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After the Village of Lansing Planning Board sent its recommendation for a PDA (Planned Development Area) that would subdivide the Shops at Ithaca Mall, Mayor Donald Hartill told the Board of trustees last week that he doesn't see any better solution.  Since CMC Engineering Manager Kenneth Farrall brought the proposal to the Board last August  on behalf of the new mall owners, Trustees and Planning Board members have expressed concerns about the plan, particularly about safety, flooding, and accountability.  But with a $10 million reduction of assessed value of the property and the mall struggling to attract shoppers, Hartill said the subdivision plan is the best option in an attempt to revitalize the vital source of property and sales tax revenue.

"In reviewing all of the materials we've been presented with, it seems like that's the most attractive path forward," he said. "It certainly has a number of issues having to do with fire safety, the fact that it's a structure that has been there for 40 years.  All of these ancillary conditions really need to be satisfied.  Other than that I don't see any other path forward."

Farrall has made his case more than once to both boards, saying that enticing the major stores to buy their properties encourages them to stay when their national headquarters are deciding which stores to close across the country.

"The trend in the industry is that the shop owners want to own their own property," he said in an August Board of Trustees meeting. "Once they own it, if they are going to close multiple stores they'll hold on to a store that they own. Rather than close it, they will close stores that they lease first. This is a situation where we're going to get a tenant who is going to buy the property and invest into it."

Farrall said the stability that ownership lends to keep the bigger stores in the mall then encourages smaller stores to locate at the mall on the grounds that there is less risk that an anchor store will pull out.  The central area of the mall that is occupied by smaller stores would be retained by the mall owners.

But at an October joint meeting between the Board of trustees and Planning Board, Farrall was unable to answer Hartill's question about the owner's, Namdar Reality, track record in making this approach work.  Hartill asked the question three times without receiving a satisfactory answer.  Farrall that he did not know a percentage of malls the approach had been successful with, and due to competition he could not give specific names.  He added that a number of malls have been bought by the owner when they were in bankruptcy, and none have gone dark since being acquired.

Planning Board members had concerns about area flooding and who would be responsible if there are multiple owners of the different parts of the mall.  Hartill says that due to the age of the main part of the building code upgrading issues are also likely to be triggered.

"Certainly the parcels with Target on one end and DSW and Best Buy at the other end -- those are relatively new buildings," Hartill said.  "It's the central part of the mall that is being thought about subdividing off the theater, the other stores there... if you're now going to build a restaurant there, for example, then the fire code is very different now than it was then.  It's those kinds of issues."

Farrall has noted that the owners can sell off the major store buildings under current zoning, but would need variances from the Board of Zoning Appeals for things like buffer zones between separate parcels.  Space is required between buildings when they reside on adjoining parcels, but obviously in a mall you can't have buffers that would require separating stores like target or Best Buy by the required distance from the rest of the mall.  Pursuing a PDA would put all the special conditions under one zoning umbrella, making it a more attractive option.

"I've talked to (Village Code Enforcement/Zoning Officer AND Stormwater Management Officer Adam Robbs) a little bit about it and I think there is a fairly clear path forward," Hartill said.  "So subject to all these ancillary things, I think that's what we want to do.  The questions are: are there adequate fire barriers?  I think there is a good path forward, but we just have to work out the details."

"The only other significant issue is the storm water," added Village Attorney David Dubow.  "That's a sensitivity that's come up, and that's going to have to be addressed."

Planning Board members have expressed strong concerns about who the Village would have recourse to if problems on the mall property were to cause or exacerbate flooding in nearby neighborhoods, as has happened in the past.

"Two years ago when the parking lots were collapsing in the front of the mall, because there was undermining of the pipes that go in underneath the structure," said trustee Gerry Monaghan.  "If we encounter a situation like that again, will we e able to contact the over-riding management of the property?  That's our main concern."

Farrall says that each owner would be required to sign the equivalent of a neighborhood association agreement called an Easement Covenance Cross-access Restrictions (ECCR) agreement.  Such a document governs cooperative needs of a mall, including parking lot maintenance and plowing, collective storm water management, and so on, and owners would also pay the equivalent of a homeowner's association fee to cover the costs of such maintenance.

"We're now in the process of understanding the details of how we go forward," Hartill said.  "A key part of that is this whole question of code.  Modern building codes have changed from the time the mall was constructed in the '70s until today.  That all has to be worked out.  There will be a fair amount of detail that has to be understood.  I'm just saying that we want to go through that process."

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