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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPB Minutes 2016-10-18TOWN OF ITHACA PLANNING BOARD Shirley A. Raffensperger Board Room, Town Hall 215 North Tioga Street Ithaca, New York 14850 Tuesday. October 18. 2016 AGENDA 7;05 P.M. PUBLIC HEARING: The purpose of this public hearing is to consider public comments regarding the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the proposed Maplewood Apartments Redevelopment project located between Maple Avenue and Mitchell Street, Town of Ithaca Tax Parcel No.'s 63.-2-10.2, 63.-2-1, 63.-2-2, 63.-2-14, and 63.-2-3, High Density Residential Zone. The proposal involves demolishing the existing Maplewood Apartments housing complex and redeveloping the +/-17 acre site with up to 500 residential units (studios and 1-4 bedroom units) in a mix of townhomes, stacked flats, and multi-family apartment buildings. The project will also include some small retail, new interior streets, parking areas, pedestrian facilities, open spaces, storm water facilities, and a community center. This public hearing is also to consider public comments regarding Preliminary Site Plan Approval for the proposed Maplewood Apartments Redevelopment project. Cornell University, Owner/Applicant; EdR Trust, Applicant; Scott Whitham, Whitham Planning & Design, LLC, Agent. Copies of the DEIS are available for review at the Ithaca Town Hall (215 N. Tioga Street, Ithaca, NY), at the Tompkins County Public Library (101 East Green Street, Ithaca, NY), and on the Town of Ithaca website: www.town.ithacu.nv.us. Written comments on the DEIS will also be accepted through October 31, 2016, and may be addressed to Christine Balestra, Planner, at Town Hall at the address indicated above. 2. Persons to be heard 3. Approval of Minutes: October 4, 2016 4. Other Business 5. Adjournment Susan Ritter Director of Planning 273-1747 NOTE: IF ANY MEMBER OF THE PLANNING BOARD IS UNABLE TO ATTEND, PLEASE NOTIFY SANDY POLCE AT 273-1747 or SPOLC EC'^TOWN.ITHACA.NY.LS. (A quorum of four (4) members is necessary to conduct Planning Board business.) Accessing Meeting Materials Online Site Plan and Subdivision applications and associated project materials are accessible electronically on the Town's website under "Planning Board" on the "Meeting Agendas" page (htti)://wM w.t»wn.ithaca.nv.us/meetina-auendas). TOWN OF ITHACA PLANNING BOARD NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARINGS Tuesday. October 18. 2016 By direction of the Chairperson of the Planning Board, NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that Public Hearings will be held by the Planning Board of the Town of Ithaca on Tuesday, October 18, 2016, at 215 North Tioga Street, Ithaca, N.Y., at the following times and on the following matters: 7:05 P.M. The purpose of this public hearing is to consider public comments regarding the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the proposed Maplewood Apartments Redevelopment project located between Maple Avenue and Mitchell Street, Town of Ithaca Tax Parcel No.'s 63.-2-10.2,63.-2-I, 63.-2-2, 63.-2-14, and 63.-2-3, High Density Residential Zone. The proposal involves demolishing the existing Maplewood Apartments housing complex and redeveloping the +/- 17 acre site with up to 500 residential units (studios and 1-4 bedroom units) in a mix of townhomes, stacked flats, and multi-family apartment buildings. The project will also include some small retail, new interior streets, parking areas, pedestrian facilities, open spaces, storm water facilities, and a community center. This public hearing is also to consider public comments regarding Preliminary Site Plan Approval for the proposed Maplewood Apartments Redevelopment project. Cornell University, Owner/Applicant; EdR Trust, Applicant; Scott Whitham, Whitham Planning & Design, LLC, Agent. Copies of the DEIS are available for review at the Ithaca Town Hall (215 N. Tioga Street, Ithaca, NY), at the Tompkins County Public Library (101 East Green Street, Ithaca, NY), and on the Town of Ithaca website: wwvv.town.ithaca.nv.us. Written comments on the DEIS will also be accepted through October 31, 2016, and may be addressed to Christine Balestra, Planner, at Town Hall at the address indicated above. Said Planning Board will at said time and said place hear all persons in support of such matters or objections thereto. Persons may appear by agent or in person. Individuals with visual impairments, hearing impairments or other special needs, will be provided with assistance as necessary, upon request. Persons desiring assistance must make such a request not less than 48 hours prior to the time of the public hearing. Susan Ritter Director of Planning 273-1747 Dated: Friday, October 7, 2016 Publish: Monday, October 10, 2016 TOWN OF ITHACA AFFIDAVIT OF POSTING AND PUBLICATION I, Sandra Polce, being duly sworn, depose and say that I am a Senior Typist for the Town of Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York; that the following Notice has been duly posted on the sign board of the Town of Ithaca and that said Notice has been duly published in the local newspaper, The Ithaca Journal. Notice of Public Hearings to be held bv the Town of Ithaca Planning Board in the Town of Ithaca Town Hall. 215 North Tioga Street. Ithaca. New York, on Tuesday. October 18. 2016 commencing at 7:00 P.M.. as per attached. Location of Sign Board used for Posting: Town Clerk Sign Board - 215 North Tioga Street. Date of Posting: October 7,2016 Date of Publication: October 10, 2016 Sandra Polce, Senior Typist Town of Ithaca STATE OF NEW YORK) SS: COUNTY OF TOMPKINS) Sworn to and subscribed before me this 10^ day of October 2016. M Notary Public \ DEBORAH KELLEY '"Notary Pub\\t. State of New York --'No. 01'KE6025073 Qualified in Schuyler County i q Commission Expires May 17, 20 _i__l the ITHACA JOURNAU- -^ MONDAy, OCTOBER 10, 2016 * *,<.2 town OF ITHACA PLANNING BOARDf- NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARINGS Tuesday, October 18, 2016 Hv/ direction of the Chairperson of the Planning NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that Public Hearings will beES, .f jp 5££e t Ithaca. N.Y., at the following times and on the following matters: 7:05 P.M. The purpose of this public hearing is to considerpublic comments regarding the DraftEnvironmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the oroposed Maplewood ApartmentsRedevelopment proje^ located between Maple and 63.-2-3. High Density The proposal involves aemoiisning xne eAiai.i.