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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPlan Appendix B 07 Parks and Recreation Town  of Ithaca 2014 Comprehensive Plan B‐82 B.7 Parks and recreation system   The Town of Ithaca’s park needs are served by a variety of both private and public facilities. These facilities include many neighborhood parks, one developed community park, six nature preserves, several multi-use trails, and numerous walkways. Existing Town parks provide a range of recreational facilities including play structures, ballfields, playfields, sledding hills, picnic areas, gazebos, pavilions, nature trails, and a community garden in one undeveloped Town park. The multiuse trails and walkways provide off-street alternatives for joggers, bikers, and walkers, as well as commuting paths to work, school or shopping. The Ithaca area is also fortunate in having two large City parks, four State parks, Village parks, and the open areas of Cornell University and Ithaca College, Finger Lakes Land Trust lands and other public and private recreational facilities in the Town or nearby. Two of the State parks, Buttermilk Falls State Park and Robert H. Treman State Park, are located within the Town of Ithaca. B.7.1 Parks   The Town of Ithaca Public Works Department maintains a system of close-to-home space44 consisting of ten neighborhood parks, one community park, and several undeveloped park sites. These parks provide a range of recreational facilities including play structures, ballfields, playfields, grills, picnic tables, park benches, and walking trails. Among its many duties, the Town of Ithaca Public Works Department is responsible for building and maintaining parks and trails. The Public Works Department also maintains the playfield at the private Coddington Road Community Center, which is open to the public. Nearby communities (such as the City of Ithaca, Town of Lansing, and Village of Lansing) have park facilities which may be used by Town of Ithaca residents. The Town of Lansing Community Center, for example, is an important youth soccer and football facility for all of Tompkins County. City facilities include the Cass Park’s ice rink, tennis courts, swimming pool, athletic fields, and picnic and play area complex; Stewart Park’s extensive lakefront, picnic facilities, boathouse, tennis courts, playgrounds, and walking trails; the nearby Newman Municipal Golf Course (9 hole); and walking paths at Fuertes Bird Sanctuary and the Mulholland Wildflower Preserve at Six Mile Creek. Numerous institutional and private recreational facilities are available to Town residents with memberships or for a fee. These facilities, while part of the Town’s many recreational offerings, should not be considered as facilities open to the public. Nonetheless, they are an important element of this inventory because they are a significant recreational resource for the town’s student population, which makes up 40% of the whole. 44 The National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) classifies “close‐to‐home space” as parks within easy walking distance of one’s  home (half mile or less) that serve parts or all of a neighborhood, including mini‐parks, neighborhood parks, and community or park  areas.  Town  of Ithaca Park, Recreation and Open Space Plan, 1997.  Eastern Heights Park.    Town  of Ithaca 2014 Comprehensive Plan B‐83 Parks and trails | Town  of Ithaca Town  of Ithaca 2014 Comprehensive Plan B‐84 In addition to athletic facilities, Cornell University maintains large amounts of open space that is used for informal recreational pursuits. The Cornell Plantations offer numerous opportunities for walking, hiking, biking, sledding, and skiing. Off-season use of the University’s Robert Trent Jones Golf Course is high among cross-country skiers. Schools in the Ithaca City School District (ICSD) provide facilities available for use by residents, but public use is limited to times when they are not being used by classes or sports teams. An exception is the exercise trail at DeWitt Middle School, which was built and maintained by the Town as a public facility. Ithaca High School and Boynton Middle School offer a running track, athletic fields, tennis courts, baseball and softball fields, and a swimming pool (at Ithaca High School). Northeast Elementary School and Cayuga Heights Elementary