hinterlands – in Ithaca’s case, this is dominated by the town of Ithaca, and to a lesser extent, the towns/villages of Dryden and Lansing. Now, it would be wrong of me to address these communities like they were dominated by cul-de-sacs and power centers, since the village of Dryden, and some small hamlets, were around well before suburbanization – but they do make up a sizable proportion of developed real estate. So when those communities take steps to establish dense, walkable clusters of development, I tend to be impressed (because being satellite communities, I hold them to a lower standard).

In the town of Lansing’s case, its plans are pretty big – the town recently bought 156 acres of land to lift deed restrictions the state had placed on its development. The goal is to develop this land into a sort of “Town Center” – and not at all like the similarly named shopping mall near Syracuse.

Lansing is unusual in that it never has really had a dense core, unlike Dryden (the town of Ithaca can’t be reasonably compared since it surrounds the city). The village was founded in 1974, and only includes the area from the airport west through the mall area and down to the lakeshore.

For the town center project (covered in great detail by the Lansing Star), the overarching design was created by Ithaca-based HOLT Architects, with landscaping by (also Ithaca-based) Trowbridge & Wolf. It consists of consolidated parking lots, pedestrian walks, bike paths, street beautification, and interactive landscaping (stone seating areas, etc). The area is subdivided into a large housing component, a small retail/professional area, and a business/tech complex (it would seem to me a little more interspersion of uses would be better, but I’m not a stakeholder here). So, rather than being a standard suburban build-out, an effort is being made to develop a pedestrian-friendly core.

Apparently, developers are quite interested in accessing the property. Two of the largest potential stakeholders are NRP Group and Calamar. The companies are willing to cover a large portion of the project’s road construction costs. NRP even took the step of flying Lansing officials to projects near Cleveland and Buffalo to showcase their work. Both companies are proposing senior housing complexes, one “affordable” (NRP) and one market-rate (Calamar). At least two other developments are currently proposed. The full build-out of the town center is expected to have 350,000 industrial/commercial sq feet, and 420 residential units.

There are a couple major hurdles to construction at this time – the more minor one being zoning, the more major issue being the construction of a sewer through southern Lansing. High-density housing doesn’t go well with septic tanks (nor is it permitted by the town code anyway), so the construction of a sewer to serve that area is required, and the proposal for construction is currently being refined before it is put out to vote.

The project has the potential to be a game changer – the town is on the verge of a large increase in development, with another 400+ units planned in the next several years in clustered developments outside of the town center project. As most of these will be suburban in nature, or at least vehicle-oriented, one might pessimistically look at the town center as a drop in the bucket for smart planning. But it’s certainly a step in the right direction on the way to establishing a genuine community center.