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Development and municipal services were at the top of the agenda in the first joint meeting of the Town and Village of Lansing boards since 2006.  The Lansing Town Board and Village of Lansing Trustees met Monday to talk about what the two municipalities can do to increase services and reduce costs.  Aligning zoning in the area where the southern part of the Town meets the northern end of the Village was also discussed.

Town sewer plans were discussed, largely because existing town sewer districts transmit effluent via village infrastructure to the Cayuga Heights Sewer Plant.  Even if the new town sewer plant is passed by the voters, some town sewage will continue to go to the Cayuga Heights plant, which has indicated an interest to town officials in handling more.  Town Planner Jonathan Kanter said that developments currently being planned include a solar array north of the Ithaca-Tompkins Regional Airport, Village Circle and Village Solars projects in the Warren Road sewer district, and Cayuga Farms, a large townhouse project planned for a parcel south of Asbury Road.

Town Councilman Robert Cree asked about plans for the northern portion of the village.  Mayor Donald Hartill said that zoned uses in the Village are not changing.  The Village has used up its high traffic commercial areas, and is considering the future of low traffic commercial zones.  The largest available parcel of land along Triphammer Road is Sundowns Farm, which Hartill said will be residential if it is ever developed.

Hartill also noted that Craft Road will connect Triphammer and Warren Roads.  It will be the third path connecting those roads, including Route 13.  The connection will be made when a road that goes through the Lansing Trails II project is paved later this year.

"Our intention is to keep the paths crooked enough to discourage speeding," Hartill said.

Hartill asked Town officials what the Village can do to get more benefit from its taxes.  He said the Village provides its own benefits except justice, dog control and the library.  In 2009 the Village began plowing its own roads after a dispute with the Town on the cost of plowing the Village's 17.2 miles of roads.  Village officials balked at what would have been about a $45,000 rise in plowing costs that winter.

The dispute caused much friction, prompting Hartill to claim that village taxpayers were paying the Town of Lansing $700,000 per year, but only receiving $100,000 in services from the Town.  At that time he said he was exploring all options up to and including seceding from the township.  But Town Supervisor Scott Pinney countered that villagers and townspeople alike would pay less while maintaining the level of services if the municipalities merged.

Town Supervisor Kathy Miller had a different take on it at Monday's meeting.  She said she had called some other towns that have villages within their borders, and that she has already talked with the Town Highway Superintendent about plowing and other services.

"It depends who is sitting in the Supervisor's seat," she said.  "I've asked a number of towns what they do for their villages, including Marcellus which has five villages.  They do a lot.  They do a lot of the things that, quite frankly, you are doing for your own village.  I think this is another conversation in which we can hack out some equity.  I think when you do consolidate these services you get a better product."

Much discussion about sharing services followed.

"I think we should have a joint conversation early in budget process," Hartill said.


Both municipalities' Planning Board Chairmen talked about concerns about the Lansings growing into suburbs of Ithaca and plans to control growth.

"Zoning needs to change drastically if this node is important to the Village and Town, said Town Planning Board Chairman Tom Ellis.  "It needs to be addressed in the comprehensive plan or Ithaca and Cornell are going to consume us."

Village Planning Board Chairman Mario Tomei said the Village is very interested in the Town's plans for a Town Center.  Tomei said a town center would provide some relief for commercial and professional uses in the Village.

"You have a more open easel for a campus here," he said.  "You're going to be building a town center, probably before we see a village center.  The medical people are moving up here.  Some of the better housing is moving to this side of the lake.  So what you build is going to influence our plans, because you go through the Village to get to the Town."


Town Councilman Ed LaVigne said he hopes some of that commercial and professional load will come to the Town Center.

"It will come by itself," he said.  "Otherwise the Village will become the bottle neck.  Everything will trickle through the Village at a painstaking pace.  You have reached the limit to how much you can expand roads, so it wouldn't be feasible to create another artery.  Then you have stagnation, and then implosion and people go elsewhere.  So we have a vested interest in working together on this because our survival and prosperity and yours are linked."

Miller agreed, saying the Town Center will be more convenient for townspeople who live further out as well as those in the central South Lansing area.

"The whole idea of nodal development is not to have a gazillion cars all heading down to the mall or Ithaca, at least for the things you need on an every day basis," she said.  "I hope that's what we're thinking about in our development because it will cut down on CO2 emissions."

Both boards agreed that they would like to hold future joint meetings to work on taxation and shared services issues, as well as possible joint planning board meetings.

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