School have playgrounds, which to some extent serve as surrogate parks and relieve the need to develop neighborhood parks in those areas. The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (NYS OPRHP) operates two state parks in the Town. The 646-acre Buttermilk Falls State Park encompasses Buttermilk Creek Gorge, Lake Treman, and wetlands in Inlet Valley. Robert H. Treman State Park covers 291 acres in the Town of Ithaca and about 790 acres in the Town of Enfield. Both state parks have ballfields and facilities for camping, swimming, hiking, and picnicking. The City of Ithaca contains Allan H. Treman State Marine Park, which encompasses some 75 acres of undeveloped woods, wetlands, and lakefront and offers boat launching facilities, 430 boat slips, and picnic areas.45 Town  parks | Town  of Ithaca  Park Area Coddington Road Community Center Playfield 11.74 ac Compton Park (undeveloped) 2.91 ac East Shore Park 0.29 ac Eastern Heights Park 15.24 ac Grandview Park 2.65 ac Hungerford Heights Park 1.2 ac Northview Park 1.12 ac Park (undeveloped) at East King Road and Saunders Road 1.78 ac Park (undeveloped) at Perry Lane 1.98 ac Salem Park 3.14 ac Saponi Meadows Park (undeveloped) 8.20 ac Tareyton  Park 2.10 ac Troy  Park 4.87 ac Tudor  Park 2.22 ac Tutelo  Park 8.1 ac Vincenzo Iacovelli Park 5.39 ac West  Hill Park (undeveloped park with West Hill Community Garden )21.71 ac Woolf Park (undeveloped) 1.63 ac Total  park area 96.95 ac Other parks | Town  of Ithaca  Park Area Buttermilk Falls State Park  646.00 ac Cayuga Heights Park (Village of Cayuga Heights) 1.26 ac Robert H Treman  State Park  291.55 ac Sunset Heights Park (Village of Cayuga Heights) 1.85 ac Total  park area 940.66 ac 45 New York  State Office  of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, 2011. http://nysparks.state.ny.us/parks/35/details.aspx    Town  of Ithaca 2014 Comprehensive Plan B‐85 B.7.2 Preserves  The six preserves in the Town of Ithaca (listed below) are a relatively new point of focus for the Town. The preserves consist of a mix of habitat types that support a wide range of plants and animals. The Dress Woods Preserve and Gerda Knegtmans’s Glen are located in the Culver Creek Ravine and Woods (UNA-140), and are completely forested. In general, the preserves are managed on a passive basis, including infrequent mowing of paths, reduction of invasive species, annual posting of the property lines, maintaining a walkable trail surface as appropriate, and clean-up of storm damage as necessary. The Town will not be developing these preserves for active uses and many of them have deed restrictions outlining their future uses with the intention that those parcels remain ‘forever wild’. Town  preserves | Town  of Ithaca  Park Area Dress Woods  Preserve 11.72 ac East Ithaca Nature Preserve 27.89 ac Glenside Preserve 7.08 ac Gerda Knegtman’s Glen Preserve 11.20 ac Pine Tree  Wildlife Preserve 14.15 ac Westhaven  Preserve 10.71 ac Total  preserve area 82.75 ac B.7.3 Trails  and walkways  The Town owns and maintains approximately seven miles of off-road multi-use trails that provide safe and quiet paths for jogging, strolling, bicycling, horseback riding, and cross-country skiing. Portions of the South Hill Recreation Way and East Ithaca Recreation Way pass through attractive woodland and meadows and afford local residents convenient access to high quality natural settings. The Town’s multiuse trails provide important commuter alternatives for pedestrians and bicyclists. The southern half of the East Ithaca Recreation Way connects the Pine Tree Road/Honness Lane/Grandview residential area with Cornell University, and is heavily used by bicycle and pedestrian commuters. The Northeast Trail is a popular offroad commuter route for students walking and bicycling from the residential area east of Warren Road to DeWitt Middle School and Northeast Elementary School. Interwoven in this trail system are the Lisa Lane, Sandra Place, and Forest Home Walkways, which offer attractive linkages within their neighborhoods and afford a convenient commuter route to the Triphammer Northeast Ithaca Recreation Way.  