Archive: News

Putting together a viable sewer project in Lansing is like juggling.  There are at least a half dozen balls in the air, and each must be perfectly coordinated so they don't all fall down.  Some of those balls are the actual cost of the sewer, the interest rate the Town can obtain on a loan or bonds, the number of properties included in the district, the availability of grants, and the willingness of district residents to form the district.  That last one will almost certainly be dependent on getting the price down.  And that depends on keeping every ball in the air, or at least a combination that will make the sewer affordable.

In an effort to track how well they are doing on price committee member Andy Sciarabba has been bringing a series of alternate financial plans showing the cost to district residents when different conditions are met.  Sciarabba says the goal is to keep the annual cost down to a manageable five to six hundred dollar range.

Price continues to be the top issue for the Lansing Sewer Committee.  But as people learn that sewer might be coming other questions are arising as well.  Sewer Committee member Noel Desch brought two questions from his Ladoga park neighborhood to Wednesday's meeting.

Why are we making it mandatory to hook up to sewer?

District landowners will be paying debt service and O&M (Operation and Maintenance) costs once the district is formed, so the only additional charge will be hooking up.  Desch said there is also a health issue that will put pressure on property owners to hook up when the time comes.  Lansing Engineering and Planning Coordinator Jeff Overstrom says that pressure may be out of the Town's hands when problems arise in private septic systems within the district.

"If the (Tompkins County) Health Department knows that public sewer is available, and there is any issue with a property owner's septic system, they have to connect," he said. 

Will tax assessments go up?

	Clarification from Jay Franklin: "Your "tax assessment" will increase with the installation of sewer - whether it's land/business/residential (not necessarily the property assessment) One has a $600-$800 EDU to pay - of course it is going up as that development will not make the town/fire/water taxes go away.  In my case the sewer EDU will be more than what I pay in town/fire/water taxes combined.  The installation of sewer may increase your property value, may decrease your property value or may do nothing at all.  At this point, I believe that is all I can say.  I don't want to say it won't do "something to your value" when I can see specific cases within this target area where it could do all 3 things."

Committee member Tom Jones said that his assessment did not change when he got municipal water, and he doesn't see why sewer would raise an property's assessment.  Later Wednesday Tompkins County Assessment Director Jay Franklin Wednesday confirmed that in a call with Committee member Andy Sciarabba.  Franklin said that sewer would raise the value of vacant land, but not existing homes and businesses.

One of the keys to getting the price down is having more EDUs (Equivalent Dwelling Units) in the district without significantly raising the cost to serve them.  EDUs pay for the sewer, so the more EDUs in the district, the less each one has to pay annually.  Two projects proposed for the Lansing Town Center could bring 190 units to the mix.

Over the past week or two the possibility of bringing the Cayuga Farms development into the district has also arisen.  That development was brought to the Planning Board in 2009 at which time the developers hoped to pay for a sewer trunk line down Triphammer Road to the Cayuga Heights treatment plant.  They were unable to get permission to do that.  Since then they have explored hooking into the Warren Road sewer project as well as reducing the number of buildings proposed to allow for small treatment plants on site.

Sewer committee members say that the least expensive option for the developer would be to run a trunk line north to join the new sewer project at Peruville Road.  But the number of units  the development would add to the district would put too much demand on the 150,000 gallons per day plant that is proposed, which would require expanding the capacity of the plant to allow for expansion over the next 20 years.  The Town will have to negotiate with the developers to see if this plan makes sense for both parties.  If so it would add 138 condominium units to the district.

The committee is still working on gathering questions that may be raised when they conduct public information meetings about the sewer so they can research the answers and have them ready.  They plan to present the project to the Planning Board at their June 29th meeting both to inform the board of the status of the project and to use the meeting as a trial run for public meetings that will be held soon after.

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