« Maplewood Apartments housing redeveloping the +/- 17 acre site with up to 500 residential units (studios and bedroom in a mix of townhomes, stacked flats, andfamily apartment buildings. The project will alsoinclude some small retail, new interior streets, parking areas, pedestrian facilities, open spaces, rtorm water facilities, and a community center. This public hearing is also to consider Publiccomments regarding Preliminary Site l^an Approval for the proposed Maplewood Apartments Redevelopment project. Cornell University, Owner/Applicant; EdR Trust.Applicant; Scott Whitham, Whitham Planning S Design, LLC, Agent. rnoies of the DEIS are available for review at theSh^ca ?own Hall (215 N. Tioga Street Ithaca NY) at the Tompklns County Pubhc Lib^ry (101 East Green Street, Ithaca, NY), and on the Town of Ithaca website: www.town.ithaca.ny.us. Written comments on the DEIS will also beScented through October 31, 2016, and may be addressed to Christine Balestra, Planner, at Town Hall at the address indicated above. 5aid Planning Board will at said time and s^aidpTace htar alT persons in support of such matters rtr obiections thereto. Persons may appear byagent' ?r°rn person. Individuals wrth visual imoairments, hearing impairments or other special needs, will be provided with assistance as necessary upon request. Persons desiring2ss"tan« must r^ake such a request not leK than 48 hours prior to the time of the public hearing. Susan Ritter Director of Planning 273-1747 Dated: Friday, October 7, 2016 10/10/2016 Town of Ithaca Planning Board 215 North Tioga Street October 18,2016 7:00 p.m. PLEASE SIGN-IN Please Print Clearly. Thank You Name §<2ACI- hU>fA U(X\'\t.\ ^e,<b\v? ^'tcc L' " Ml Lip. 1a!iU\ PrVE:i>^C^{Ur,€N 7^1- K \ qM. 1~V^ Address nch -Av^ /j2 / //S'^'t-ZPe.// T>r- /05 S-h /V/ CiciL bn- 'bK'iO Cc\Ucidi\\(y \:>i f 5-kl<- 5^/ 7<i^ 20lc RimSh (^C6c4 '^ZS HCiZ-i^^UL 2-S- OV S4>f^ ia<a^^ V\^&. Cfl^ . i\ 5 \}Jo\\i\Kji (0 L? i\) <^<-^-0- ■eNH k^,-, c\\ <?2S Jn.Tc 1 1 I f n (> I O L4\^ ■'sij!^ -^^C/ d^' ^Ofo ("W-C^ /2c liLli^^J'w}2tdJi st, '> dn f rTOWN OF ITHACA PLANNING BOARD MEETING Tuesday, October 18, 2016 215 N. Tioga Street, Ithaca, NY 14850 Town Planning Board Members Present: Fred Wilcox (Chair), Joseph Haefeli, John Beach, Yvonne Fogarty, Liebe Meier Swain, Jon Bosak Town Staff Present: Susan Ritter, Director of Planning; Chris Balestra, Planner; Dan Thaete, Town Engineer; Susan Brock, Attorney for the Town; Debra DeAugistine, Deputy Town Clerk Call to Order Mr. Wilcox called the meeting to order at 7:04 p.m. and accepted the posting and publication of the public hearing notice. AGENDA ITEM Public Hearing: The purpose of this public hearing is to consider public comments regarding the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the proposed Maplewood Apartments Redevel opment project located between Maple Avenue and Mitchell Street, Town of Ithaca Tax Parcel No.'s 63.-2-10.2, 63.-2-I, 63.-2-2, 63.-2-14, and 63.-2-3, High Density Residential Zone. The proposal involves demolishing the existing Maplewood Apartments housing complex and redeveloping the +/- 17 acre site with up to 500 residential units (studios and 1-4 bedroom units) in a mix of townhomes, stacked flats, and multi-family apartment buildings. The project will also include some small retail, new interior streets, parking areas, pedestrian facilities, open spaces, storm water facilities, and a community center. This public hearing is also to consider public comments regarding Preliminary Site Plan Approval for the proposed Maplewood Apartments Redevelopment project. Cornell University, Own er/Applicant; EdR Trust, Applicant; Scott Wlaitham, Whitham Planning &. Design, LLC, Agent. Copies of the DEIS are available for review at the Ithaca Town Hall (215 N. Tioga Street, Ithaca, NY), at the Tompkins County Public Library (101 East Green Street, Ithaca, NY), and on the Town of Ithaca website: www.town.ithaca.nv.us. Written comments on the DEIS will also be accepted through October 31, 2016, and may be addressed to Christine Balestra, Planner, at Town Hall at the address indicated above. Mr. Wilcox opened the public hearing at 7:05 p.m. Jeffrey Resetco, EdR Trust, made a short presentation on the newly proposed alternative plan. The proposal eliminates the four-story apartment building on Mitchell Street and replaces it with groups of townhomes. In addition to the reduction in scale, the architectural style of the townhomes has been revised to reflect the traditional style, color, scale, and character of the homes on Mitchell Street. They're proposing the original style on Maple Avenue and elsewhere on the site and the newly proposed style on Mitchell Street. The density has been shifted to two previously proposed apartment buildings, which are over 120 feet back from Mitchell Street. The number of units has been reduced by 31 and the number of beds has been reduced by 15. The 872 beds of graduate student housing are much needed in Ithaca. The new Maplewood will pay full real estate taxes. The project will be Planning Board Minutes 10-18-2016 Page 2 of 12 constructed by LeChase construction, a high-quality local contractor, who is the largest employer of union labor in Upstate New York. The project will not use natural gas and will have additional notable sustainable benefits to be measured by the Energy Star rating system. They will offset some, and hopefully all, of the electricity used by the development by contracting with renewable energy providers. The applicant team believes the proposed development reflects a very positive alternative to the previously proposed development. This new alternative plan to replace the deteriorated housing of the past with an affordable, walkable, sustainable neighborhood of the future shows the team has listened to the community and the planning staff. Mr. Wilcox invited members of the public to speak. Richard, a graduate student at Cornell and former president of the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly, stated that the increased housing for graduate and professional students is sorely needed. They have been working with the university to address this issue for several years and are very excited about this redevelopment project. Members of the graduate and professional student community were brought in early to work with the developer in creating a project that will address their need. They need affordable housing because many of them are on stipends, which average about $28,000, whereas the average rent in Ithaca means that many of them are paying above 40 percent of their annual income towards housing. Forty-eight percent of these students are international students, and it can be very difficult for them to find housing, and having more