Town  of Ithaca 2014 Comprehensive Plan B‐86 commercial centers. The South Hill Recreation Way also serves, to a limited extent, as a commuter route between South Hill residential areas, Ithaca College, and downtown. Cornell University maintains the Plantations Path (a unique seven-mile network of self-guided walkways, roads and paths on the University’s land). The Plantations Path begins at the Treman Triangle in the City of Ithaca, winds eastward through Cascadilla Gorge, crosses the Cornell Campus, circles Beebe Lake, and wanders through the Cornell Plantations’ botanical gardens and natural areas until it ends at the Newman overlook in Cornell’s arboretum. Both ends of the Path connect with other regional walking trails, including the Circle Greenway in downtown Ithaca and the Cayuga Trail hiking path along Fall Creek. Trails  and walkways | Town  of Ithaca  Name Type Length (ft) Length (mi) Chase Lane Walkway connector 2077'0.4 mi Dewitt Exercise Trail  local 2061'0.4 mi East Ithaca Recreation Way  connector 19,235'2.9 mi Forest Home Walkway local 545'0.1 mi Honness Lane Walkway  connector 1,222'0.5 mi Judd Falls Road Walkway connector 1,507'0.1 mi Lisa Lane Walkway local 514'0.1 mi Maple Ave Walkway connector 2,344'0.4 mi Mitchell Street Walkway connector 2,581'0.5 mi Northeast Ithaca Recreation Way  connector 2,752'0.5 mi Pine Tree  Walkway connector 1,732'0.4 mi Pleasant Grove Walkway connector 1,735'0.3 mi Sandra Place Walkway local 277'0.05 mi Texas  Lane Walkway  local 458'0.1 mi South Hill Recreation Way  connector 18,042'3.4 mi Summerhill/East Hill Plaza Walkway local 236'0.04 mi Warren Road Walkway  connector 3,743’0.7mi Winner Circle Trail  local 324'0.06 mi Winthrop Walkway  connector 3,122'0.6 mi Gateway Trail  (proposed / undeveloped) Michigan Hill Trail  (proposed / undeveloped) Peachtree Lane Walkway (proposed / undeveloped) Perry Lane Walkway (proposed / undeveloped) Sanctuary Drive Walkway  (proposed / undeveloped) Woolf/Evergreen Trail  (proposed / undeveloped) Total  length 11.55 mi B.7.4 Recreational services  The Town of Ithaca is a partner of Recreation Partnership, which provides youth recreation programs and services to municipal partners throughout Tompkins County. These youth programs are administered through the City of Ithaca Youth Bureau, and the Town provides funding to the Youth Bureau in return. Recreation Partnership offers many fun and educational opportunities for youth in the Town of Ithaca such as soccer leagues, karate classes, and summer camps. The Town contracts with the Coddington Road Community Center, primarily for summer camps and childcare services, and Life Long for senior recreational programs. The Town also provides funding to Cass Park to encourage use by Town residents.   Town  of Ithaca 2014 Comprehensive Plan B‐87 In addition to organized adult and youth sports leagues, Town residents may also participate in recreational programs through the YMCA, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, 4-H, Cayuga Nature Center, and other organizations. Seasonal programs and summer camps are also offered at Cornell University and Ithaca College. B.7.5 Future planning  As discussed above, the Town of Ithaca offers a wide variety of recreation opportunities for Town of Ithaca residents and the Ithaca community. While the Town has made significant accomplishments to meet the recreation needs of the individual neighborhoods and of the overall community, the Town needs to continue to address the recreational needs of the growing population of the Town. There are several locations within the Town that have limited convenient recreational facilities, and there are several types of recreational facilities that the Town may wish to exploring adding or increasing. The National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) has standards for the amount of park and open space that is recommended along with standards for specific types of facilities, all based on the communities population. The 1997 Park, Recreation and Open Space Plan used these standards to outline the future needs for the Town, which should be updated based on the new population numbers in the Town and current recreation trends. As the Town continues to expand its recreational facilities, it is becoming a challenge for Town staff, with the resources provided, to maintain everything. As the Town plans for and considers the development of future recreational facilities, future maintenance and operating costs (equipment, personnel, materials, utilities, replacement costs, etc.) should be considered as part of each project.