At last Wednesday’s Rose Cafe, I got to listen to Lisa Nicholas, Regional Planner for the city of Ithaca, speak to us about some of the local projects going on in the greater Ithaca area. She addressed how a majority of the development projects going on right now are made to benefit the majority of Ithaca’s populations — as of right now, the county of Ithaca has grown 30% in population since the 1950s, with many people coming to study as well as commute to work. As a result of this growth, the planning for the city has to accomodate this rising population while embracing the existing character of the neighborhood, which I found to be sweet. The small and quirky neighborhood in Ithaca is just what drew me to come to school here; if it changed to accomodate more people by basically becoming another metropolis, it would’nt have the same magic.

Nicholas introduced the concept of compact mixed use developments, which would be used to attract larger populations, building more dense development, as well as accomodate the local population already existing. She showed us some of the areas and projects that the committee intended to focus on in the following few years, such as building compact development in the rural Southwest area of Ithaca where Wegmans currently is, and the arrival of two new hotels in the Downtown Ithaca area near the Commons.

One particularly interesting part of her talk about future developments was an 11 story development for Downtown Ithaca that was planned for student housing. This project was eventually shut down by the community, as it was believed that the complex would be too imposing on the downtown architecture. While I agree that it would have not been the right place for student housing, it got me thinking that maybe there could be another conversation to discuss where exactly more student housing is needed. Cornell campus barely has enough campus housing for half of its students and it has proven to be fairly difficult to secure a place off campus. Perhaps a smaller residence downtown or in Cayuga Heights would be beneficial to students. In addition, I liked Nicholas’s point that there needs to be more places in Ithaca accessible by bike, foot, or bus, as it can be difficult for many students without cars to get where they need to go off campus.