Cornell-provided housing can help alleviate that concern. He urged the board to approve the project; it will triple the number of graduate and professional students they can currently house. Arvin, an international graduate student at Cornell, said he comes from the tropics of southern India, and everyone, including the visa officer, had a word of caution when he said he was going to Cornell: look out for the weather. Despite the warmth and welcoming nature of Ithacans, who have made his life here easy, living halfway around the world has been isolating, and Maplewood has played a critical role in enabling his transition to the U.S. The time this isolation is greatest is over winter breaks, when it's too expensive to buy a flight home for a week, and yet all of Ithaca closes down and there's nowhere to go - no kith and kin to spend the holiday with. It's in those moments when Maplewood as a community kicks in to create a home away from home for international students on campus. He was fortunate to be among the few to have found accommodation at Maplewood his first year here, given the limited beds Maplewood had. He's excited about the redevelopment project, especially knowing it will expand the number of beds available, so less fortunate students who didn't have the privilege he did will now benefit. He urged the board to consider the fact that Maplewood plays a critical role in nurturing the diversity that Ithaca prides itself in. Abby, a third-year PhD student at Cornell, who lived in Maplewood from September 2014 to June 2015, said she applied to live in Maplewood because she was moving from Michigan and was looking for affordable, furnished housing within walking distance of campus. Maplewood provided all of those things and helped her get her bearings when coming to Ithaca on her own. Due to financial constraints, she was not able to visit Ithaca properly before moving here to begin her degree, and searching for housing without any sense of her bearings was difficult. Maplewood provided her with access, not only to housing, but also a community, which helped her transition into both Ithaca and Cornell. She made friends with her roommates and others and participated in community events at Maplewood. Her apartment at Maplewood was significantly more affordable than other options, and she routinely walked back and forth to both Cornell and East Hill Plaza even in the winter months Planning Board Minutes 10-18-2016 Page 3 of 12 and at night. She felt it was convenient and safe. The proximity to East Hill Plaza was also ideal for her since it was easy access to groceries and other amenities, especially for someone without a car. She thinks it will greatly benefit graduate students and their families to have this as a resource. Peter Gilgen, who lives on Mitchell Street, said he has been the director of graduate studies in his department at Cornell for over ten years, so he knows about the housing needs of graduate students and is sympathetic to that. He said he also appreciates the redesign, which he thinks is an improve ment. Still, he has major concerns regarding infrastructure and rezoning. He doesn't think there's been a strong argument for rezoning. Why, after a recent rezoning, is there a need for further rezoning and why do so many additional units need to be put on this particular lot? Regarding the infrastructure, he is mostly concerned about two things. One is the traffic pattern and the proclaimed sustainability of the development when there will be so many parking spaces and no effort to encourage alternative transportation. He appreciated what the student said about walking to campus, which he also does regularly, but he wonders why there has been no effort at Cornell to curb car use by students and why public transportation isn't better than it is to cut down on traffic. Mitchell Street is not an ideal thoroughfare. There is a bottleneck at the bottom where it curves. Further up Mitchell Street, cars race where there is a primary school. With Pine Tree Road having an elevated bridge, more heavy traffic is coming through that aggravates the problem. His second concern regards water use. At present, the area is at limited capacity, and he wonders who will pay for the additional water tower. That has not been addressed in the proposal. It seems that major infrastructure investments are necessary. This is a for-profit project. Cornell will greatly profit, also, because it's not just existing graduate students who will be living there, but Cornell's plan is to increase the number of master's students, so Cornell will make many millions of dollars off this project in tuition. Cornell, with its tax-exempt status, needs to step up, together with this company, and take on the burden of infrastruc ture costs. It's not fair for the community to have to bear that expense. Rob Ainslie, a lifelong Ithacan and president of the Ithaca City School District board for nine years, stated that throughout those years, they've been fighting Albany for funding at the local level. ICSD is looking, yet again, to flat state aid. ICSD is 75 percent supported by the local taxpayer. In a communi ty where a tremendous amount of property that is tax exempt, new development has been tremen dously beneficial to the district's budget and effort to keep the tax levy down. It's important that we develop thoughtfully and make wise moves within the town. They see a project like Maplewood - to redesign, refurbish, and upgrade an older neighborhood within the town that will be fully taxable - as a great opportunity. He greatly encouraged the town to move forward with this development. As an ex dairy farmer, he appreciates green space. If we're going to have more student housing, he'd much rather see it in a spot that is already developed that needs refurbishing than leap-frogging and going out to the cornfield on the other side of East Hill Plaza. If we can develop in town and in the city and maintain the greenspaces, that's great for him. Bob Grommes and his wife live in one of the seven single-family homes across the rec way from this development. He thinks that most of them are kindly disposed to this project if only because when they built their homes there, things were looking a little rough, and they'd like them to look a little nicer. He has a few concerns. He has not seen any elevations from their perspective in order to judge what they're going to be looking at from their back yard and what's going to be looking at them. He knows there will be a drainage greenspace area there. Right now it's a fairly deep gully surrounded by a 6-foot chain-link fence. It makes sense to have some kind of