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Potential Town GreenIn January Lansing residents got to tell architects and town officials what they would like to see included in a new town center.  The Lansing Town Center Committee worked with architects to get more input and translate that into tangible plans for potential features and locations for elements of the center, which led to a second presentation in April.  Town Councilwoman and Town Center Committee Chairwoman Kathy Miller continues to get community input, and she says she hopes work can begin on some of the elements within the next year or two.

"If you create an entry into this area (town land north of the Town Hall) then anyone who is interested in locating their business here can go back there and see it," she says.  "The neat thing about having all this land is that parking could be behind businesses.  You could have municipal lots behind, which would be lovely.  It would still serve the recreation areas.  It would be connected to Conlon Road and 34.  It would be really fun riding your bicycle here.  The potential is wonderful."


Miller has identified a few projects that could take place quickly at relatively little cost, and hopes for tangible community input on which are important.  At the top of the list is a sidewalk and tree plantings along the south side of 34B from the Town Hall to the Rogues Harbor Inn.  Also high on the list is a town green with walking pathways in the area near the Lansing Community Library and Town Hall.  Miller says that when a project is chosen architects will draw plans while she works on applying for grants to fund the project.  That could mean a sidewalk or town green as soon as next year or the year after.

The first step is to get public input on which projects they really want.  Tomorrow (Saturday 9/4) Miller will display plans and drawings at the Lansing Farmer's Market and talk to people about what they would like to see.  She says she will also put the drawings on the Town's Web site, and hopes to display them in the Town Hall as well.

"I want to give people an opportunity to say what they think about this," she says.  "Maybe I'll hear that the sidewalks are great, but don't bother with a town green.  I think this would change the look of the town dramatically.  We don't want to be just a stop light."

Miller says that a municipality has to have plans ready so that when aid or grant opportunities arise the town will be ready to show they have a real project, ready to go.  She says that she hopes to have projects chosen before the holiday season so she can get the architects to draw up estimates and more detailed plans while she concentrates on writing grants.  If the town is lucky enough to get grant money it could mean fast-tracking low-cost / high-impact projects like the sidewalk and tree planting that she says would make a huge visual impact that could attract businesses to locate in the town center area.


Town officials have already had discussions about starting work on the town land north of 34B, possibly as early as this spring.  Deed restrictions have been lifted that would restrict that land's use to recreation only, and the Town is finalizing its purchase from New york State.  Miller says this is work the town highway department could do, including preliminary work and building new roads in the area where business, homes, new recreational space, and even a new town park may go.

"Whenever you start something things start happening," Miller says.  "The Town Center Committee was created to make a town center that would be a meeting place for the people who live here.  The other thing is to have Lansing put on a good face for business, so when business looks at the town they are encouraged to at least start asking the questions about whether they want to do business here."

There has always been activity at the corners of 34B and East Shore Drive as well as the Triphammer Road intersection.  The two locations are widely acknowledged to be the boundaries of a town center location.  With the expanded Extramart with its Dunkin' Donuts, businesses on both sides of the south side of the Triphammer intersection including the expanded Next Jennaration dance studio and Jazzercize across the street, a planned grocery, the Crossroads Restaurant, and clearing of nearby land for potential business activity over the past year or two, the Triphammer corner in particular is becoming a vital focus for business.  But Miller says that will not hurt plans for a more central town center including and across the street from the Town Hall.

"I'm hoping it will help," she says.  "When we chatted with the architects at our town hall meetings it seemed like the town center would be bounded by Triphammer on the east and by East Shore Drive in the west. The potential area for development will be along that corridor."

Miller notes that attracting business to Lansing will help keep property taxes down for home owners.  She says that focusing denser development in the town center area will also preserve the character of the town that many residents have said attracted them to live here.


"People have said to me that they don't want Lansing to change," she says.  "I think what they're talking about is that they don't want houses blocking views and for sale near them.  I think this is what we're trying to avoid.  If you keep it all in one area it's not going to affect Ludlowville or other areas.  I don't think this particular type of development is going to change the little neighborhoods in Lansing.  I think that's what people are worried about.  If we don't do this, development happens.  Then if it happens all over the place you have no control over it."

Miller says she hopes this activity will jump start the creation of a town center, but also attract three or four new committee members who have a passion for this new phase of the Town's development.  Those committee members will have a front row seat as something that has been a vague dream in the Town for many years begins to take shape.

"I want people who really want to do this," she says.  "And people who really want to listen to what everybody else wants."

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