![]() “The rent that Cornell wanted us to keep is the number one priority, and that in conjunction with our investment return dictates how the development lays out. “There’s an investment criteria that EdR has to maintain on all its projects in order to get approval from our board of directors, so we have these criteria that go into every deal, and the rent constraint is the number one driver on the project,” says Jeffrey Resetco, Vice-President of Real Estate Development at EdR. In the end, the site plan question becomes a matter of financial wiggle room. The preferred plan is preferred because that where Cornell’s rent goal and EdR’s investment criteria align. Try too hard to have it both ways and EdR will back out, and if Cornell doesn’t want to spend the money (which they clearly don’t, or we wouldn’t be talking about EdR), there will be no new housing or tax dollars – lose-lose. If you want more tax revenue for schools and services, you’ll acquiesce to the larger buildings and denser site. This can actually be looked at as a set of pros and cons – if you want a smaller project, then you’d want Cornell to use its own money to build Maplewood, but they definitely wouldn’t pay taxes on it. For all the folks who demand Cornell be taxed, this should be music to their ears – it’s a hybrid private-public dorm project that pays taxes. Maplewood’s $1.5 Million QuestionĪt several points in the the Maplewood EIS, one of the project benefits mentioned is an additional $1.5 million in tax money for the town, county and school district. And that means the project will be taxed. It should be very clearly noted that while Cornell owns the land, EdR will own the improvements – i.e. Our question of site plans has evolved into one of finances. Yes, you did just see a reference to “return on investment”. The other is that the developer wouldn’t achieve their return on investment, so they’d have to raise the rents on the units. One is that less housing here would force students into energy-inefficient, sub-standard housing elsewhere. The reasons for not going with the alternative were a bit vague in the DEIS. ![]() So, the first question that we came up with was, why didn’t the project team spare themselves from the kvetching and just go with that? This plan would address a lot of the aesthetic and density concerns of neighbors, who feel that the buildings are too large or that there would be too many graduate students on the site. The designs are still boxy and modern, in tempo with the rest of Cornell’s modern-looking new builds, but there are fewer units. The alternative plan shown above is designed with more townhomes and shorter buildings, with different architectural forms designed to minimize their appearance, such as recessed spaces and smaller “hyphen” connections between buildings. The Preferred Plan is the one we’ve already written about in detail. Technically, there’s also a state-required “no action” plan for not doing anything at all, and a “development under current zoning” plan can be quickly written off because the town’s 2014 Comprehensive Plan no longer matches the zoning. When preparing the EIS, the project team was asked by the town to prepare multiple site plans – the “Preferred Plan”, which is the one they want to go with and which is covered by most of the document, and a smaller alternative, the “Reduced-Scale Plan”. We asked around, and we’re detailing those below. However, there were a couple of things that a little more confusing. If you have a question about why build housing, why at Maplewood Park, or what sustainable features there will be, your answer has been prepared. We sat down and read through the document, and most of it is self-explanatory. Fortunately, the town of Ithaca’s planning department broke it down into smaller sections that aren’t password protected. The outline, known as as the scoping document, was approved, and now we’re on the next stage – Cornell and EdR have submitted their rough draft of the EIS, and the town has to determined if it’s encompassing and easy enough to understand that it can be shared with the public.įor the heck of it, if you want to look at the full draft EIS in its 547-page glory, there’s a copy here, but you need login credentials. The sketch plan has been modified based on initial feedback, the project has been determined to have potentially large impacts on the area, and an EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) was deemed necessary. We’ve seen the sketch plan, and the town has held the initial meetings in the approvals process for Cornell’s $80 million Maplewood Park redevelopment. Some of which require a little more digging than others. You have questions about the Maplewood Park redevelopment.
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