Archive: News

John O'NeillJohn O'Neill is running for his second term as Village Trustee.  Affable and approachable, he has lived here for four and a half years with his wife Germaine and their "fourth child," a poodle.  He has two human sons and a step-daughter, all grown.  O'Neill works from a home office for a consulting firm based in Virginia, specializing in arranging technology exchanges between US and foreign transportation engineers.

O'Neill invited the Star to interview him at his home in a neighborhood off of Craft Road.  We sat in a cozy kitchen as he talked about the challenges facing Village and the Trustees.

Lansing Star: Why are you running for another term?

John O'Neill: Because I like it.  I'm very enthused about not only participating, but contributing if I can.  I rather like contributing at this grass roots level.  It's not the hairy-scary politics that we see on the television all the time.  It's just simple logical application of good planning to provide services, keep taxes low, and hopefully to keep the majority of people happy with what's going on.

I've done this for two years now, my first term.  And I keep being impressed with all of the people on the Planning Board and Board of Trustees, who give a tremendous amount of their time to this.  It's really something that I think goes a maybe little unheralded.  But that's fine.  Nobody needs the heralding.

LS: I notices when I read Frank Moore's campaign statement that you have two Rocket Scientists in the Village government.

JO: That's true.  We do have rocket scientists.  And then we have a computer guru, that would be Larry Fresinski.  And we have an environmentalist, Lynn Leopold.  And I guess you could say I'm a generalist program planner, to even out the boat.  (smiling) You don't want it all lopsided with bright people, so put me on the other side!

LS: What are the key challenges for the village now and for the next two years as you see them?

JO: Growth, growth, growth.  We've got a lot of residential developments happening, and we anticipate more commercial development.

LS: Mostly up and down Triphammer?

JO: Well, the commercial development up and down Triphammer.  But there's some property in the area around Pyramid mall -- actually most of it is their property -- so there might be some development there.  We expect it.

But the economy does seem to be picking up overall.  Tompkins County is right at the top in New York State as far as economic factors.  We being at the crossroads of Triphammer and 13, with the university just across the way we find ourselves sort of in the hot spot for development.  

It presents enormous challenges.  Development can go higglety-pigglety and get away from you.  That is something we certainly don't want.  So both the Planning Board and the Board of Trustees are paying a lot of attention to make sure that we have a development that becomes logical and that the end result that is a sustainable environment, neighborhood and village.  There are a lot of challenges there.

LS: Sustainable in terms of infrastructure?

JO: Well, of course.  Infrastructure, but also lifestyle.  We have a tremendous amount of our people who still like the feeling of a village, as opposed to town or city.  Although we find ourselves a village with three malls, five banks and umpteen restaurants.  It's quite a developed village.  But there are people who enjoy that atmosphere of the smallness of a village.  The intimacy, almost, of the neighborhoods.  In this neighborhood here, for instance, there are 75 houses and a great number of us know each other quite well.  When you go into some cities you don't know the people next door.

We want to sustain that kind of atmosphere and ambiance.  It's hard to do as the big roller coaster of development comes at you.

LS: Speaking of development, I have to ask you about sewer.

JO: Oh good (laughing) I was hoping you would talk about sewers!


LS: What's your position on how it should be carried out?

JO: Well, there are positions on how it should be carried out, and then there is the reality of what has already happened in incremental steps thanks to the State and DEC and the various organizations and individuals.  I think some of our residents are extremely well informed on environmental issues, and have expressed that very well: the fact that it seems crazy to put more effluent into the southern part of the lake.  I agree with that.

However we are overcome by the events of this incremental development that happens with bureaucracies.  I think now that the State organs are only willing to accept the idea of pushing through and tying in the Town of Lansing with Cayuga Heights, and given the money situation and the fact that there's all the grant money available -- it would be a shame to lose that.

Then we come to the fact of how do we push that through the Village of Lansing?  Our neighborhoods, of course, don't like the idea of it being pushed through.  That's created a lot of anxiety and some tension.

