Archive: Around Town

The Village of Lansing planning Board approved a special permit Monday that will allow Brand Y Distillery to open in The Shops at Ithaca Mall. Owner James Case said he plans to open a distillery in a former hair salon next to the former pet store location in the mall entrance near the TCAT bus stop. Case intends to manufacture hand sanitizer while waiting for the State to issue a liquor licence that will permit him to sell his own and other local liquors, as well as to distill Brand Y brandy at the mall location.

The special permit is required because Case's business is classified as 'High Traffic Food and Beverage', which makes the permit a requirement in the Village's Commercial High Traffic District.  Case addressed the Board two weeks ago, but the Planning Board could not vote until a public hearing was held.  No members of the public spoke at that hearing Monday, but Village Engineer Brent Cross brought up a couple of concerns for the record that he said would not be issues in this case.

"According to the Village of Cayuga Heights sewer treatment plant operator, distilleries or breweries have potential for impacts due to what is known as 'organic loading' or in this case, the oxygen demand that it creates, Cross said. "But in communicating with Jim case, it's pretty clear that it's such a very small quantity that I don't think that there's any concern. He mentioned that his daily water consumption is 125 gallons of which only 40 gallons are actually going into production. The rest of it is for cleaning and cooling and other, uh, processes. So 40 gallons a day of anything is not significant. It's, again, just a matter for the record that those wer the quantities that were provided by the applicant. Based on those quantities, no concerns or objections are made."

When he becomes licensed to make and sell the brandy, Case intends to use locally grown carrots, grapes, cherries, apples, carrots, turnips, or sugar beets.  He also plans to sell local beers and wines from nearby breweries and wineries.  While he will begin by distilling the brandy at the mall site, he plans to find a nearby second location for the distillery once demand grows beyond the small capacity at the mall location.  He said he plans to keep the retail storewhen that happens.  Case will also sell his brandies wholesale, and to have restaurants, casinos, bar rooms, and liquor stores as customers on top of his own retail location.

While typical special conditions apply to the special permit, Village code Enforcement officer mike Scott said that County input was not necessary, because it will be located in an existing building with no change to the building footprint, and with no change in vehicular access.

The Board approved the special permit unanimously.


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