fencing for safety and security purposes, not only to keep people from coming through from the development, but also to keep people from Planning Board Minutes 10-18-2016 Page 4 of 12 cutting through to the development. He'd like it to be a solid fence. Its effect on cutting down on light and sound as people pull into their parking spaces at night would be amplified by the fact that the homes are below grade with respect to the path. The existing fence is actually about 5.5 feet above grade, and they're three to five feet below grade. His other main concern is traffic and traffic control. The exit from Maplewood looks to be about 50 feet from the tec way, which, in turn, is 50 or so feet from Walnut Street. There's also a bit of an elevation, so if you're exiting from Walnut Street and trying to make a left onto Mitchell, you're looking uphill, and particularly in inclement weather, it can be difficult to see oncoming cars. There are pedestrians trying to cross Mitchell on the rec way. There should be a four-way stop or stop light either at the Maplewood entrance and/or at Walnut Street to slow traffic down. He'll be interested in learning the results of the traffic study. Rowland Laedlein, vice president of the Belle Sherman Cottages homeowners association, said that he shared some of the same concerns. While the neighbors appreciate the changes to the project that have been made on Mitchell, the rest of the development looks more modern, with squared-off facades. Along the rec way, there are a number of townhomes leading up to Maple from Mitchell. He's concerned about the view, in particular from Worth Street looking east toward the revised Maplewood, of the two buildings in the center of the property. They're three stories and designed with the flat glass and masonry fronts, so the view is pretty alarming. Those are the only two buildings that would not be hidden by the green area that will be part of the stormwater site and the trees and plantings. Those buildings will face them directly and will overpower their view. Their request is that the townhomes going up the rec way towards Maple have facades similar to what might be considered for Mitchell Street and that the two buildings in the center that are perpendicular to the rec way have either reduced height or a facade change or plantings that would block the view and not make it so overpowering. Susan Hosek said she lives in the house on Walnut Street that faces the two big buildings Mr. Laedlein mentioned. They're overpowering. She grew up on Pine Tree Road and knows the area very well and has a great deal of affection for it. She and her husband returned two years ago to spend half the year away from Los Angeles, where they live one mile from UCLA. So she has a lot of experience, not only living near a large campus, but also half a mile from an extremely large student apartment complex. Basically it's been a benefit because the students are hard-working and quiet. She welcomes having graduate students as neighbors. She mentioned that she's trained as an economist and when she sees this development, she sees several spots where it poses considerable and measurable externali ties. She agreed with her neighbors and also thinks the university can move those two buildings and allow for greenspace so the area can be landscaped. There's no space for that in the current design and it would be nice to have screening between those large buildings and the neighborhood. Anna Waymack, a PhD student at Cornell, said she grew up next to a very busy intersection with a lot of university students. As a Girl Scout and lemonade entrepreneur, it was great. One of the reasons she was able to sell her car when she moved to Ithaca is that it is very accessible to get around if you live in town. She has a colleague who has to have a car because he hasn't been able to live in Ithaca. He has a family. It is exceedingly difficult to move your whole family here, sometimes at the last minute because you're on a wait list. What sort of stable housing is available? When he was looking, there wasn't any, so he lives way out of town, juggling the rare bus schedules and the single car. His colleagues don't see him for any events after 5 p.m. It would be nice to have this sort of community available for grad students. She never lived at Maplewood, but enjoyed visiting friends there for events, holiday celebrations, parties. Planning Board Minutes 10-18-2016 Page 5 of 12 Jennifer Tavares, a resident of Lansing and president of the Tompkins County Chamber of Com merce, encouraged the board to support the project. The housing pressure we have in Tompkins County is unique. Cornell is growing and our community is growing. It won't be possible to accom modate that growth and our goals as a community without allowing for Cornell's housing needs to be met. She thinks the project is fantastic. She commended Cornell's approach to the project and its effort to resolve the issues the community has raised. She said she couldn't stress enough the importance of replacing old housing stock with new housing stock that is more energy efficient and more environmentally friendly and that can accommodate more students in the same or similar footprint. Increasing the density of our housing is a stated goal of the community, and as we seek to grow, it's apparent that to be environmentally minded, we need to increase density. The walkability and proximity to campus is important. It's startling how spread out the graduate student population is throughout Tompkins County. This development will allow more of the graduate students to live in closer proximity to campus and to do so affordably and without as much reliance on cars. This is a great project for many reasons: the alternative energy plans, the walkability, the community aspect that Cornell has built into the project, and their history of trying to work with the community to accommodate their students' housing needs vs. going it alone and simply building their housing in places that they could. Brian Chabot, Eastwood Commons, said he walks by the Maplewood site on a daily basis. He's been to many of the meetings as the project has developed. He had concerns at the beginning, but complimented the developers and architects because each time the plan has evolved, it seems to be better. They seem to have listened to comments at these meetings and have used those opportunities to find improvements; he hoped they would do the same at this meeting as well. He's very positive about this project at this point. It's essential that we use a site like this for this purpose and in an effective way, both in terms of the