ITHACA, N.Y. — It’s been a long-term goal of the village of Cayuga Heights to add some life to Community Corners. Developer Mark Mecenas would like to help with that.
According to the village’s 2014 Comprehensive Plan, the objective for Community Corners is to develop and implement plans for a “dynamic mixed‐use commercial and cultural center for the Village, and a continued defining element for the community.” In the same vein, Mecenas proposed concept plans in 2013 for a mixed-use redevelopment of Community Corners, infilling some of the extra parking with a mix of shops, offices and apartments. So perhaps this new proposal isn’t really new, but rather the product of long-brewing plans that Mecenas is finally ready to bring forward.
As proposed, the “Upland Heights” project (102-page application here) would consist of three buildings built in two phases on 6.07 acres of currently vacant land. The first phase would be a three-story building with twelve 600-1,690 square-foot commercial retail spaces on the ground level, and 26 one-bedroom and two-bedroom residential units above (the formal description of the provided plans from law firm Philips Lytle do not specify apartments or for-sale units, although the original February 2019 permit application form filed with Cayuga Heights does refer to them as condominiums). Phase two would add two, two-story buildings on the southern end of the site, with ten homes in each building, for a grand total of 46 market-rate units in the whole project, with a total of 95 parking spaces. In sum, it comes out to about 30,000 square feet of new construction.
The project is actually a reduced version of a concept plan first submitted to the village about a year ago. That plan called for four-story buildings and about double the apartment units, and it’s likely that consultations with village trustees and staff led to the reduction in size. The latest application notes that there have been extended discussions with the village already about “developing the site in a way that furthers the village’s long-term vision for the Community Corners area”.
That early discussion is especially crucial because while the Comprehensive Plan for Cayuga Heights calls for a mixed-use Community Corners, the zoning isn’t there yet. To accommodate the mixed commercial and residential uses, the development team is seeking permission to establish a “Planned Development Zone” for the six-acre parcel, with a density waiver since PDZs in the village only allow two housing units per parcel. The PDZ would also allow for some adjustments to yard setbacks and a two-foot zoning variance, allowing the three-story to be 37 feet instead of 35 feet.
The plan also notes that about 0.128 acres of 0.6 acres of emergent wetland (created by runoff from the neighboring buildings) would be impacted, and any wetland impact over 0.1 acres must be mitigated per state law. The development team is proposing to pay to have the 0.128 acres created somewhere else in the Cayuga Lake watershed, to meet and be reviewed by the U.S, Army Corps of Engineers, though the Corps would be willing to review other ideas if the village wishes to offer an acceptable alternative.
On the utilities side, the village infrastructure is capable of servicing the new addition with water and sewer, and the project will use electric heat pumps and install on-site solar panels. The project also plans to utilize LED lighting, high-efficiency appliances, low-flow plumbing fixtures, and other more environmentally sustainable features, though it comes with the “where possible and practical” disclaimer.
A project like this is far from breaking ground. It not only has to go through the village’s planning board for the usual environmental review, but the village Board of Trustees for review and potential approval of a PDZ. Review will likely take several months.
Along with Mecenas is a co-developer, identified in the documents as “109 South Quarry Street LLC”, an address shared with one of the buildings at John Novarr’s Collegetown Terrace development (update: in an email, Mecenas explained he is sole developer; he sold 109 South Quarry Street to Novarr years ago, but still uses “109 South Quarry Street/Ithaca LLC” for business purposes). Ithaca’s T.G. Miller P.C. is listed as the project engineer, and Hamel Architects PLLC of Aurora as the architect for the buildings.