I think everyone understands the benefit of a sewer system.  They're just afraid of the dis-benefits.  One of the questions is the odors.  But frankly it can be engineered according to the literature that I've seen, that's been provided to me.

LS: The Town engineers have said they are aware of that concern and that they want to address it.

JO: Certainly.  The point is, it's like any time that you have separate entities doing one project.  The Town is wanting to do the best thing for its residents.  The Village wants to make sure it does what's best for its residents.

LS: It's not quite apples to apples, though, because the Village is also within the Town.  Village residents vote for the Town Council, but Town residents don't vote for Village Trustees.  

JO: A few of them do.  Frankly I think probably in the village the identification with a municipal organization there is, it's as a village.  And it comes as a shock, especially to some of the newer neighbors, that oh! we're also residents of the Town.

And of course in the Village there are a lot of apartments, and those people typically are not involved at all.  They go from their capsules at their office to capsules called their cars, to their capsules called their apartments.  So they're insulated from all of this stuff.  Of the residents who are involved I think there is more identification as a Village as opposed to being a resident of the Town.  But you're right, we're residents of both.

LS: This is just me -- I have to tell you that I live outside the sewer district so I don't have any bone to pick one way or the other.  I have to imaging that those Town officials are aware that they have constituency in the Village as well.  I heard Bud Shattuck say that, and I always assume politicians know who votes for them.

JO: On that question I would have to defer to some of the Trustees who have been here for a long time.  I don't have enough of a feel for that after a two year stint.

LS: That was a bit of a side-track.  At the last Village Trustees meeting the last thing that Tony Nekut said during the public comment segment was that he thought the interests of the Village and the Town have come so close together in terms of development, zoning and so on that he thought the Trustees should think about merging the Village back into the town for the benefits of economy of scale.  It is intriguing as an idea, so I wanted to ask you to comment on it.

JO: Well, the Village was founded in '78 on the premise that the Village needed to break away from the Town because all of the developments around Route 13 and Triphammer were just starting in dead earnest.  The regulations and codes of development and building that the Town had were not adequate for control purposes.  Now that, of course, was '78, so we're talking almost 30 years ago.

It may be that the issues have brought everyone to the same level, but I think that after 30 years it's a little bit hard.  It's sort of like a teenager getting old enough to move out of the house.  I would be surprised if most of the people in the Village would be in favor of rejoining the Town.

And there are enough differences with the Town.  The Town has a huge geography.  And very disparate in the land uses, whereas our land uses are very specific... I would say much more urban than the Town has.  There is definitely a much more urban mindset than you would find in the town typically.  Not to say rural is bad -- I particularly like that.  But it's different.  It takes not only a different set of rules, but it also takes a different management style.

LS: I think you have at least partly answered this next question.  Do you feel the Village's point of view as a village is more in synch with the town or with Ithaca?

JO: Hmm.  Which part of Ithaca?  The Village of Cayuga Heights, the town of Ithaca, the City of Ithaca?

LS: Well I think there are probably some similarities with Cayuga Heights that are unique between the two villages.  But I meant the City of Ithaca.

JO: My first reaction is that comparing those two that the Village would probably feel more of an affinity towards the Town.  The City, in fact, is developing into a true urban area with all the urban problems.  Whereas Tony Nekut had a very good point in that a lot of development is happening in the southern part of the Town of Lansing which is adjacent to the Village.

LS: Where if there is sewer there will probably be more.

JO: That's inevitable.  That kind of development is very similar to the development that's happening still, and will go on in the Village.  So I think there is more affinity there.

LS: Lynn Leopold has said that many Village residents view themselves as Ithacans.  She said it's been hard for the Village to build a sense of identity as a village, and that one of the reasons the Triphammer project is being done with the bicycle paths, the sidewalks, the trees and so on is to give more of a village feeling to the focal point of the Village.  This is a multi-part question:  First, do you agree with Lynn that there is something of an identity crisis?  Secondly, how do you see strengthening the Village's identity?  how will the Triphammer renewal help, and what other initiatives do you envision?