density and how the site creates an inviting and sustainable community for the students. There's an opportunity here for the developer to show us how we can build a high-density residential area with a lot of value to the residents and surrounding community. A particular interest for him is how energy is being conserved, in particular, fossil-fuel energy. He appreciates that they are not going to use natural gas, which was part of the original plan. That is only one of several ways in which this project can be used as a model toward developing a more sustainable approach to housing within the community. Other features of the project he likes are the accommo dations of bicycles, for example. It's in a location where you can fairly easily get to shopping and to campus by walking or bicycling. Ithaca as a whole is not as walkable. He encouraged the board to support the project. Sara Hess urged the board to support the plan. She said she was aware of the project eight months ago when she went to her first meeting. She said that observing and participating in the town's planning process has been an education well worth her time. She commends and offers thanks to everyone who has been involved in reading, analyzing, changing, and improving the plan. Hands down, this has the best process for reviewing a large economic development project she's seen so far in the county. She thinks the town has set a new standard and hopes that other municipalities, including the city of Ithaca as well as TCAD, could leam a lot. Maplewood is offering many commu nity benefits, both in the process and in the results. In the most important areas, EdR has listened and responded to challenges that have been put forth, and the results speak for themselves: high- quality graduate housing convenient to campus with rental rates that are affordable to students. The fact that the development will pay taxes to the town and the school district without abatements is Planning Board Minutes 10-18-2016 Page 6 of 12 remarkable. The fact that no methane or natural gas will be used for heating, cooling, hot water, or appliances and that only air-source heat pumps and other methods of energy will be used is also remarkable. A modern, energy-efficient building complex that will reduce the environmental impact of the site even with a population that will more than double on the same location is a remarkable accomplishment. She thanked EdR for proving what other developers have consistently said was impossible: that new, high-density, high-quality buildings can be energy efficient, have a low carbon impact, and also be affordable to people with limited budgets. She thanked everyone for their hard work, and as EdR moves into the next stage, she hopes to see a strong commitment to using local labor as well. Joel Harlan supports the project. Old buildings can be fire hazards. There's no room when students come here. Collegetown and around the campus need to concentrate on getting housing. David Marsh, building trades president for Tompkins and Cortland counties, said that labor supports the project. He noticed a lot of changes that were requested in previous meetings. EdR said they would listen to the community and where practical, would make changes. He heard a few more concerns at the meeting and hopes EdR will address those concerns as well. This project will employ at least a couple hundred construction workers. Joe Wilson, Ellis Hollow, said he has been following the project. His written comments were submitted on October 10th. He's continued to study SEQR and he understands now that the planning board and town board are the ultimate deciders about what the nature of this project will be, what kind of energy and greenhouse gas emissions mitigations and alternatives are going to be required. He read from his written statement. He revised his comments and excerpted from the written comments he distributed at the meeting to the board. Mr. Wilcox pointed out for everyone's benefit that substantive comments made at the meeting would become part of the final EIS, along with responses to the comments from the project sponsor. Stacey Black, business development coordinator for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 241, said he represents over 225 electricians that work and live in Tompkins and the surrounding counties. He applauded the effort of EdR and their design team; he's pleased with what he's seen so far. They have responded to the public concerns, which is above and beyond what he's seen in the past. He had a concern about the alternative energy proposal: he'd like to see more than a passive pledge to use alternative energy sources. The use of electricity as the primary power does address the clean energy usage issue, but if that power comes from a natural gas or coal-burning power plant, is it truly making a difference in emissions? They have stated that they'll use LeChase Construc tion as the general contractor. LeChase does hire local labor, but EdR can do more than pledge to hire a local contractor: they can pledge to use local labor. He encouraged them to address the local labor use on the project. Manisha Munasinghe, VP of Communications of the Cornell Graduate and Professional Student Assembly, said that, right now, Cornell can only house less than five percent of their graduate student population on campus. This is a problem she hears about all the time. She also sits on the Diversity and International Students Committee and the Student Advocacy Committee. They get personal stories from people asking about this, particularly from international students, who are having difficulty finding housing. She heard comments regarding traffic and transportation from the Planning Board Minutes 10-18-2016 Page 7 of 12 complex. Cornell graduate and professional students coordinate on a transportation committee with TCAT, and there's a plan to optimize access to public transportation, given the expansion, to assure that the students who live there will always have access to public transportation. Even if graduate students are fortunate enough to have a car, they don't generally drive to campus because parking is prohibitively expensive, so often the only option is to walk or bus. Last year, when she was living in Northwood Apartments, which is far from campus, the bus came only once per hour, which meant she had to plan her entire day around that schedule or catch the last bus home. Many students have lab work that requires that they work late at night, between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m., and being able to live nearby and walk to campus is a huge advantage. A graduate student