http://ithacajournal.com/apps/pbcs.d...706250318/1002
More discussion about Carrowmoor- one thing worth noting is that it's a "green" project. It's less notable when you realise that this is Ithaca, where there are solar panels on the county library.
http://ithacajournal.com/apps/pbcs.d...706250323/1002
I'll copy this one out, it's really quite interesting.
County endorses affordable housing assessment
By Tim Ashmore
Journal Staff
ITHACA — Last week, the Tompkins County Legislature threw its support behind an assessment that calls for 4,000 new non-student housing units over the next 10 years.
Now, the county is asking that the City of Ithaca and surrounding towns help address the issue.
At its Tuesday meeting, the Legislature approved an endorsement of a Housing Strategy for Tompkins County, 10-4, after the body's economic development plan identified a lack of housing as the biggest issue restraining the local economy.
The housing strategy supports the Affordable Housing Needs Assessment, which recognizes the need to add 4,000 new units. If the strategy was strictly followed, more than half of the new housing units would be made affordable to households that make up to 80 percent of the median household income.
“We hear a lot of complaints that this community has become too expensive to live in and that only a select class can live here,” said the Legislature's Chair Tim Joseph, D-Town of Ithaca. “To the extent that that is true, the thing that makes it true is the cost of housing. We often hear it attributed to taxes ... but I think it is much more real that people can't live here because they can't afford the cost of housing.”
According to the strategy, a fund would be established with contributions through public and private sources to fill funding gaps needed to keep units affordable and assist not-for-profit developers with pre-development expenses.
Legislator Frank Proto, R-Town of Caroline and Danby, raised concerns that this assistance might encourage the growth of more tax-exempt, not-for-profit organizations.
“This county is already overburdened with property that's not taxable,” Proto said. “There's a trust fund in here that will once again inevitably be tax exempt property because of the way it's structured. There's a leg up being given here to the not-for-profit developers who already have a leg up.”
Planning and Public Works Commissioner Ed Marx addressed part of the tax problem after Dick Booth, D-City and Town of Ithaca, asked whether the strategy indicated that the affordable housing units would be tax exempt.
“Most of the units would be taxable, and the document doesn't urge it one way or another,” Marx said.
Also cited in the document was an increased need to support housing issues in Tompkins County because federal and state funding has not kept pace with the need for affordable housing.
Mike Sigler, R-Town of Lansing, raised concerns of some of the prospective goals set in the strategy.
“We're setting up a fund which concerns me because I'm not sure how big it's going to be or who we're going to fund,” Sigler said. “So it sounds like we're subsidizing federal and state funding for their lack of responsibility, and that concerns me because they have much deeper pockets that we do.”
Sigler also addressed how standard market growth would provide a portion of the 4,000 housing units the strategy calls for and that the larger need would be affordable housing.
“What we really need is affordable housing, but nowhere near the 4,000 we're saying we need. I'm looking at the Town of Lansing and we're calling for 1,000 units but I don't see how that's going to happen without water or sewer up there. I don't actually see how we're even going to accomplish this.”
But Marx's presentation of the strategy indicated that even a county endorsement of the document wouldn't translate into a plan of action.
“This (strategy) doesn't bind anybody to anything. It sets some goals we should strive for, it sets some framework for a strategy and the things that are in here in terms of affordability funds and housing trusts, (those) are things that were recommended by the experts in housing,” Marx said.
Aside from the increase in house units of varying affordability, the strategy encourages cluster development in nodal patterns along major highway corridors and cluster areas near employment centers.
One of the emphases in the strategy is creating more housing that college students would not be eligible to qualify for. Booth addressed the fact that Cornell University students often take up many rental spaces in Ithaca.
“I don't think you can really talk about housing strategy unless you come out and say Cornell should provide housing for a larger percentage of students,” Booth said. “This at least says the county shouldn't think about housing for any of their additional students. To change the market in and around the city of Ithaca, the Cornell market has to change.”