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Not everyone agrees that the Town of Lansing should have its own town center.  Some say that the mall shops in the Village of Lansing are close enough and why not leave well enough alone?  Even if you take a town center as a given you would be hard put to find two identical opinions on what it should look like or even where it should be located.

"I would love a town center in Lansing," says Lansing's representative to the Tompkins County Legislature, Mike Sigler.  "I don't want the county involved in that, so as a County Legislator -- that's a town issue to me.  But speaking as somebody who lives in the town I would love a town center.  I would like a place to go and take a walk with my kids.  The Village of Lansing is nice, but it's four miles down the road."

Where should it be?  Town Supervisor Scott Pinney sees it on the 150 acres of land across Route 34 from the Town Hall.  That land came from the State with deed restrictions that Pinney wants lifted to allow for development there.  "We're working on getting the restrictions lifted across the road," he said at last month's Town Board meeting.  "It's hard to work on this process without knowing for sure if we can get those restrictions lifted."

But is it?  At least four locations have been floated by various people in town.  The conventional wisdom is that the 150 acres across from the Town Hall is big enough, in a high traffic area, and central for most town residents.  Last year Pinney proposed a variation that would move the town ballfields to that property, which has deed restrictions limiting it to recreational use.  That would leave their current location, which has no such restrictions, free to be developed.

A traffic study showing 10,000 cars per day passing the four corners where the Lansing Extra Mart is located on the corner of Triphammer and Peruville Roads suggests that corner as a possible location for a town center.  In 2007 property owners John Dietershagen and Leo Mahool gave away a house to free property they own on that intersection for possible business development.

Another possibility is just a stone's throw north of that, on Kingdom Farm.  In May of 2007 officials got a glimpse of how development could remake the farm when when representatives of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society came to present a tentative plan. 

The two pink areas in the lower right of this tentative plan presented in May of 2007 are shown as possible office/retail areas.  Blue and yellow areas show possible appartment buildings, with denser single family lots in the central pink area, and larger single-family lots on the far left (north).  At the time Watchtower Bible and Tract Society said that sewer and zoning changes were critical.

Kingdom farm encompasses more than 500 acres between Peruville and Buck Roads.  Most of the land in on the eastern side of Auburn Road (Route 34), across the street from the State youth facilities.  Their plan included larger lots to the north, with much higher density to the south.  That included a business and retail area, apartments or patio houses that might be attractive to elderly residents, and smaller lots in between.

Another possibility is about a mile south of the Town Hall, near Lansing Plaza on East Shore Drive.  And because existing parks and walkways would be part of the mix considered when planning for a town center the area around Myers Park might end up being considered.


"It's probably not going to end up where you think it is," Holt Architects' Miles Cigolle told Town officials last month.  "Or where any of us think it is if we do our job right.  We really have to understand all the influences.  There probably are some things that haven't been taken fully into account that need to be."

Holt Architects Principal David Taube told officials that a final idea will come by getting the community's consensus after considering a variety of ideas.  That is an approach endorsed by Sigler, who lives on Peruville Road.  "The suggestion of moving the ballfields across the road and putting a town center where they are now isn't a bad idea," Sigler says.  "I like to have ideas on the table and then you let people decide.  I'd love it if it was at Kingdom Farm because I could probably walk there from my house."

Planners will have to consider existing resources to determine a location, but will also have to think about future resources.  "We're establishing a road map and kind of a vision that's seen with a certain amount of magnification, but not a lot at this point," Taube said.  "Study may show proper development may need sewer or show what needs to be done first and what in the future."

While just about everyone agrees that greater density will be needed to build a cohesive town center, there are alternatives to sewer such as package plants and large shared septic systems.  Sigler and other officials see the federal bailout program as a possible way to get affordable sewer and water, which most people agree is the best solution if you want higher density.

"$850 billion is a lot a lot of money," Sigler says.  "If it will help us get a water/sewer system, I think looking into the future Lansing is still going to be a growing community."

Taube said that the key is being ready for opportunities that may arise, having a 'living' planning document in place that chronicles consensus on what a town center should look like, and where it should be.  He said that consensus will likely change as new developments in public opinion, politics, and financial opportunities arise, so flexibility must be part of the process.

Town officials are currently looking for residents to volunteer to serve on a 'Town Center Committee' to start developing the information needed to create such a plan.

Town Councilman Bud Shattuck says that starting the process sooner will give it more of a chance of success for the Town.  He favored hiring Holt Architects to facilitate the creation of an intial report.  "I don't want to wait too long," he said.  "I think that is short sighted.  This is a $20,000 project to look at what we could have.  But I think that it's needed.  We spent a couple of hundred thousand dollars to get sewer to the point that it is.  I hate to keep throwing stuff away and fighting a time line where it gets harder to look at projects."

(In Part Three we'll take a closer look at infrastructure and what it would take to service a town center.  Click here to read Part I.)

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