at Cornell, who came to Ithaca in 2011, said he applied for housing at Maple- wood and could not get it because there were too few spots. He ended up getting an apartment at Warrenwood and paying $940 per month, not including gas and electric or furniture. He came as a master's student and that was very challenging for his family to support. Friends living at Maplewood were paying $500 per month. He had to take an hourly bus, which is also challenging for a graduate student. The third thing he missed was friends. Maplewood is a diverse community, which he missed. Coming from India, you usually get acquainted with Indian students first, but those living in Maplewood encounter other people, who you might not have met because of the coursework. A friend of his, who was studying law and had a wife and child, got housing. For a student with a family, it is extremely difficult to find housing. Maplewood provided that housing; otherwise, he could have been paying $1200 or $1400, whereas Maplewood was around $900, which they could afford, even though it was half of the paycheck of some students. That's still much more affordable than other housing. Another problem is transportation. Even if you can afford a car, it's too expensive to park on campus - around $900 dollars per year, so most people take public transportation. Maplewood is now closed, so a lot of graduate students are living off campus. We are experiencing a drought. Cornell, being a responsible community, cut 30 percent of water usage. It's doubtful that people living off campus were being as responsible. Cornell can help those sustainable elements. Without Maplewood, Cornell wouldn't be able to control their carbon neutrality. He urged board members to support the project, especially for the good will of Ithaca and Cornell. A gentleman addressed the pluses and minuses of the drawings. He lives within spitting distance of Maplewood. He has appreciated the existence of the development: it is a mix of students, and there's no question of the need. That's not the issue. He acknowledged the development team for the changes they've made in terms of the look and feel of the space. A big picture issue he wanted on the table was the social-environmental impact. We're going to have 800 people there who represent students. Cornell should be thinking about low- and moderate-income housing for staff who have to drive up to an hour in order to get to work and also the notion of how many of the 100 percent would be long-term residents vs transient residents. Consider if you were to populate Bryant Park in one fell swoop: that has a social impact on a community. The current project with its clustered buildings feels like a neighborhood even though it's very dense. Had those internal buildings been two or three stories high, they still would not have made a visual impact on the neighborhood, and you probably could have housed two to three times more students. It feels like a factory development. The reason is that when you look at the buildings, they're all lined up like soldiers in a row, as opposed to being staggered. The current buildings are staggered; it gives a feeling of human scale. One of the suggestions was the idea of clustering in threes and instead of having all three-story buildings, having two-story buildings also. The ones on Mitchell have the feel of Belle Sherman. The other buildings to the west feel more urban. They're putting 800 people there as if Cornell didn't Planning Board Minutes 10-18-2016 Page 8 of 12 have more property. Most of East Hill belongs to Cornell, and plans show that most of it will be developed. This project will add value, but what are the tradeoffs? The parking structure doesn't represent the future in terms of mbc of parking. We need to have a substantive transportation management development plan that really looks at mobility. He thinks we can do much better in terms of the way we manage the mobility and parking issue. We keep talking about affordability: 800 students at $400 a month provides a good revenue stream. At the same time, do you optimize towards money and the needs of the students or to the larger neighborhood? Clusters of 100 people have a sense of neighborhood, but 800 sitting in apartment houses will not. It will be interesting to learn what programming EdR will provide for the human touch. He's still perplexed that this has to be a planned development zone. The reason for a PDZ is to be able to deal with out-of-the-box thinking that represents powerful changes to how we build things in the town. Consider EcoVillage: originally, that plot of land was 175 acres with 150 one-family houses on one-acre lots, and EcoVillage wanted to preserve 80 to 90 percent of it as undeveloped. That represents a breakthrough. Why can't this be done as a Traditional Neighborhood Design-High Density zone, as in the new comp plan? It allows for mixed use of apartment buildings and townhouses and duplexes. The only thing he can see that potentially needs a variance is the 5000 feet of commercial. Why not use the model proposed by the comp plan? Simply doubling the heights of the current buildings would double the number of beds, which would result in 600 or 700 beds. He thinks there's additional work beyond the revenue it generates to the town, EdR, and Cornell that needs to be worked through. Tessa Rudan, president of Belle Sherman/Bryant Park Civic Association and a former Cornell student and former graduate student, pointed to the 2009 Collegetown Plan and Conceptual Guidelines endorsed by City of Ithaca common council on August 5, 2009. The plan gives great emphasis to fostering a development pattern characterized by careful transitions between proposed zoning districts. It proposed transitioning gradually between the high-density urban core and the existing traditional wood-framed residential neighborhoods on Collegetown's periphery. It is responsible intermunicipal planning to recognize official plans and insure they are compatible across municipal boundaries. The Maplewood project team has recently proposed to shift density to the interior of the site and to put smaller-scale townhouses with more traditional facades fronting Mitchell Street. These revised plans support more the look and feel of Belle Sherman, a stated objective of an endorsed plan in the City of Ithaca, and a portion of the Maplewood site is in the city. Her hope is that this objective of the Collegetown plan is a shared objective of the town planners as well. To her, the revised proposal seems like a reasonable alternative in the following ways. In terms of building massing and scale, the replacement of the