Quote:
Originally Posted by Cyburbia
The housing market in Ithaca is quite binary outside of student rentals. It's mostly large lot subdivisions or subsidized low/mod/senior housing, with almost nothing in the middle.
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I suspect developers are going to build the type of housing which is in demand, especially in today's cautious financing market.
Speaking of development, here's an article concerning development status in the Town of Ithaca (from the Ithaca Times):
Ithaca town planing committee continues West Hill development discussion
Posted: Thursday, October 13, 2011 11:22 pm
By Dialynn Dwyer
Thursday's meeting of the Town of Ithaca Planning Committee continued discussions on possible development scenarios for West Hill.
West Hill is just one of three areas the Town of Ithaca is looking to focus on developing, the others being a portion of South Hill and area surrounding East Hill plaza. There is a current moratorium on a portion of West Hill, allowing the town time to plan the smart growth and nodal development they want for the area, which is part of the town's focus on sustainability in the re-writing of the Comprehensive Plan.
Dan Tasman, the Assistant Director of Planning, presented six possible development scenarios of complete build-out under different zonings, listing the total number of units that would exist under each. The scenarios divided West Hill into three neighborhoods- North, Central, and South- and broke down the number of units in each neighborhood under each zoning scenario. The zoning scenarios ranged from the existent Medium Density Residence zoning (MDR) to a Traditional Neighborhood Density (TDR) with high density.
Tasman then asked the three Committee members Rich DePaolo, Bill Goodman, and Pat Leary to draw what they envisioned for the area. What they ended up drawing in dry erase markers over a map of West Hill came close to the first conceptual development scenario that Tasman presented shortly after.
The conceptual outline, which presented a possible scenario of development of 1800 units, depicted the primary centers of development in the north, central, and south areas containing a range of higher density mixed use units in the centers of the neighborhoods with lower density single family units and open space surrounding the areas of higher density. A road connecting the centers of the three neighborhoods was part of the map, with the thought that public transportation could come to each central hub. The thought was raised that in order to control the areas of higher density, zoning outside the centers of development could be changed to lower density areas.
Several members of the committee emphasized that the scenario is just a working concept to show what maximum build-out would be half-way between the fourth and fifth zoning scenarios that were developed. Further studies will be conducted, models made, and the members will continue to mull over possibilities and concerns regarding development on West Hill for their meeting next month.
Here's the link:
http://www.ithaca.com/news/article_1...cc4c03286.html