The Lansing Town Board officially approved Sewer District #1 Wednesday in a unanimous vote.  After a public hearing last month a required waiting period allowed time for opponents within the district to petition for a vote, requiring the Town Board to wait to vote until Wednesday's meeting.

"The permissive referendum period is over," said Town Supervisor Ed LaVigne. "There has been no pushback on this.  There has been no counter-petition.  We are now moving forward."

The sewer main will run along East Shore Drive to service WB Property Group's Cayuga Orchards (102 unit rental town homes), and John Young's English Village (59 town homes and 58 single family homes), The RINK/The FIELD, and Hicks Storage are included in the new sewer district.  At the same time the Village of Lansing will add new sewer along and near Cayuga Heights Road and up East Shore Drive to the Town line to the north, and the Cayuga Heights Sewage Treatment Plant to the south.

The Town portion of the new sewer will cost $130,000.  Only property owners whose land is within the district pay for sewer.  The brunt of the cost is being picked up by Young and WB Property Group.  The plant has allotted 33,050 gallons per day of sewage to service the new town sewer.  Property owners will be billed for sewer service, maintenance, plus fees for using the villages' facilities.

LaVigne gave Young and Weinstein credit for making the project happen for both of the Lansings.  The two developers are paying the lion's share of construction costs, as well as contributing about a third of the cost of the Village portion, because effluent from the Town will pass through the Village sewer on its way to the treatment plant in Cayuga Heights.

"Thank you for all your patience and for thinking outside of the box," he said.  Without you and Mr. Weinstein I don't think this project would have had a ghost of a chance."

The board voted 4-0 to approve the district.

"We're working concurrently with the villages, especially the Village of Lansing to work on their project," LaVigne said.  "We're going to set up another meeting in August to see what the timetables are for developers Jack Young and Robert Weinstein on our end and the Village of Lansing.  We're hoping to move forward on that quickly."

The Town of Lansing has two other sewer districts, on Warren and Cherry Roads.

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