larger, four-story apartment buildings with reduced-scale, two-and-a-half to three-story townhouses appears more harmonious with the surround ing Belle Sherman neighborhood, particularly along Mitchell Street in both the city and town. In terms of community character, the character and general aesthetic of the townhouses is more reflective of the traditional, residential Belle Sherman neighborhood, especially in regard to the building facades and materials fronting Mitchell Street. For example, the new drawings show pitched roof lines, dormers, front stoops, windows with mullions, clapboard or shake siding, and very subdued paint colors, among other things. In terms of density, the reduced massing and scale of the buildings has visually broken up the appearance of density on the southern edge of the site, mainly as it relates to Mitchell Street and the Belle Sherman neighborhood and school zone. This change in the design has resulted in minimal reduction in bedrooms. In terms of further project mitigation, scaling back buildings along the edges of the East Hill Recreation Trail and the corner where the trail meets Mitchell Street could be a subject of further consideration and mitigation. The project proposes to add hundreds of parking spaces to the site, and presumably this will cause potentially hundreds of Planning Board Minutes 10-18-2016 Page 9 of 12 additional car trips into and out of the Belle Sherman school zone. So far, the claim is that traffic impacts will be minimal to Belle Sherman, but this seems to defy the numbers and simple logic. A Belle Sherman neighborhood traffic safety working group has been formed and has submitted a letter to the city's board of public works. The letter is also meant to be shared with the town's planning board for consideration with regard to further traffic mitigation associated with the Maplewood project. She thanked everyone for their continued commitment to creating a shared community vision with regard to the Maplewood redevelopment. Stephanie Martin said that up until a few months ago, she was a grad student at Cornell, so she personally knows how challenging housing can be in Ithaca. She also participated in the student family advisory committee, so she heard lots of stories from graduate students and their concerns around housing. She also lives on Mitchell Street, on the city-town border, and in her review of the traffic section of the DEIS, she thinks that mitigation steps for Mitchell Street and the Belle Sherman neighborhood need to be added. She was a part of the neighborhood committee looking at traffic concerns. Anyone who has driven down Mitchell Street has probably seen the Slow Down signs they put up. Those were in response to people driving very fast, not stopping at stop signs, and rarely stopping for pedestrians at crosswalks. As a parent who walks her child to school every day, she would like to see stop sign at the entrance to Maplewood or at the rec trail or at the Vine Street cross walk that was recently installed. A physical barrier that forces people to slow down and stop is needed. Although students might not drive to campus to park, they do drive to and from campus to drop people off or to pick people up and they also make trips to go around town. Students with families at Maplewood will also be walking their children to school and will also probably like to have a safe way to cross the street. She thanked everyone for their work and for the changes that have been made. Chris Hodges, Belle Sherman resident, said she very much appreciates the reconfiguration of the housing on Mitchell Street, but would also like them to consider going around the corner and taking a look at the buildings along Walnut and the rec trail and to listen to the residents who live there, because those are the people who will be seeing it every day. Perhaps they want a solid fence. The drawings provide a good perspective of what the buildings will look like. What caught her was the view down Worth Street looking eastward toward the park; it looks institutional and stark as opposed to something more amenable and that ties in to the feeling of this being an extension of the homes. The darker colors of the buildings make them feel less stark and massive, and it would be nice to have the color scheme set so that people will know how it will look. Regarding traffic, it's obvious that they were concentrating on peak-hour traffic, but for a project like this, a lot of the traffic will be non-peak. It will also become an issue on busy Saturdays and Sundays. A resident of Mitchell Street said that from the Mitchell Street point of view, he likes the new design; it's a positive improvement. It's larger than anything else on Mitchell, but more consistent with the other buildings on the street. He's concerned about the remaining large buildings on the south end. To the extent that they'll be visible from outside the project, he'd be concerned that they look like brick and glass, and maybe something can be done to make it consistent with what's around it. Regarding traffic, he noticed that traffic on Mitchell Street is much lighter now that Maplewood has closed; it's much easier to pull out of his driveway. Once you put those 300 people back, plus 500 more, the traffic increase will be noticeable. Speed bumps may be in order. He crosses Mitchell Street by the cemetery and observes that people are not driving the speed limit. He has a few concerns about construction. Since he commutes by foot to Cornell, he hopes the rec way will remain open during construction. Lots of people coming from Eastwood Commons and other locations use the rec way to Planning Board Minutes 10-18-2016 Page 10 of 12 commute to Cornell daily. He's hoping Maple Avenue is used exclusively for construction traffic, for both the 1050 truckloads of dirt being removed from the site and the deliveries of materials to the site over the two-year construction period; there are fewer residences on that road. He also noticed that they hedged on how long the work week is. He remembers someone on the planning board saying there will be no construction on Saturdays, and he hopes it's made clear that they will do this five days a week, not six days a week, for two years. As a resident of the town, he has a hard time seeing this type of development. Cornell has hired EdR to provide a buffer and EdR has hired Mr. Whitham's firm to provide a buffer, so there are two levels of deniability and lack of information. He doesn't see how this kind of planning can go on without Cornell giving some information about their enrollment trends and plans for future enrollment. He's heard that this