ITHACA, N.Y. — The developers of a 400-unit mixed-use development planned for West Hill will delay plans for a few months after community members turned out in large numbers to express concern about the project.Many fear the project will significantly decrease the neighborhood’s existing green space, cause more traffic and fundamentally change the community.Some residents also said they felt left out of the initial design process for the project, which the development firm first pitched to the Town of Ithaca mid-August. The development as planned will include apartment buildings, over 50 newly constructed single-family homes, townhouses and commercial spaces. Rochester-based developer Conifer Realty said the project will include affordable housing options.While the project is in the early stages of design, homeowners and planning officials from the town were invited to view preliminary designs and give recommendations before the firm advances with the town’s extensive application process. The town’s zoning laws require developers to engage the public by organizing an open house-style meeting before submitting an application to begin construction to the planning board. At the initial open house event in August, employees from Conifer and HOLT architects, the Ithaca-based firm designing the project, did their best to accommodate discontented attendees packed shoulder to shoulder in a small and sweltering room. West Hill resident Erica Dawson was among many attendees who said they felt left out of the initial design process and were put off by the mailers the firm sent out. “We found out about it with all the pictures already rendered,” Dawson said. “I think they made some critical missteps.” Through email lists and various neighborly conversations, Dawson said that in general, the neighbors are on the same page — “If we say no and simply object to the corporate greed, if we start yelling, we are out of the conversation.” “If we can engage thoughtfully and come up with alternative plans, maybe we can make [the development] less dense and have a say in it,” Dawson said. “There’s a possibility we could add value to this.” Conifer’s Senior Vice President Kevin Day and his team came equipped with dozens of poster boards with detailed imagery outlining their initial thoughts for the development. The same renderings were presented to the town’s planning board on Aug. 15, several days prior. “This is the very beginning of the discussion,” Day said at the August meeting. “There is no plan yet,” Day said. Day told The Ithaca Voice after the open house that residents had “legitimate concerns” that warranted the firm to “slow down the process for a little more dialogue [to work out] some of these things.” Currently, the firm is proposing building “up to” 400 units on the approximately 50 acres of land, which would include 25 single family homes, 35 townhouses, 15 small apartment buildings and two larger apartment complexes intended for senior housing and commercial spaces on the first story. Renderings also include a bus stop and community trail, with access to a community garden and 22 acres of park space on the north portion of the property. Day explained that, above all, the firm’s goal was to build a “traditional neighborhood” aligned with the existing community and residents’ needs, in accordance with the town’s “New Neighborhood Code,” which the planning board approved in 2020. The plan sets guidelines for new development to emphasize walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods, where homes and businesses coexist in walkable areas linked by smaller roads with a traditional street grid, similar to Ithaca’s Fall Creek neighborhood. Town of Ithaca Director of Planning C.J. Randall said that developers are not technically required to send out information before the open house — but town officials “insisted” the firm do so to “make sure people were engaged in the process early on.” The firm was receptive to the town’s direction, Randall noted, using a template for the mailer that the town’s planning department had designed.Randall said it was “rare” for zoning codes to require a development team to notify and involve the public to the degree that the Town of Ithaca requires. “But developers don’t live here,” Randall said. “There’s things people know about places simply by virtue of living there and being there.” Randall said residents have experience with things like storm water drainage issues after heavy rains, the hours when traffic’s at its worst and problematic intersections.The next open house was originally scheduled to be held Sept. 26 but was postponed a week before the event. It has yet to be rescheduled. The new project is not Conifer’s first in the Ithaca area. Conifer acquired 50 acres of what was then farmland on Route 79 and Mecklenburg Road in 1999. Many attendees at the August open house have owned homes in the adjacent area well before the firm purchased the swath of land. Throughout the 2000s, Conifer developed adjacent areas of the site, including the 128-unit Linderman Creek Apartments and the 72-unit Conifer Village Senior Apartments, where the open house was held. The post Developers delay 400-unit West Hill project after neighbors’ criticism appeared first on The Ithaca Voice.First published by The Ithaca Voice.