Ithaca Builds

Mapping, photos and information for Ithaca construction and development projects

Dryden South Project in Collegetown

June 14, 2014 // by Jason Henderson

Pat Kraft, the owner of Kraftees College Town has proposed a new building on the site at which the business resides, 205 Dryden Road at last month’s City Planning and Development Board meeting. The current structure is a remodeled wood-framed house, with a rear addition and storefront. The consulting architect, Jagat P. Sharma, has developed a concept sketch plan showing a six-story building, with a west side centered stairwell and elevator tower, ground floor commercial space, and symmetrical four-bedroom units (two per floor), for a total of 10 four bedroom apartments. The development is allowable due to the Collegetown re-zoning, which does not require minimum parking for MU-2 (Mixed-Use 2) parcels, which 205 Dryden Road was re-zoned to. Sketch plan submission here, with shots below:

Dryden-South-1

Dryden-South-2

Dryden-South-3

Dryden-South-4

Collegetown Re-Zoning (Full Document Here):
Proposed CAFD - Stand-Alone Map

City Discusses Future Zoning of Waterfront, Carpenter Business Park Area

December 12, 2013 // by James Douglas

At last night’s Planning and Economic Development committee meeting, council members took a look at an initial proposal for rezoning the land that includes Carpenter Business Park, that of Community Garden fame, as well as Aldi, Rick’s Rental World, and Palisade.

There are two main elements of the potential change. Firstly, the proposed WF-3 zone would scale back the allowable industrial activity from potentially heavy industrial uses (think chemical processing or manufacturing) to light industrial (think food processing), and secondly, residential units as part of mixed-use buildings between two and five stories would be permitted.

Despite Ithaca’s tight housing market, there was push-back from several council members who were not convinced that either housing would be appropriate (or even legally permissible) in proximity to the industrial facilities present near the land in question, or that the City should be zoning away its scarce industrial space.

With those concerns noted, the committee still unanimously approved that the proposal be circulated for review. It will be interesting to see what, if any, changes actually occur with the now mostly vacant land in Carpenter Business Park. There was a lot of talk during the community gardens discussion over the need for the City to think proactively about the desired uses of the land in question. We’ll get a better sense next month, after circulation and review, of how the City will proceed.

Here’s a map and memo for the proposed change.

City Proposed Re-Zoning May 2013

May 9, 2013 // by Jason Henderson

Proposed Re-zoning from Planning & Economic Development Committee Meeting on May 8th.  Proposal goes before Common Council on June 5th.

Parcels to note: Bottom of State Street we would have a new CBD-100 zone (proposed Hampton Inn project) where a municipal lot and mostly surface level parking currently exists, and a CBD-120 on the Trebloc Building parcel (currently housing the offices of Warren Real Estate and the Park Foundation, whom are moving into Seneca Way once completed).  The proposed CBD-140 stretches across the Harold Square project, the Green Street Parking Garage, and most of the Rothschild Building, and also westward across City Hall.  The proposed CBD-50 at Buffalo and Tioga Streets is the current First Niagara office (formerly HSBC, First Niagara bought all their upstate branches) and the County offices parking lot.  The other CBD-50 is the old County Library.

The CBD-85 stretches across the new re-development by John Guttridge for Life’s So Sweet, the Press Bay Alley and surface level parking for the former Ithaca Journal building.  And finally, the CBD-60’s all along the West State Street corridor coincides with the Downtown Ithaca Alliance’s (DIA) recommendation for further infill development along that thoroughfare, and would also entail an expansion of the CBD.