Cornell and the City of Ithaca have jointly hired Goody Clancy, an urban planning firm, to develop an urban plan and design guidelines for Collegetown. Their goal is to create a “clearly defined set of parameters which embody the community’s vision.”
Last month, four consultants spent two days meeting with various stakeholders in the Collegetown design process, including students, merchants, property owners, permanent residents, and Cornell administrators. This weekend, the consultants hosted an educational workshop and a design session to identify the ongoing problems in the area and to brainstorm ideas for improving them.
One area of focus for the consultants is the streetscape in Collegetown. The sidewalks in the area are too narrow to accommodate the volume of pedestrian traffic at many hours of the day and night. Additionally, the sidewalks are too narrow to provide space for trees, benches and streetlights which would improve the visual quality and safety of the area. Poorly maintained sidewalks are also hazardous for pedestrians during the winter months, especially on steep streets such as Williams and Cook.
Housing is another area of focus. The economic advisor on the team, Sarah Woodworth, highlighted the extent to which rental prices in Collegetown are inflated and offered a number of suggestions for decreasing them. Her ideas would alleviate the barriers to construction, such increasing the height of apartment buildings by two stories and decreasing the amount of required parking.
Decreasing the amount of required parking would also provide an incentive for property owners to improve and expand existing housing. The “backyards” in the core of Collegetown are often paved to meet the current parking requirements. By altering the parking requirements, property owners would be encouraged to expand houses with the explicit understanding that any expansion would be accompanied by an improvement in existing houses. Alternatively, property owners may choose to remove parking spaces in favor of providing tenants with a green backyard.
With parking a common concern for students and business owners alike, the consultant team also includes a transportation specialist, Jason Schreiber. Although the TCAT has an extensive system of bus routes, one student participating in the design charrette explained that several routes do not align with students’ schedules. A reprioritization of routes, as well as the addition of another bus stop along College Ave., may help to diminish students’ reliance on cars. Additionally, the creation of a parking lot well outside the bounds of Collegetown would provide an inexpensive alternative for students, especially for those students who only use their cars for weekend travel or for a weekly trip to Wegmans.
Another area of focus is retail business. The consultants emphasized that a one-hundred foot gap in activity along a street decreases the success of retail businesses along the street. For example, consider the parking lot adjacent to 312 College Ave. and the firehouse. Retail activity thrives on the north end of these locations, yet it is nearly nonexistent on the south end. Both the parking lot and the firehouse provide enough of a gap in activity to create an additional barrier to the success of businesses towards the south end of College Ave. If these spaces were occupied with thriving businesses instead of a “dead” area, the business core would have the opportunity to expand along College Ave., providing students and residents with more products and services.
Sheldon Court has a similar effect on the 400 block of College Ave. The side of the street occupied by Sheldon Court has substantially less pedestrian traffic than the opposite side occupied by a row of thriving businesses. While the City would like to fill the ground floor of Sheldon Court with a retail business to generate more pedestrian traffic and to ensure activity in the core of Collegetown, I believe that transforming the space into a community center for Collegetown students would achieve the same goal.
Daniel Budish and Jeannine Altavilla, two Art, Architecture, and Planning students, created a proposal for a Collegetown community center that would include a fitness center, an open lounge, an outdoor patio, a study room, a computer lab, a recreation room, and a welcome center for Cornell and the City of Ithaca. While their vision extends beyond the physical limitations of Sheldon Court, any of their ideas would enhance the ground floor of the building.
Transforming this space into an active and vibrant hub for students has benefits for students, for Cornell, and for the City of Ithaca. Students who live in Collegetown would benefit from greater availability and accessibility of services. Cornell would benefit by revitalizing an otherwise empty facility and improving the daily lives of their students. With a majority of undergraduate students living off-campus for as many as three years, students’ experiences off-campus have a substantial effect on their overall college experience. Finally, the City would benefit from increased activity in the area and from a corresponding increase in sales tax revenue as students spend more time and money off-campus instead of on-campus.
After this weekend’s meetings, I am confident that the findings and suggestions of the consultants will be valuable for the future of Collegetown. However, in the end, each of the stakeholders must remain committed to revitalizing the area for the process to have been worthwhile.
Kate Duch is a student-elected trustee. She can be contacted at khd5@cornell.edu. Trustee Viewpoint appears alternate Wednesdays this semester.