Archive: Opinions

EditorialI was blown away Tuesday when architects showed a picture of the strip of 34B looking from the Town Community Center to Rogues Harbor Inn as it is today and then a picture of how it could look with a sidewalk, some greenery, and trees.  A relatively small project could transform the strip of street from a drab roadway to an inviting community walking area that joins two important pieces of Lansing.  Wow, a picture really IS worth a thousand words.

You really had to be there.  The architects did this three times.  The first time you saw the 'before' picture, familiar and drab.  The 'after' picture was a 'wow' moment, not just because it showed the familiar in a new, highly attractive light, but because of the dawning realization that it wouldn't take much to make that significant transformation.  The other two times reinforced that realization and the 'wow' factor wasn't diminished by repetition.  We could have the beginnings of a town center soon, with the wider plan developing over the next few decades as funding opportunities arise.

And the plan would provide encouragement for developers to expand housing in a way that will encourage the kind of commercial growth that residents really want.  That commercial growth is what the Town really needs, because it provides taxes that relieves the burden on homeowners.  If you don't believe that, look at the devastating impact the renegotiation of the AES Cayuga assessment will have on our school taxes this summer and in the coming years.  So a plan built with community consensus insures that the growth is palatable, or even desirable to existing residents and taxpayers.

It was too bad that Tuesday's presentation only attracted less than 20 residents.  Those Lansingites got to see not only what a town center could be like, but realistically how one could happen.  The idea is to take baby steps, but to choose those steps carefully to cost the least but have the most impact.

Over the years I have heard strong arguments on both sides of the growth issue.  One view is that the current character of the town is what attracted all of us to come or stay here, and it should not be changed much or at all.  Cluster housing would bring infrastructure costs, burden the schools with more students in a time frame that the school district couldn't keep up with, and destroy the rural feeling of the town.  The other view simply says that growth is going to happen whether we like it or not, so we should plan beforehand to make sure that when it does happen it is done in a way that current residents want.

For myself, I just wanted the Sure-Fine back.  I loved having a local grocery store.  It wasn't the best grocery store with the best prices or produce, but it was ours.  It was convenient.  And it said 'this is a community.  We have a store.'

Talk of a town center was more ambitious than that, but it captured my imagination.  I do believe that the only way to save the character of the town is to plan for growth -- it just makes sense to me.  But when Town Supervisor Scott Pinney explained that his vision for an actual town center spanned decades I despaired of ever getting my grocery store back.  I figured I'd be dead or in 'the home' before I ever saw anything resembling a town center.

After Tuesday's meeting I'm not so sure.  Each baby step comes a little closer to getting developers and business owners interested in participating in the plan.  I probably WILL be dead or in the home before we have an actual full-fledged town center.  But this presentation showed how the town could, with relatively little investment, show those people that there is commitment to the idea of a town center.  That might be enough to attract a grocery.  Or a drug store, or a doctor.  It is a productive first step.  And by that time 'the home' could be located in the town center.

Those before and after pictures made me believe that a town center could actually be a reality, and not just a local political football to be tossed around with no actual action.  The public meetings themselves were a kind of 'before and after.'  In the January meeting architects and committee members asked for ideas from the public, and more than 60 suggestions came out of that meeting.  I was taken aback at how the majority of those ideas ended up in the tentative plan that was presented this week.  It was a true visual of how the community's desires and needs could be realized in future building.

Whether or not anything actually happens remains to be seen, but the seeds of a plan that were revealed Tuesday were very encouraging.  Some of the ideas reflected the rural character of our community better than the current layout does.  The plan encourages growth in a way that will attract the kind of businesses residents say they want here, and that will help with taxes -- especially important now because the Town's biggest taxpayer has been so devalued in such a short period of time.

Community members are starting to show some excitement, especially since the committee began working in earnest a few months ago.  Town Center Committee Chair Kathy Miller talked about past efforts at planning versus the current one, perhaps summing up the momentum she sees for a planned Lansing future:

"The bottom line is, what is the vision, and where do we start?" she said.  "After people hearing about the '2010 Plan' they're going 'oh yeah, this is pie in the sky.  Nothing's going to happen.  By God, something's going to happen!"

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