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The Lansing Planning Board considered a site plan for a 9,100 square foot retail building across Auburn Road from the property immediately north of the Lansing Fire Station Monday, to be used to house Lansing's second Dollar General store, if approved.  Bohler Engineering Assistant Project Manager Steve Vukas presented the project in behalf of Franklin Land Associates, LLC, which will lease the store to Dollar General for a 15 year term.

"I like to think of them as kind of a modern day general store. Some have been confused thinking that it's a dollar store since it has dollar in the title of the store, but that isn't really the case. The one thing I'd say they have in common is they try to keep their prices affordable and some of the types of items that you can expect to purchase there are name, brand products that are frequently used and replenish such as food, snacks, health, and beauty aids, as well as cleaning supplies, family, apparel, housewares, and seasonal items," Vukas said.

He explained that Dollar General would enter into a 15 year lease for the property, owned by Franklin Land Associates, with an option to renew the lease after that.  He said the store should be considered a 'dry goods retail store', and that no food preparation would be conducted there that might have created odors in the neighborhood.  He said the store would be open from about 8:00am to 10:00pm.

Planning Board members expressed a number of concerns about the layout of the building and parking on the property, foliage, and how the design of the building should blend with the neighborhood.

"I don't think that this board is ready to look at a cube in a box," Planning Board member Lin Davidson said. We have seen examples of dollar general stores that are more in keeping with the neighborhood settings. Some roofs, a portico... something that matches the neighborhood. I don't exactly know how you get around that, but I do believe we would expect that."

"We'd also like to consider reverse frontage or at least side frontage for the building and reduce the size of the parking lot in front, bring the store closer to the road and put the parking on the side, and then back. We feel that that's less unsightly. It's more in keeping with the neighborhood, and also fits our current concerns,, which we have to align with with the comprehensive plan," added Planning Board member Larry Sharpsteen.

Board members also worried that an un-cared for empty building could become an 'eye sore' in the neighborhood if the store closes.

"I've been involved with Dollar General and this developer. It's done over 500 of these stores and not one has closed," Vukas said.

After last week's article about local opposition to the proposal, Dollar General representative Crystal Ghassemi sent a 'letter to the editor' addressing issues that were raised.  Residents came to urge the Board to refuse the proposal, and others had submitted written comments to the Board.  Benjamin Finio challenged some of the determinations on the application, including traffic impact and noted that while the application said the property is not within 500 feet of agricultural land, it actually abuts a horse pasture.

Another neighbor, Chelsea, said she is a Lansing native who returned to Lansing after living in other places.

"We lived next to two different Dollar Generals," she said. "We returned to the area to buy a house in a rural agricultural area and chose this spot specifically. We did not expect to be moving back next to a dollar general. We left that intentionally. Some of our concerns are traffic. Also there is an empty parking lot across the street with an empty building that was previously Linda's Diner. We would prefer not to have another empty parking lot and an empty, abandoned building. If the other lot could be used for something, then maybe consider going across the street. But we would like to see something that is local, not something based out of state, something that would support our local residents, selling local product, not something brought in from somewhere else."

Tompkins County Legislator Mike Sigler (Lansing) argued that the county and town government's goals to protect farmland are not served by zoning that allows virtually anything to be built there.

"Do we really expect what is basically a mini Walmart to move in down the street from 'my' house? Cause that's really what it is, right? It's a store that brings in products from China, brings them in from around the country, sells them inexpensively," he said.

At the moment, the store is what is known as 'an allowed use' in Lansing's RA (Rural Agricultural) zoning.  The issue of this proposal is timely, because the Planning Board has been reviewing Lansing's zoning law with an eye to updating it.  A significant part of that review is the notion of replacing the RA zone with an Ag zone that would airm to more specifically protect farm land in the north of the Town.

After last week's article about local opposition, some residents echoed that sentiment on the Lansing Star's Facebook page, but some liked the idea. 

One resident posted, "I appreciate having a dollar general closer to rural areas so seniors and community members won’t have to commute so far to get small goods."

Another said, "There is one being built in Union Springs -- great place to shop and yes they do have brand names to (sic) prices are great!!!!"

Nearby resident Diane Nangeroni said she opposes chain stores that take money out of the community, requesting that "the town consider placing a moratorium on the construction of chain stores when one of the same chain already exists in the town until such time as the town center committee has had a chance to hear from County residents and take their opinions and concerns into account a moratorium such as this would still allow other chain store businesses to enter the town and therefore not inhibit competition."

Planning Board Chair Gerry Caward asked Town Attorney Guy Krogh for advice on whether the Town should consider a moratorium.  Krogh was not encouraging.  He said a moratorium would have to be instituted by the Town Board, not the Planning Board. He warned that it would have to be time limited, and be instated to address an imminent threat. 

"The short answer is, is that municipal attorneys generally across the board, understand that sometimes moratorium are the correct available tool, but they are almost universally disliked because they create lots of problems and lots of risks, and they have to be narrowly tailored enough, such that if you take all the time and money that goes into a moratorium, you often can solve the underlying problem with actual legislation," Krogh said.

Caward reminded the Board that they are currently considering a sketch plan, not an actual site plan.  He summarized the take-aways from various Planning Board members' comments:

"We've already given him the idea that we'd like to see a building that doesn't look like the one down here on 34. That's not too far from where I'm at right now. We'd like to see one, a little prettier out there and something that's not a flat roof. Maybe try to bring the building close to the road, put parking in the rear or at the side, and, make sure that we have a way to take care of the traffic that runs down through there that is pretty high speed."

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