Archive: News

It was under ten degrees Fahrenheight, but at least ten people came out Saturday morning to join Lansing Recreational Pathways Committee for the official opening of its first Town Trail.  The trail is an early tangible result of the committee's work alongside of an effort to locate a town center on the 140 acre parcel.  Committee Chair Maureen Cowen says the trail can be used right now for non-motorized uses, especially walking and cross country skiing.  During Saturday's four-hour opening, people came to do just that.

"It's cold out here but there's no wind and it's just a beautiful sunny day," Cowen said.  "If people like outdoor activities this is an ideal day for it.  As long as you're dressed for it, it's great."


The trail has symbolic value as well as practical use, as the first construction on the approximately 140 acre lot that town officials hope will become a mixed use town center some day.  Lansing people talked about a town center as a kind of vague dream of the future for many years before the Town Center Committee began planning something tangible a couple of years ago.  Even with a potential plan in hand, nobody realistically thought any kind of construction would begin this early.  Along with the new supermarket, and the revitalization of the Xtramart with the addition of Dunkin' Donuts and the reopening of Crossroads Bar and Grill, the trail provides that vision of the future with a jump start.

"We were trying to find a place to get a start," Cowen says.  "This was an opportunity to put a trail on Town land.  It's ideal for a first project.  We didn't realize what an opportunity was over here.  It happened quickly."

As the committee has been studying about pathways and sidewalks and formulating suggestions for the Town and its Planning Department, the Town Center Committee has also concluded that sidewalks and pathways are crucial to a vital community town center.  One of the early suggestions that came out of the Town Center committee was a sidewalk on Ridge Road spanning between the Town Hall and Rogue's Harbor Inn.  A related recommendation is the creation of a town green near the Town Hall and the Lansing Community Library.  Some town officials have said the trail will allow potential developers and business owners to go onto the property to see possible sites for their businesses with their own eyes, which in turn will help attract development to the area.

"One of the incentives is to let people see what's here and get some community interest going," says committee member Roger Hopkins.  "It's a great place.  It would be a shame if just one person puts their ideas on it.  It will be great if the community comes to walk the trail, see what's here, and go from there."

Meanwhile the Trailways committee has weighed in on sidewalks and paths for new developments.  The developer of the supermarket slated to open at the tip of North Triphammer Road next summer agreed to move the market back on the lot to allow room for potential future sidewalks after committee members lobbied to make that happen.

A 2.4 mile walk has been marked.  A modest parking lot has been created at one end of the trail, on Route 34B just before it curves into Auburn Road.  It loops around and comes out again on 34B, across the street from the town ballfields parking lot.  It may eventually let out on Conlon Road, then loop behind the Lansing Funeral home, and back to the exit across from the ballfields.


The trail is exclusively for non motorized use.  That, of course, includes walking, but during this season it also includes snow shoeing and cross country skiing.  There are some existing snowmobile tracks, which, for the most part is separate from the walking trail.  Hopkins says in the piece that is shared he hopes to add signage to keep walkers and snowmobilers separated.  He also notes that the Ithaca Auburn Short Line railroad went through the property.  The railroad bed is currently overgrown, but he says he hopes there will eventually be a footpath tracing the route.  For the future he envisions bicycle paths, horseback riding and other non-motorized activities.  He also says he wants a kiosk explaining the history of the trail.

"This is what Lansing is, this kind of land," he says.  "Some of it has been abandoned and taken over by invasive plants.  So we're hoping we can educate people about some of that, and do plantings in places to let people get outdoors and see what Lansing looks like.  You can see all the way to the national forest backbone, Connecticut Hill, and all the way down to the Newfield Hills, so there is a fabulous view from there."

The Highway Department will plow the parking lot, and Cowen says she hopes the Town will be able to provide help with improved surfacing, mulch and mowing.  But she stresses that path maintenance is primarily a volunteer effort.

"This is a primitive footpath at the moment," Hopkins says.  "We hope to improve it gradually without much of an investment so we can stay flexible.  If there is a plan to build something here we won't have a huge investment in the trail, so we can move it.  Basically it's sticks in the ground pointing the way, and then the mowing, which we're hoping can be mostly volunteer work."


Residents were already using the path Saturday morning, and committee members hope it will be enjoyed all year 'round.  Cowen says the trail may expand to more than four miles in the future, but the committee is remaining flexible with its exact placement to allow for the best planning as businesses begin to move in.  Meanwhile the Town Center Committee continues to work on their plan for the land, while Town officials are working on closing a deal with New York State that will remove deed restrictions on the land requiring that it be used only for recreational, town hall, and town community center uses.

In a parallel development town officials are making progress on a sewer plan that they hope will be affordable that could bring sewer to the area spanning between the Lansing school campus and the youth incarceration centers.  That would provide a significant incentive for developers, allowing for greater density, as well as fitting long range planning to corral denser development into this planned area, helping to preserve the rural character of the rest of the town.

Another important piece of the puzzle is the work being done by the Economic Development Committee.  That group, headed by Andy Sciarabba who is also the lead investor and developer of the new supermarket,  is working on ways to entice more businesses to set up shop in Lansing.  Cowen sees her committee's work as an integral part of this overall picture.

"We will be part of whatever happens with that development," Cowen says.  "We're flexible.  The Town is committed to having a trail program, so we will be incorporated into whatever happens in the future."

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