ITHACA, N.Y. — State regulations over historical preservation are behind a potential delay to the county’s proposed Center of Government facility. The 300 block of North Tioga Street will remain unchanged for the short-term future as Tompkins County officials navigate state preservation requirements.
Tompkins County Public Works Director Arel LeMaro presented the current timeline for the five-story, 55,000 square foot building to committee members at a meeting of the Downtown Facilities Special Committee on Tuesday. It is slated to house a multitude of county departments — including the Board of Elections, County Attorney, District Attorney and many more — which are currently spread throughout different county buildings in Ithaca.
Under the current plan, construction would not officially begin until Spring 2026, with completion slated for early 2028. The slow start and completion dates have been a sore point for several county legislators and officials.
Following the opening of the new building, the county would renovate the Old Jail, which currently houses the county attorney’s office and demolish the aging annex building, which currently houses the county’s board of elections and the assessment office.
Legislator Deborah Dawson said the timeline seemed too slow, urging more efficiency in the design phases. LeMaro said the current plan was “realistic” but said he hoped to accelerate the process once some of the preliminary hurdles are cleared.
LeMaro also said that because the building must suit the needs of multiple different county departments, it is important for designers to consult each department before the project can break ground — a process likely to consume a significant portion of time. Prior projects, he said, like the health department building, only necessitated catering to one department’s needs.
“I know that we can beat this schedule, but I don’t want to make promises and expectations that we’re going to occupy the building much sooner if that’s not the case,” LeMaro said.
One of the first steps of the process will be the removal of the Ithaca Professional Building and the Key Bank building to make way for the new facility — though the former’s doors have already been taken care of. County officials haven’t yet decided how exactly to navigate that process. The buildings, while not particularly historic themselves, are located in a historic district, which means their removal could involve preservation work.
If the buildings are removed too soon or without the requisite preservation, the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), which issues permits and subsidizes historical preservation statewide, notified county officials it would not be able to support future funding requests related to the Center of Government project.
County Planning and Sustainability Commissioner Katherine Borgella cautioned against moving too quickly: the State Historic Preservation Office will only weigh in on funding requests for changes in historic districts if the impacted buildings, which in this case are slated for removal, are still standing when the request is made.
Borgella also said the SHPO wants to see the county’s funding, designs and a final cost for the new building before they greenlight the demolition.
This means the county may need to settle on architecture/engineering firms for the project, choose a design and negotiate a final price for the project before it can move forward with any physical removal.
“If we take down the buildings, and we don’t need permits or money to do that, but then we do need permits or money to build the new building, that would be considered segmentation,” Borgella said. “SHPO then wouldn’t be able to sign off on the new building funding or permit question, because they wouldn’t have the chance to inventory or look closely at the two buildings.”
That information worried Legislator Rich John, who said county officials should pursue direct answers from the state to avoid lengthy bureaucratic delays.
“Having seen New York State sit on their hands with projects for years, we could be completely thrown off by this,” John said. “I believe in historic preservation, this isn’t it. This is just delay. And if we let New York State run this the way they typically run things, that [timeline] is just nonsense.”
Regardless of the potential obstacles of the state’s historic process, John said any legislation should express active intent for the removal of the buildings in its resolution so as to expedite the process once the state signs off.
Regardless of when the process actually begins, LeMaro said the deconstruction will take about six months to complete.
County Administrator Lisa Holmes said some of the internal work can begin soon, even with the red tape at the state level. She also expressed confidence that even with the increased urgency in the resolution, the county would be able to satisfy the state’s requirements.
The committee eventually approved the resolution with the amended language that the removal process will begin promptly, though the language of an actual start date was left vague while the deadline of removal completion remains February 2025.
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