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That sentiment was echoed by Planning Board members, the County Planning Department, and the one resident who did speak to the board.  Triphammer Road resident Ed Ebersold said that two large projects would compound traffic issues, impact Lansing schools, the Fire District, and Highway Department.  "You can't really look at them individually, I would think," he said."

Project engineer Tim Buhl said the developer researched traffic issues about six months ago, and found studies that show that current traffic on the effected section of Triphammer Road are below the definition of a congested road, and that new traffic generated by the project would still be below that number.  He said that the section of North Triphammer Road between Hillcrest and Asbury Road had an average daily traffic count of 6,829 vehicles.  That section of Triphammer Road is listed as 'non-congested,' which means that it is less than 80% of the capacity of the road.

"Our project will generate average daily traffic of 915 based on the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) trip generation tables for multi-family projects, with a peak hour of 76 cars," Buhl said.  "With the bus service I think it will be less than that."

But Wilcox wasn't convinced.  "I still have a lot of questions and concerns," she said.  "I don't care what kind of a traffic study it is, I think you're downplaying the traffic for that area.  The sewer is still a big issue.  I spoke with the Fire District, and they have not heard from Tim or anyone (involved in the project) in two years."


Planning board member Nancy Longto said that she agrees with Wilcox.  She noted that after the previous Planning Board meeting it was clear that the public hearing was premature, but it had already been scheduled.  She noted that Buhl has said that he expects that approval to take about six months, and said that she thinks that is a reasonable time frame.

Longto read from a '239 Review' letter from Tompkins County Commissioner of Planning and Public Works Edward Marx that the Planning Board had received in late February.  A '239 Review' requires planning boards to get input from the County Planning Department to take county issues into consideration when approving local projects.  The County determined that a complete environmental assessment form will need to be submitted before it can conduct a formal review, but offered some initial comments. 

The letter said the project would be subject to Town subdivision review, and stated that two streams on the property should be protected from development.  It said an affordable housing component should be included in the project, and that the developer should consult directly with Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit (TCAT) on creating a bus stop and the impact on public transportation.  Because that section of Triphammer Road is owned by the County the letter noted the County Highway Department would have to be petitioned for a right of way to construct sewer, and that an environmental review should evaluate the impact of the sewer line on overall infrastructure development in Lansing, including its impact on an eventual South Lansing sewer project.  It said documentation from the Villages of Lansing and Cayuga Heights should be included before the project is approved to make sure that sewer could be hooked into the Village of Lansing's existing sewer, and processed at the Cayuga Heights sewage treatment plant.  It recommended pedestrian access within the project and along the frontage of Triphammer Road.

Buhl says that building the project is conditional on getting public sewer and water.  He has yet to approach the villages, but a week ago Village of Lansing Mayor Donald Hartill expressed misgivings about the cost, noting that laying the sewer line alone would cost over a half million dollars.

"Even going down Triphammer they've got to go uphill," Hartill said.  "There's a forced main no matter what you do.  Even with a forced main it's over a mile from there to our nearest sewer line.  At $100 bucks a foot, do the calculation.  They will be pricey condominiums just from the cost of the sewer system."

But Buhl says sewer is so important to the project that the cost is not a problem.  Sewer allows the developers to create many more housing units in a smaller area than would otherwise be allowed.  Buhl says no sewer, no project.  If the developer is unable to get sewer and water for the project, he says that a less dense project could be submitted for the site.

"This site plan is based on having public sewers," he said.  "We submitted another site plan earlier that was preliminarily approved that had on-site septic systems, but we felt over the long haul we'd do better to have public sewer and water."

Planning Board members said that one comment from the public isn't enough, and on consulting attorney Lorraine Moynihan Schmitt on whether they could schedule additional public hearings voted to close this one.  Longto made a motion to put it in the public record that the board will schedule a future public hearing on the project.  That motion was unanimously passed.

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