The Village of Lansing Board of Trustees extended building permit deadlines Monday by 120 days, despite the Planning Board's recommendation that the extension only be granted for 90 days.  Planning Board members said at their June 30th meeting that they would not be comfortable granting more than three months, influenced, in part, by their irritation with developer Arrowhead Ventures' Lansing Meadows project and its decade long history of changes to its Planned Development Area (PDA).  But the decision fell in the jurisdiction of the Trustees, who opted for the maximum allowed extension.

"The proposal is to increase that to 120 days from the initial conception," said Mayor Donald Hartill. "I got a note from Lisa (Planning Board Chair Lisa Schleelein) saying that the Planning Board had only approved 90 days, but the 120 days is much more of a standard. So I would urge that we have the 120 day extension discussion."

The Lansing Meadows senior housing project was included as a condition of the PDA allowing the construction of BJ's Wholesale Club, which was done in 2012.  The original plan was for a cottage-style rental community for tenants 55 and older.  The original plan included a bird sanctuary, wetlands, and walking paths.  The project would provide a walkable community near shopping for seniors, and act as a buffer between high traffic and residential areas of the Village.  Over the next several years the plan changed multiple times, in part delayed by negotiations on relocating some of the wetlands between the developer and the Army Corps of Engineers.

In April of 2018, the Planning Board decided to impose a start date of July 31st as a condition of the special permit, with July 31, 2020 the agreed-upon completion date, to insure that the project would be built as proposed.  They officially approved what they thought would be a final site plan at the end of July, 2018.  Since that time the developers returned with more changes, which finally resulted in a plan for six tri-plex buildings.

Last year the Planning Board approved a plan for four of the buildings to be completed by the July 21, 2020 deadline with a stipulation that all six would be completed by the end of 2020.  Scheelein says that so far the exteriors of four of the six buildings are nearly complete, but little interior work has been finished.

Governor Andrew Cuomo signed New York Senate Bill 8236A into law on June 17th.  The new law, set to expire December 31, 2021, permits local governments to pass a single resolution to "extend for a period of up to 120  days beyond the stated expiration date:

1. building permits issued before March 7, 2020; and
2. local  zoning  boards  of appeals and local planning boards active approvals issued before March 7, 2020."

The multiple changes over nearly a decade resulted in bad blood between the Planning Board and the developer, and board members were not feeling generous when they discussed granting an extension at the end of last month.  Code Enforcement Officer Michael Scott explained that the COVID-19 lockdown had created delays for contractors in getting building materials, and that it was difficult to get workers to the building site.  Schleelein said that they had only lost two months due to the pandemic.

"Honestly until the middle of March, it was business as usual, pretty much.  So it isn't a whole lot more, in my mind, than two months, frankly," she said

Planning Board members Carolyn Greenwald and Jim McCauley said they favored 90 days, in part because of another pending project in the Village.  All the Planning Board members agreed that there should be one extension length granted to all contractors to make it fair.  That led to a recommendation to the Board of Trustees to extend permits by 90 days.  But Hartill proposed the full 120 days, and the other Trustees concurred.

"I tend to agree because if we do 90 days, there's a very good chance we might have to come back and extend it again for an extra 30," said Deputy Mayor Ronny Hardaway. "And we don't know what's going to happen in the future with any type of reopenings if they have to shut us down again and add more extensions. So I would say, let's go ahead and go for the full 120 days. It just gives everybody that extra cushion, because there is so much up in the air."

They passed the resolution 4-0.

Last March the developer asked for a new change to the PDA that would allow him to subdivide the property in order to make the units for sale, rather than for rent.  The Planning Board seemed receptive to the idea, but was concerned that if the Tompkins County Industrial Development Agency (IDA), which had granted incentives to the project, might take back money they had advanced if they didn't agree, which Planning Board members feared would result in the project would be under-funded, with the result that they would never get their senior community.

"In general the Planning Board supports home-ownership in the Village as it provides stability and often leads to greater involvement in the community," Scheelein says. "That said, the original approval for the project by the Village PDA and by the IDA did not include provisions to sell the senior housing. While the PB could consider amending the PDA to allow sales of the units and our PDA with Eric Goetzmann is independent of his agreement with the IDA, as part of the County I would recommend that the PB defer to the IDA's decision on this matter. It is important to remember that any change to the PDA must ultimately be approved by the Village Trustees as it is a zoning change."  

The IDA had concurred with the Village construction completment deadlines, but the IDA did not agree with the plan to sell the units. But they were willing to hear Arrowhead Ventures' Eric Goetzmann's argument for the plan.  IDA members requested specific financial information from Arrowhead Ventures' Eric Goetzmann to support the new plan, but further negotiations were delayed by the coronavirus.

IDA members briefly discussed the project at their meeting Wednesday.  IDA Administrative Director Heather McDaniel said that she and IDA attorney Russell Gaenzle had had a productive call with Goetzmann earlier in the day, and had reiterated the request for information, assuring the developer that his financial information would not be subject to FOIL. 

"The good news is that he's working towards completing 12 of the 18 units over there," said McDaniel. "He's been waylaid a little bit due to COVID, but they are progressing and he is hoping to provide a little bit of information and background to the IDA at the August meeting."

IDA Chairman Rich John was optimistic about the project in general.

"It is good to see the construction is actually underway. And my view is that I think while we've set a pretty clear deadline, none of us anticipated the pandemic and it has been a real challenge for development. So extending that time period, to some extent, I think makes sense, given that we are seeing some progress."

Gaenzle recommended not talking about Lansing Meadows in a public meeting, presumably because negotiations are ongoing.  The outcome is that at this point in time the units will be for rent, and the original deadlines have been extended by 120 days.

"My assumption is that all deadlines for any Special Permit projects in the Village open as of early March will be granted a 120-day extension," Scheelein says. "The original conditions, if any, imposed by the Special Permits, however, would not change unless formally amended by the PB following the Special Permit amendment process."

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