project is to make it easier for existing graduate students to find housing. He thinks this project is aimed at increasing the number of graduate students. Since the financial crisis in 2008, those in the academic part of Cornell have been hearing how they need to try to increase the number of master's students: they are pure profit, they aren't paid stipends, they don't get paid scholarships, they just pay $50,000 or more in tuition per year. So the 500 students they're adding to Maplewood will swell Cornell's budget by $25 million per year. Cornell is trying to patch a hole in its budget. If you read the Daily Sun, you'll see an article that there are still transfer students living in lounges on the north campus. Why is that? Probably because they've increased the number of transfer students. Early on in the crisis, they said they couldn't increase the undergraduate population because all freshmen had to be housed on north campus and that was filled to capacity. So they've gotten around that by increasing the number of transfer students, and they haven't been able to house all of them. He knows for sure that they've increased the number of master's students. The entire New York City campus is master's students. The business college just announced a new master's program in accounting. If they were being honest about this planning and wanted to work with the town, they should let the town know what's coming down the pike. The road to nowhere, which he commented on months ago, is there for a reason, and they should tell you why. If you look on the web, there's a firm like EdR, the SWA Group, which has a plan for East Hill Village. It shows a massive construction at the corner of Pine Tree Road and Mitchell Street, and they're proposing that there will be another 1000 residences and 1000 new offices. If you take 1000 residences with the 500 they want to put in Maplewood, that's 7.5% of the current population of the town of Ithaca. This is not trivial development. If Cornell wants to be a partner in this, they ought to fess up as to what it's doing so you know what you're getting into. A second year PhD student at Cornell said she is originally from Iowa and finding housing in Ithaca from over 1000 miles away was difficult. She attempted to use craigslist and other Cornell resources to find apartment listings, but discovered that landlords were not willing to work with her from a distance. They could fill their apartments with people who were already in Ithaca, who could bring a cash or check deposit much faster than hers could arrive in the mail. She was provided the opportuni ty to start her studies in the summer, which she jumped on so she could sublet for a few months and look for permanent housing in person. She understands the position of the landlords, and there is no economic incentive for them to have accepted her offer from a distance, but everyone needs housing when they arrive. Her experience is the same as that of many other domestic and international students that make up nearly half the graduate and professional student population. She would have jumped at the opportunity to live at Maplewood, to have an affordable, walkable, community- centered option. All graduate and professional students she's talked to feel that the plan for Maple wood is exactly what they need. They aren't students whose parents pay their rent, and who spend all of their time on campus and in Collegetown; they are part of Ithaca's community, too. The vast majority of domestic students like her become Tompkins County residents. They aren't all in their Planning Board Minutes 10-18-2016 Page 11 of 12 twenties. Many are married and some have children who attend school. She implored the board to pass the Maplewood plan because it benefits Tompkins County residents, residents who also happen to be graduate and professional students. Alex Loiben, chair of the Student Advocacy Committee of the Graduate and Profession Student Assembly, said that in order to move forward with the plan and be ready for the 2018 school year, demolition would have to start in the near future. If we spend a couple more months working on this plan, the development might not be ready on time and the delay would mean an entire additional year in which graduate students wouldn't have access to this housing. A resident said he was the guy who was going to come in and say the project sucks, but he thinks the Mitchell Street side is much improved. He supported some of the points that were made in looking at different aspects of the project, not just as housing for students. Some of the problems like transpor tation, traffic, sustainability, could be addressed if the scale were reduced even more; if there were fewer beds, it might address some of the concerns that were raised. He'd like to see it more sustaina ble. The brown building across the street from the proposed entrance has been used many times over the years by Cornell students building homes for the sustainable house contest. It seems a shame that, with the amount of time and effort students have spent on this kind of sustainable living study, the project being proposed for this area looks like something from the 1990s. It could be so much better: a mark for Ithaca and Cornell as a place where students can live sustainably. He lives right across Mitchell Street from the development. He doesn't feel like it's been part of the community of Ithaca. He thinks it's going to be worse, as proposed. David Marsh asked whether there will be one more public comment period when the project goes to the town board. Mr. Wilcox responded that the town board and planning board have separate responsibilities: the planning board has responsibility for the site plan, whereas the town board has responsibility for rezoning the property. They will hold a public hearing as part of their review. The project can't go ahead unless the town board changes the zoning. Then the planning board will work within the requirements of the planned development zone. Mr. Wilcox closed the public hearing at 8:58 p.m. He reminded everyone that the town is accepting public comments through October 3 T^ The board decided to discuss staff comments and whether they wanted to adopt them as their own. A motion was made by Fred Wilcox, seconded by John Beach, to adopt planning staff comments with changes, as discussed. The board voted unanimously in favor. AGENDA ITEM Persons to be heard - No one came forward to address the board. Adjournment Upon a motion by Yvonne Fogarty, the meeting adjourned at 9:39 p.m. Planning Board Minutes 10-18-2016 Page 12 of 12 Respectfully submitted, ra DeAi Deputy Tswn Clerk