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mailmanAn article on the 'Rising Student Population' in the October 13 issue of the Lansing Star rings an unheeded alarm for the Town of Lansing:

"Last school year we ended at 1,164 students," said Lansing School Superintendent Chris Pettograsso at Tuesday's Board Of Education meeting. "Right now we're at 1,194, so we're up 30 students in a year. It doesn't seem significant, but it is. We only see that going up every year as we move forward."

Tompkins County created the 'Development Focus Area' concept to legitimize high-density housing in the rural town of Lansing. The Lansing Comp Plan's job is to ratify it.

Lansing's Comp Plan works to turn a limited telephone survey into a guide, then a mandate, and finally into a fait accompli. If the land is zoned for high density development, it can never be refused or halted.

That is why the Lansing Comp Plan never modeled the impact that thousands of new rental units would have on the same 'rural character' its survey listed as the #1 reason for living in Lansing. And that is why it still refuses to project the number of new students that will be moving into our school district and how that will affect our taxes.

While Lansing's planners present the absurd notion of a rural community with an urban core as the future of our town, other communities have a more practical plan. By leap-frogging their urban housing problems miles north to the town of Lansing, Ithaca can achieve lower school district taxes, attract new businesses, and keep the 'historic character' of their own city intact.

We see Lansing as a community, the County sees Lansing as a land use — Isn't it time we took the Lansing Comprehensive Plan back into our own hands.

Sincerely
Doug Baird
Lansing, NY
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