- By Dan Veaner
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A tax incentive plan that would create a Lansing Town Center Incentive Zone to promote development in the new Town Center was brought to the Town Board meeting Wednesday for comment. Tompkins County Area Development (TCAD)'s heather Filaberto and Andy Sciarabba, Chairman of the Lansing Economic Development Committee reported on their progress in getting the Tompkins County Industrial Development Agency (IDA) to approve and implement the plan.
"This is a process that is driven by the Town," Filaberto said. "By the Town's vision that you want to see development and the kind of development you want to see. The IDA is here to find ways to help support that development. I think this policy is going to go a long way to help the Town promote development."
The proposal promotes light industrial, mixed use development and rental housing within the town center boundaries. Qualified project developers would be told about the incentive zone when they begin working with the Town Planning Department, and would apply to the Tompkins County Industrial Development Agency (IDA) with a special town pre- application outlining the proposed project's benefits to the community, and a detailed description of the project. The IDA would partner with the Town. The Town Board would pass a resolution telling the IDA that they want to see a project receive some sort of incentive.
"It is a policy that you will be able to use very widely to promote development and lower the cost of development in that concentrated area," Filaberto told the Board. "It's going to promote industrial, retail, and commercial, and multi-family rental housing development. The kinds of incentives that could be provided through the IDA include a property tax abatement which would be a 10 year abatement starting at 100% of the increase in property taxes as a result of development, so it's just on the improvements."
Incentives would also include a sales tax abatement on construction materials, furniture, fixtures, and equipment, and the state portion of the mortgage recording tax would be abated.
The Economic Development Committee set goals for projects that will make applications more likely to be accepted. Examples are the creation of quality rental housing that meets the needs of the community, or projects that increase the assessed value and generate property taxes for the Town.
Filaberto estimated that it will take about 60 days for a developer to get a ruling from the IDA. The process starts when a developer submits a pre-application to the Town. The Town Board decides whether or not the project meets the Town's planning goals. If so, they pass the application to the IDA with their endorsement. At that stage the developer submits a full application to the IDA, which then holds a public hearing, and then votes on whether or not to extend the incentives.
"It allows us to present projects to the Town Board that need incentives, but it's not automatic that you will say yes or no to them," Sciarabba said. "Once you are satisfied that this is a deserving project, then you make a recommendation to the IDA. It will provide services to this community that we don't have currently. That's the purpose of this whole thing."
Getting the incentive plan endorsed by the IDA is one big piece that will turn the town center into a reality. Town officials have been working on two others that need to be resolved before serious development will begin.
First is a sewer system that will allow for more dense development within a limited area. The Town is exploring a plan that includes a stand-alone sewage treatment plant in the Town that will serve an area from the Lansing schools, along Ridge Road, and up to the area where the youth detention centers and Kingdom Farm are on Auburn Road.
Even more important is the final purchase of the 140 acre parcel of land across the street from the Town Hall and ballfields. The town owns the land conditionally with deed restrictions imposed by New York State that restrict its use to recreation and community buildings. Town officials have negotiated a sale price that will lift the restrictions, freeing the land for development. The town center is largely proposed for that site, though its boundaries roughly span between Triphammer Road and East Shore Drive.
The sale has been caught up in state red tape for some time, but Lansing Supervisor Scott Pinney says that he hopes it will finally go through before the end of this year. The State required a second appraisal, which Pinney says was completed two months ago. Three weeks ago he spoke to the State official who is handling the sale, and was told that he would get to it when he can. Pinney has already been approached by at least one developer interested in building there.
"We budgeted the money this year to pay for that," he said. "We have the money ready. He said it was a formality to have the second appraisal done, and everything looks good. So we should be all set."
The Town Board endorsed the incentive plan in May and sent it to the IDA. Filaberto says the IDA's response was very positive. They asked her to take it back to the Town for public comment, which was the point of her appearance Wednesday. The IDA will take the information she brings them from Wednesday and give the plan final approval.
"This policy grew out of a tremendous amount of work from the Lansing Town Center Committee in developing a vision for a town center and a town center plan," Filaberto said. "The Lansing Economic Development Committee took it and ran with it and worked with me to develop a policy that would provide incentives to promote the right kinds of development within that zone."
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