JO: The point that Lynn Leopold made is something that I can understand, and it seems like another facet of the question you posed previously:  we live in this area and do we call ourselves "Lansingites" -- "Lansingers?" -- or "Ithacans?"  It's far simpler to say we are from Ithaca, of course.

LS: Right, everybody does.

JO: Our address is 14850, so that daily enforces that.  The fact that we can develop a center that is identifiable as more than just a road between the malls, I think will go a great way to lending consciousness of the fact that this is the center of something.  Whether or not people become aware that it's the center of the Village of Lansing or the Town of Lansing, I don't know that.  And frankly I am not too sure that it's an issue that would be something to fight for or to campaign for.

LS: But in some ways as I've been looking at the maps of the Triphammer project, there's some social engineering going on.  It speaks to Lynn's point with the trees, the sidewalks, bicycle paths -- those are encouraging village-style activities.

JO: Part of that is the Greenway, the walkway plans.  The idea is to promote the idea of community.  The point that I am not sure of is whether promoting the idea of community goes hand in hand with the idea of identification -- that the entity is the Village of Lansing.  But certainly since the community in this area, especially as these new developments happen, part of the stipulation is that there be more Greenways, more walking paths.  Pedestrian and bicycle friendly.

We have a tree program.  That states that new residents can get a couple of trees and there is a small subsidy that the Village makes available to make sure that we are a village with trees.  It promotes a wonderful sense of community.  The folks on the west side of Cayuga Heights Road, of course, have those lovely lots with big trees.  These lots on this side are ex-farm land, which of course was cleared away for corn or something.  So we have to replant the trees.  It's an effort to make a community and I think it's going forward very nicely.

LS: It sounds like you're talking about community more on the neighborhood level more than the overall village level.

JO: Well basically the fact that the Village has so many residents in apartments.  That they're split by ROute 13 creates four or five areas.  This little area here, Dart and Graham Road.  Our area here, Lansing Trails.  The next area over, which is Bush Lane and Brook Drive.  And then Horizons, a little further up.  And then of course the folks across from Cayuga Heights Road.  And Highgate Circle.  Three, four five, maybe six scattered here and there.  They are like units that are loosely bound.  

The program basically works toward making sure each of those has its, I guess you could call it infrastructure to provide recreation and a sense of community to the people.  There is a park over by the apartments across 13.

LS: Dankert Park?

JO: Yes, Dankert Park.  That's for the apartment dwellers.  There is some discussion going on about getting another park placed for this area over here, because they don't have a park yet.  SO there's a lot of thought for services.  What I'm uncertain of is whether that moves people from that sense of community to sense of being in the Village of Lansing.

Because of Ithaca being a big entity and Cornell being in Ithaca and the postmark being Ithaca I think that consciousness will really stay the same.

LS: You've hit upon a pet peeve of mine.  If Lansing could have its own ZIP code, or if the Town could have its own code and the Village could have one ZIP code would you support that?

JO: Yes, I would.  Because it would also promote the sense of community and show there is a little difference.  It's even easier for the delivery services.  Sometimes they get very confused, because everything is 14850 for the ten square miles of... what does the bumper sticker say?  (laughs)  I've heard this subject brought up by other people who say 'why don't they change this?'

LS: We've talked about this quite a bit, but in bullet points what kind of growth would you like to see in the Village?

JO: Well, inevitably there will be more residential areas developed.  We're almost built out in this area.  There is the area called Sundowns Farms, which is the area south of Burdick Hill, West of Triphammer.  It's like a hay field right now.  If sewer is made available it will be much, much easier to develop all of that, and that could represent an enormous amount of development.

LS: Is that the last frontier in the Village?

JO: Residentially speaking.  There are some issues in County and State planning having to do with affordable housing.  We think that we have plenty of that here in these apartment complexes.  We think we're probably well above the quota or percentage that the County shoots for.  But with that size of property there may be some more discussion along that line.  In the meantime I believe it's now zoned for medium density.  Sewerage would have an effect on how many houses could be placed on that acreage.  It would almost double the amount of houses that could be placed on it.

