Archive: News

With the completion of the Colonial Veterinary Hospital, Village of Lansing Trustees agreed to accept the conveyance of a small park from Colonial Properties of Ithaca, LLC to the Village.  The new two-storied 16,000 square foot hospital replaces the old structure to accommodate a staff of about 45.  It includes facilities for surgery, radiology, an ultrasound room, hospitalized patient areas, an intensive care unit plus a large new dog ward and a cat ward.  And the park.

"It was part of a rather complicated and unique approach the Planning Board used to accommodate development, but also provide a proper buffer," explained Village Attorney David Dubow.  "The Village would require a buffer between it and the residential neighborhood, because that's a commercial property.  But the location precluded it without this particular piece of property."

The park will become part of the Village Greenway, a collection of walking paths and parks.  The Village has a 6% set-aside policy that says when new subdivisions are built 6% of the property is reserved for green areas.

The set-aside policy does not apply to new commercial buildings, but the concept was a good solution to creating a buffer zone between the animal hospital and the neighboring residential area on Saint Joseph's Lane when Colonial used most of the property not occupied by the building to expand its parking area.

"The owners of Colonial Vet agreed to purchase that property," Dubow said.  "It seemed to make a lot of sense to use it as the buffer."

"The Planning Board suggested that the land would provide a pedestrian connection to North Triphammer from St. Joseph's Lane and was willing to accept the land as a donation to the Village Greenway," says Planning Board Chairman Ned Hickey. "Since they had no use for the land except as a buffer, they purchased the land and the donation to the Village is being processed."

Hickey said he is pleased with the solution, but he warned the Trustees that as Greenway areas grow the Village will have to find some way to take maintain them.  "We are slowly but surely gathering more land that we have to take care of," he said.  "We don't have a Village gardener.  We don't have a Village gardening committee.  We've got all these plantings that we have to do and we'd better figure out how we're going to get it done."

Dubow agreed.  "The more you put in sidewalks and the more you make park space, the more it becomes an issue of responsibility," he said.  "And a budget issue as well."

Hickey urged the board to put together a volunteer gardening committee.  Deputy Mayor Larry Fresinski also suggested a more formal way to dole out the responsibility.  "We talked about something similar to the roadways where we could have an 'Adopt a Park' program," he said.

Dubow noted that the path leads from Saint Joseph's Lane to the Colonial property, not to Village property.  He said the owners are willing to allowing the public to walk in their driveway to reach the park path, and that one solution being discussed is a painted line to delineate a walking area.  He told the board that he is working on getting a formal agreement on that access with the owners, who he said are amenable to the solution.

----
v4i36