The Tompkins County Planning Department submitted a document the Village of Lansing will use to hire a consultant to study and recommend future development around Dart Road.  The study was prompted after fierce neighborhood resistance to a proposed project that would bring 65 townhouses to the neighborhood.  The Lansing Reserve project is proposed for a 23 acre lot north of Dart Road, but it is only one of three large parcels that could be developed there in the future.

"This (will study) the whole area," said Deputy Mayor Lynn Leopold Monday.  "We're looking at it on a more holistic level to see what our options are for transportation and density and access and safety, and all those issues that keep coming up as we continue in our discussion of it."

The Lansing Reserve project has been proposed as a Planned Development Area (PDA) that would have less impact on the property than a development using current zoning law that would allow for an 80 home project.  The project proposes to build 65 townhouses of different sizes, keeping half the 23 acre parcel 'forever wild'.  It will be managed by Better Housing, a local authority that already manages 121 rental units in similar developments around Tompkins County.  Some of the townhouses would be considered 'affordable housing', which County officials say is crucial to Tompkins County.

But neighbors have been quite vocal in their opposition to the project, citing access and increased traffic among their objections.  More than 40 came to a July Village Trustees meeting to protest the development.  At that meeting it became clear that the Village would be unable to acquire a private roadway owned by Northwoods Apartments that could have been expanded to provide access for the new development.

By the end of Septembers the Board of Trustees had decided to take a step back to look at future development of the area as a whole.  They contracted the Tompkins County Planning Department to prepare a document Village officials could use as an RFP to hire a consultant.  Trustees received that document last week.

"It describes the situation and what three scenarios could possibly be in terms of buildout," Leopold says.  "It defines what areas we're talking about, what areas are parkland, what areas are privately held, and it shows all the different zones.  We're really talking about a medium density housing area."

The document outlines work the Village will hire a consultant to do, that officials hope will result in a recommendation on roads and traffic, infrastructure, and related issues that will impact development in the area.


"Because of the existence of the three parcels that were the former Dart property, it is difficult for us as a village to plan what happens to all three of those parcels since they're not all being developed at the same time," Leopold says.  "We're having this forced on us as a segmentation issue.  It's really hard to plan when you don't know what's happening to two out of three parcels, so we're trying to look at it more globally."

Access to the parcels is one of the biggest challenges Village officials and developers face.  Two small right of ways going from Dart Road to the Lansing Reserve property are said to be inadequate for a development of that size.

"Ingress and egress are going to be big issues.  They already are," Leopold says.  "We'll be looking at where our existing roads are and where potential roads could go.  We ill then have to deal with the implications of those, because they're going to go through neighborhoods."

In September Mayor Donald Hartill projected that the final report would be ready around the New Year, clearing the way for the planning process to move forward.  But Leopold says that the Trustees will study the document and go about hiring a consultant after Hartill, who was travelling and unable to attend Monday's meeting, returns.  She estimated that it could take another month before the Village hires a consultant, and could not estimate when a final report will be ready.

"I would say probably in the first quarter of the year," surmised Village Attorney David Dubow.  "I thing the board would try to have a professional planner in place by the end of the year or early January, and I think the expectation is a couple of months for them to do what needs to be done."

Dubow noted that developer NRP Group, which is trying to fund project by lining up limited partners and obtaining tax credits, has not succeeded yet in obtaining funding.  He said that because they are still working on funding the time spent on the study should not substantially impact their schedule.

The process effectively puts any action Village officials may take on hold for at least two or three months.

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