Quote:
Originally Posted by ki0eh
Who is backing all this investment, and who is going to fill all these beds?
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Much of the investment is coming from regional developers (Buffalo, Rochester, New York City areas) , but there are also several local developers including companies already heavily invested in the Ithaca area with student housing.
I don't think the beds will be hard to fill:
Ithaca Common Council passes Collegetown zoning measure
Form districts tackle aims of 2009 redevelopment plan
7:12 PM, Mar 6, 2014
Written by
David Hill
ITHACA — Applause broke out in the room when Common Council unanimously voted to adopt a new type of zoning for much of Collegetown that has been several years in the making.
The vote Wednesday evening came after nearly an hour of discussion about possible amendments, primarily adding to the intent section a goal of promoting affordable housing. But the council ended up making no more amendments, reaching an effective consensus that affordability is a good goal but largely beyond the scope of Collegetown zoning.
The ordinance adopted by council amends the city’s zoning code to establish Collegetown area form districts. The new section blends traditional zoning with form-based zoning governing items such as roof pitch, porches, glazing and size of plain, bare exteriors and street setbacks, along with height limits and parking rules.
The rezoning is intended to carry out the 2009 Collegetown Urban Plan and Conceptual Design Guidelines, adopted by Common Council that year to guide redevelopment of the neighborhood. The area is the city’s most dense and contains some of its most valuable property but is also filled with many old buildings divided into student apartments and widely considered not as safe and energy efficient as new construction.
Some council members expressed hope, too, that by encouraging denser development through measures such as allowing more of lots to be built on, more total apartments will be added, easing a Collegetown vacancy rate Fourth-Ward Alderman Steve Smith said remains one-half of 1 percent.
Several people spoke before council voted on the plan. Most supported the proposal, even if they thought it wasn’t perfect, while some called for holding off to specifically address affordability and energy efficiency.
“The result has been ... a balance between multiple goods, particularly those who are very concerned about preserving neighborhoods on the periphery of Collegetown and those concerned about promoting more development in the center of Collegetown,” said former Fourth Ward alderman and longtime Planning and Development Board member John Schroeder.
Others expressed concern about how the new rules affect certain streets and blocks, particularly calling for larger development on Linden Avenue. The street is in a form district intended to be medium-density with buildings up to four stories tall and serve as a transition between taller mixed-use and residential blocks.
John Graves of South Hill bemoaned a lack of specific affordable-housing language and unfavorably likened the adoption to a move in the 1960s to redevelop a block of Green Street as urban renewal.
“Micromanaging development through local codes and zoning requirements, if you are not careful, can limit the supply of innovative housing,” he said.
Cornell University student Max Weisbrod sought affordable-housing language but welcomed the change as potentially helping improve housing costs and quality. He said former single-family homes now have as many as 13 renters charged $700 a month each, often outdated and with poor maintenance.
“We need legal space for developers to profitably redevelop. We need to reduce the pressure for students to live further away from campus, causing disruptions and ill will in neighboring communities,” he told council. “We need to create a vibrant and walkable neighborhood that can offer our residents and neighbors and residents services and amenities that they need to live healthily and without cars.”
Among those endorsing the change were Historic Ithaca Executive Director Alphonse Pieper and Nathan Lyman, a city resident speaking for himself and major landlord Jason Fane.
A rezoning plan was successfully challenged by owners of affected property in 2011 over a provision in which developers could pay the city in lieu of providing parking. The ending of minimum parking requirements has been the most contentious issue, with proponents saying parking drives up costs and opponents fearing more spillover parking on adjacent residential streets. But the city has a residential parking permit system for some blocks near Collegetown and is adjusting its Dryden Road garage rates in hopes of boosting usage, and that objection has diminished.
Collegetown resident and landlord Steve Fontana told council only a quarter of his tenants now bring cars, down from a third 10 years ago.
Under the new zoning, the parking requirements are waived for the two new multi-use districts and, subject to approved parking-management plans, for new construction in the CR-4 multi-family residential district, the one on Linden Avenue.
The MU-1 district is to be along College Avenue between Catherine and Bool streets, and the MU-2 district centered on the College Avenue-Dryden Road corner, the heart of Collegetown. The mixed-use 1 district allows five stories and 70 feet, and the MU-2 six stories and 80 feet; both requirements would have to be met.
Here's the link:
http://www.ithacajournal.com/article...zoning-measure