Somewhat rlated to the article above.
From the Ithaca Journal:
Housing study shows Ithaca downtown housing full to brim
Written by
Liz Lawyer
Ithaca -- Residential buildings in downtown Ithaca have an extremely low vacancy rate, but the average quality of housing stock in the area is comparatively low, and the middle range of the rental market is largely missing from Ithaca's downtown area, a housing study has found.
Downtown Ithaca Alliance Executive Director Gary Ferguson presented the preliminary findings from a housing market study, commissioned by the Downtown Ithaca Alliance and the City of Ithaca, to the Ithaca Tomorrow advisory group Thursday. The Danter Company, an Ohio research firm specializing in the real estate industry, took a 100 percent sample of available housing downtown for the study, Ferguson said.
Ferguson said Thursday that preliminary results from the Danter study show there is an average vacancy rate of 0.05 percent downtown.
However, Ferguson said Ken Danter, president and CEO of the Danter Company, told the Downtown Ithaca Alliance on a recent visit there is a lack of mid-range housing options.
To address this, Ferguson said, Ithaca must develop a new zoning package for downtown and create a revised incentive program for developers.
"We need to have serious ways to make this work," Ferguson said. "The demand is there. Now we have to queue it up so we can take advantage of that."
The complete Danter study will be available before Oct. 20, Ferguson said.
The study factors into the Downtown Ithaca Alliance's 2020 Strategic Plan. The plan calls for 1,500 units of new housing downtown this decade. Other points of focus are overhauling The Commons and developing a transit spine connecting common destinations, perhaps even by streetcars.
Issues Ferguson said should be considered in developing these initiatives include what utility lines should be placed under The Commons to prepare for possible district heating or other technology, and what characteristics the Y- or T-shaped transit spine centered at The Commons should have -- where it should drop off passengers at Cornell University, Ithaca College and the West End, and how to make it intuitively easy to learn.
The Link:
http://www.theithacajournal.com/arti...sing-full-brim