The thing I'm most cautious about is the build out in the commercial areas, because it's so easy to fall prey to the small business -- all of a sudden you end up with a little dot of a building here with some sort of architecture that's a little... "unique," to be kind...  We have that a lot.  We see that.

It's a wild mish-mash.  there's been some talk in the Planning Board of having some kind of architectural review committee, but that comes across as smacking up against people's right to make a choice.  Especially a developer or an investor.  Of course they don't want to make something that's so unattractive that people don't want to go there.  But let's not become Los Angeles and have plastic hot dogs the size of a Cadillac.

Like I said, I'm not so concerned about the residential development, because that is very well regulated, and the market demands that there be decent development and good housing.  The scary part is the commercial development.  There's very little of that that can still be done...

LS: In terms of new space...

JO: Yes, new space.  There can, of course, be reuse of old space.

LS: That does give the Village an opportunity.

JO: Well, it does.  There are things that you can regulate and there are things you are not allowed to regulate.  you cannot put handcuffs on a development just because you want to or because the Board would want to.  I would say that our Planning Board keeps a very good hand on these developments.  They are very careful.  Naturally it would be wonderful to see more small business parks full of doctors, dentists, things like that.  But you reach a saturation point with that.  Office parks are nice.

LS: Something like the Audrey Edleman complex?

JO: Yes, that is an extremely nice complex.  But I don't know if the economy will bear much more of that.  If it does, that would be great.  My main concern is that we would become spotted with "unique" buildings that would not necessarily contribute to the atmosphere of the Village.

LS: Like shopping strips?

JO: The strip malls, which are part of Americana, I guess.  I don't think our areas left are conducive to a strip mall, but they are conducive to individual buildings.  I have very good confidence in the Planning Board and its process of regulation.

LS: What do you coder your key accomplishments in your tenure so far as Trustee?

JO: I'm not sure I have any accomplishments to brag about.  The participation.  I have climbed the learning curve, so to speak.  Some things concerning pedestrian areas and the safety of crossings.  I've discussed it as much as possible.  I've discussed and proposed things dealing with the Greenways, especially in this area right now.  The Lansing Fire Department is needing to develop a new and improved fire station in this area.  It's really logical, because this is where everything is.

LS: Yes, 50% of their calls are in the Village.

JO: Almost 50%.  And with the development there would be more.  And these wooden buildings, they get old, they get crisper.  Things happen, unfortunately.  What the Lansing Fire Department is addressing is all these mandates that come down from the State and the Feds about all the responses to potential 911 incidents.  Or hazmat trucks falling over the bridge or something like that, Heaven help us.  

I've been involved in those discussions.   Right now we're at the point where we're waiting for the next stage, which would be the final proposal plan on location, etc.

LS: I noticed that something you have come on pretty strong about is having a service area in the Village, around the Village office.

JO: I would love to take credit for that, but actually it's something the Mayor came up with.  I think it was a brilliant stroke, actually, because in our Village Office area we have a lot of excess territory that would be satisfactory for a fire station, has great access to Triphammer, and is very close to the malls.  Geographically it's dead center of where the most activity would probably be.  

It also has some benefits to the Lansing Fire Department in that we could work out a very very favorable lease arrangement.  We have to go through some legalities to make sure that they feel comfortable that we won't pull the lease out from under them once the building is built.  We're working with them very well on that and, hopefully it will be resolved because they're important issues.

This idea of the service complex, though -- the honor belongs to His Honor.  (laughs)

LS: But it's not just one person who makes these things happen.

JO: That's another nice reason I like working with these boards.  It is very collegial.  There is a lot of cooperation, a lot of exchange of notions.  Sometimes not all the same notions, sometimes opposing notions, but it all works well together.  That's most likely because it is at the very grass roots and we don't have enormous issues enough to create personality conflicts.  It's politics at its nicest level, I think.

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