Archive: Opinions

EditorialWhen you drive into the village center in Cayuga Heights you know you are in a village.  Buildings are grouped attractively.  The police station is nestled among stores, and there is plenty of free parking.  It has the look and feel of a village square, attractive and welcoming.  The Lansings don't have that kind of visual cohesiveness, and it is interesting to hear Town and Village officials talk about how to define their municipalities' identities.

In the Village, the Triphammer Road project has gone a long way toward defining an identity.  While it is still a long business strip, the sidewalks, bicycle paths, charming street lights and planned foliage and signage give what is arguably a village center focus.  Village officials are pleased that the new sidewalks are being used regularly.  A walking community certainly makes a center... well... a center.

The Town has a long history of resisting planning and zoning, but the current board has shown a remarkable turnaround.  And they should be encouraged in this.  The former Code Enforcement department is now a planning department, with a planner on the payroll.  The Town Board is working with the county legislature to attempt to meet affordable housing needs in a way that looks remarkably like planning.  If they can swing it new development will converge on the town center, the area along Ridge Road where the Town Hall and ball fields are, from Peruville to Drake Roads, and a mile north and south of that, give or take.

Home development would attract business development, and what has been a ragtag assortment of shops and businesses could turn into a walking community with a well defined center.  Critics of development say that more building will desecrate the rural character of the town.  But Town officials say that development is coming anyway, so making it happen in a way that allows residents to define it's character makes sense.  And while there is still no unified plan, the pieces seem to be falling into place as officials move to protect farm lands in the north of town, and hope to create a community in the center of Lansing, instead of developing "Village North" which would be good for businesses there, but would not encourage a grocery store, medical offices, or other shops and services in the Town.

With pressure from the County to encourage affordable housing in Lansing and new development bursting around the landscape like Spring flowers, the argument that growth will happen no matter what seems accurate.  More than a hundred homes are already in various stages of planning or development in the Town, and the indicators seem to be that will increase with so many workers commuting into Tompkins County from the surrounding areas.

Tompkins County is a desirable place to live, so more people are inevitably going to desire to live here.  They'll have to go somewhere.  Planning is the best way to insure that when they do the nature of the community that attracted them in the first place isn't destroyed.  This is something that everyone in Lansing should be able to get behind.  If they do, the community will truly define itself.

----
v3i12