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After passing a moratorium on hydrofracking and new heavy industry in the Town of Lansing the Town hired municipal planning and zoning expert Jonathan Kanter to lead the effort to update town plans and ordinances.  A key document Kanter will be reviewing and updating is Lansing's comprehensive plan.  Town officials are currently asking residents to join a new committee to work with Kanter to update the plan so it reflects the direction Lansing wants to take for the next ten to twenty years, and to include new efforts like the 2012 sewer proposal and the town center.

"The sewer plan is a huge element that the 2006 comprehensive plan didn't really have much information about," Kanter says.  "There have been a number of sewer plans over the years, but this one seems to really be coming into gear.  It's very much related to the town center plan, as well.  Those two things are big reasons to take another look at the comprehensive plan and really factor in how they are going to influence the plan."

With a representative committee that then reaches out to the community for ideas, Kanter says the town will end up with a plan that reflects a future residents want.  The committee will ideally consist of about a dozen people including some Town Board members, Planning Board members, and residents from all areas of the Town, including the Village of Lansing.  He says he hopes the update will take less than a year in the interests of respecting the time and effort committee members will contribute.  He says that the 2006 comprehensive plan is a good plan, so it will require less fine tuning than other communities might require.

"I can't even say at this point what the update will entail," he says.  "I have my own ideas on some of the things that could be in there, but it is really going to be an incremental process.  Once you set up a committee like this you are giving them the authority and responsibility to move the plan ahead with constant feedback from the boards so that it doesn't go off in some direction that the Town Board is not anticipating." 

Kanter says that part of the impetus for the update is the moratorium related to the gas drilling efforts.  But he notes that many communities update and review their plans every five years or so, which makes the timing of the current effort appropriate even without hydrofracking concerns.  He says changes in comprehensive plans typically 'grandfather' existing companies, which would protect good citizen companies like Cargill as new regulations are put in place.

When the last Lansing sewer study was being considered Kanter reviewed it for the Town of Ithaca, where he worked.  That plan woud have routed sewage to the Cayuga Heights and City of Ithaca treatment plants, both of which are in the Town of Ithaca.  The plan eventually failed because the cost was too high.  But a sewer project on Warren Road succeeded just last year because Transonic Systems was highly motivated to obtain access to sewer in order to double the size of their world headquarters in the Warren Road Business Park.

Kanter says that the current sewer project is more likely to succeed in part because the sewer committee is bringing the cost down, and in part because the town center and other development plans provide motivation to implement a sewer focused on the town center and South Lansing.

"It seems like there is a real focussed reason to do it," Kanter says.  "That's really to make the town center plan happen, because without the sewer that plan really is not anywhere near as viable.  It also seems to be consistent with the overall county-wide planning effort for focussing development into what they call development focus areas.  This really is a prime example of how the sewer infrastructure could really enhance the effort to get one of these development focus areas in place."

The first public information meeting about the sewer and town center is scheduled for August 8th at 7pm at the Town Hall.  Now that the sewer project is coming into focus, developers are approaching the Town to be included in the sewer district.  almost 200 units of market-rate and affordable senior housing are planned for the Town Center.  The Cayuga Farms condominium/town house project, a village-style standalone home project on East Shore Drive, and a rental town house project near te intersection of East Shore Drive and Drake Road alone could bring nearly 400 additional dwelling units to the Town.  Other developments at the intersection of Hillcrest and Warren Roads and south of Woodsedge will bring still more homes into the mix.

In a town that has averaged about 30 new dwelling units per year, this represents an enormous growth spurt.  A major purpose of the sewer and town projects is to focus the denser development that sewer facilitates in a central location, protecting other areas of the town from runaway development.  One of the challenges for the committee will be to address these developments, especially large projects outside of the town center area.

Another will be to review the current zoning and consider changes that will be a better fit for future development plans.  The only major change that is currently being considered is the establishment of a Town Center Zone that might put appropriate development there on a fast-track, attracting developers to that area, rather than other parts of the town that people want to remain as they are.  Most of the Town Center is planned for the 156 acres of land across the street from the town ballfields on Route 34B that the Town finally obtained the rights to develop, just last week.

"The Town of Lansing is really fortunate in owning this piece of land that is going to be the Town Center," he notes.  "Most places don't have that opportunity.  The Town Center isn't in the middle of an existing neighborhood where you have a set pattern of development already.  It's kind of nice because you have the opportunity to start something from scratch.  Zoning can be a big help in terms of how that can happen.  I think that's one thing the committee should be looking at."

And of course the plan will address the issues that the threat of hydrofracking has brought to the town.

"I think what the comprehensive plan can do is put into perspective how large industries in general can fit into the Town's character," he says. "If they do it can describe how they impact the Town's character.  That's the issue with this gas drilling effort that a lot of the towns in Tompkins County has been struggling with."

Kanter, who serves as an alternate on the Village of Lansing Planning Board, notes that the Village of Lansing is also starting the process of updating their comprehensive plan.  He says that new data from the 2010 census is a reason for both communities to review their comprehensive plans.  He notes that the census shows that Lansing is still the fastest growing community in Tompkins County.

"People definitely want to come to build in the Town of Lansing," he says.  "You will see growth will inevitably happen.  If you plan a town center that is obviously not the only place where development will occur.  You obviously can't take peoples' property rights away.  So how do you make development outside of the Town Center happen in a way that will have minimum impacts on the land?  How do you set it up so that other developments can occur in the town in a reasonable way, in reasonable densities, and in the right locations?  What can the Town do to insure the preservation of agricultural and scenic lands?"

Joining the committee will give residents a key voice in the future of the Town as it answers those questions.  Kanter says members will determine what elements are brought to the table, and will have hands-on influence on the near future of the town.  He anticipates the committee will meet about once a month with a possibility of a second meeting, depending on what work needs to be done at the time.  It will also solicit opinions and ideas from the community at large. 

"The committee itself will be only one part of the whole public participation process," he says.  "There are obviously going to be public information meetings, probably focus group meetings for selected topics the Town Board thinks are important.  This is going to be a key opportunity for residents in the town who want an important role in the way the Town is going to develop in the next ten to twenty years.  This is the opportunity."

The Town is asking residents interested in participating on the committee to contact the Supervisor's office for an application before July 30th.

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