Lansing apartment proposal stalls again over density concerns

A proposal for an apartment complex in the village of Lansing that has made the rounds with local government officials for years has stalled yet again.

The apartment complex, with a mixed-use retail space component, would see the reoutfitting of a former factory in the village on Bomax Drive. The project, which was discussed at the village board meeting on Aug. 18., has fluctuated in scope. The latest proposal, from Aug. 18, featured plans for a complex of 144 one-bedroom apartments. That is a significant adjustment from previous proposals of more than 250 units. 

The Ithaca Voice reported in August that the project has been proposed several times in the past few years but has struggled to gain traction with members of the village board. 

The meeting on Aug. 18 was attended by architect Aleksandr Mergold and project engineer Jamie Gensel. Mergold said one of the key issues the project has faced is the number of apartments. He acknowledged that the number of units at the complex will likely be consolidated into a smaller overall total as some of the one-bedroom apartments are combined into two or three-bedroom units. 

“We heard that there are several issues with this,” Mergold said. “First of all, there’s density, but there’s also this idea that, on the one hand, the village is interested in preserving or reusing radically this building.  On the other hand, the nature of the proposed architecture … is not what the village necessarily wants to see.”

Mergold said the retooled proposal calls for three-story buildings with apartments, with “private gardens” on the inside, as well as courtyards and playgrounds. The development would also feature several outdoor amenities to be used for recreational activities like sports, a swimming pool, a dog park and multipurpose green areas. 

“We haven’t really had a chance to develop the floor plans fully because we just wanted to kind of test out this idea with you,” Mergold noted. “This type of design is not new. This is the kind of stuff that they do in Europe, especially in rural towns in the north, mostly Belgium.”

Mergold said that the project works in harmony with tenets of the village’s comprehensive plan that call for building more housing at a larger scale.

Mergold also noted the project’s developers first wanted to “get buy-in” from the village government before moving forward with more detailed plans for the buildings.

“We have been here so many times, right?” he noted. “It sort of feels important to kind of get a buy-in from you guys.”

Board member Kathleen Yen said that she likes the idea of being able to reuse the current structure at 20 Bomax Dr.

“The reuse of the existing footprint does align with the comprehensive plan and with the code. Again, the details would have to be worked out with the planning board in terms of increasing buffer setback or anything like that, and the conditions and the engineering and all of that,” Yen said. “So that’s a planning board issue.”

But other members of the village board and zoning officials say that the project’s scale may still be too big for their liking.

Deputy Mayor Carolyn Greenwald said that the highest number of housing units allowed by zoning law in the town is right above 100. The high-density residential zoning sector in the village allows for a minimum of 6,000 square feet of lot area per unit. The town’s planned development area (PDA) would allow the project to go over its allotted number of units by 25%; even then, Greenwald said, the number of proposed apartments is too high.

“I think aesthetically it looks very creative and very appealing so far. But we still have a major, major stumbling block that we just should start with every time, which is density,” Greenwald said. “The PDA allows for 25% over the zoning. Even if we gave it the most generous interpretation, the number of units is the most critical factor.”