The City of Ithaca Planning and Development Board held a public hearing yesterday at City Hall to hear concerns over the proposed plan for Collegetown. The plan, known as Part One of the 2009 Collegetown Urban Plan and Conceptual Design Guidelines, proposes a number of revisions to the current zoning of Collegetown, including raising height limits in central districts, improving access and the price of parking and increasing mixed-use development. In addition, there are a number of proposed changes to the maximum heights in some of Collegetown’s residential districts. These plans have been met with criticism from a number of members of the Ithaca community.

As part of their continued effort to develop Collegetown, Student Assembly members created the Cornell Collegetown Committee yesterday during their weekly meeting at the Straight.

The resolution, which is sponsored by Chris Basil ’10, executive vice president, and Allen Miller ’10, Greek Liaison. calls for an ad-hoc committee will include three members of the S.A., two members of the Greek tri-council, one member of Campus Life and four members from the Cornell or Collegetown community.

Since 97 percent of residents living in the Collegetown area are Cornell students, the S.A. wanted to enable students to “organize and advocate for student interests in the ongoing work of [local governing bodies of Collegetown],” according to the S.A. resolution.

Compared to typical, economically thriving times, Collegetown restaurants have seen fewer customers enter their establishments while their costs of operation continue to increase during the current recession. In order to continue earning a profit, Collegetown restaurants and bars have had to change many of the details of their operation.

Collegetown’s more formal restaurants seem to be most effected as students look to spend their money more efficiently. Once a popular weekday lunch spot for Ithaca’s locals, the Japanese restaurant Miyake’s weekday sales are reportedly down about 20 percent compared with this time last year as it has been forced to rely on increasingly frugal college students to sustain its business, according to its owner.

After hearing two hours of public comments from students and community members, the Ithaca Common Council voted six to four in favor of the proposed R-3c zoning in Collegetown during its meeting in the City Hall last night. However, despite the majority vote, the zoning proposal will not pass until a petition submitted by R-3c residents is reviewed.

The R-3c was proposed for a neighborhood in east Collegetown. During the meeting, a petition signed by eight residents owning 21 out of 34 pieces of property within the proposed bounds of R3-c opposing the creation of the new district was introduced to the Council. As a result, a super-majority vote of 75 percent of Council members is needed for the adoption of the R-3c proposal.

Tonight, the Ithaca Common Council will hear a debate on the Collegetown Urban Plan and Design Guidelines that consulting team Goody Clancy developed last fall. We applaud the student-lead effort to lobby Common Council and implore students to head downtown tonight to ensure that the student voice be heard.

However, up until this point, we feel this student voice has been misinformed.

Last Thursday, the Collegetown Neighborhood Council met to discuss plans for the future development of Collegetown. The Council deliberations centered on the Collegetown Urban Plan & Design Guidelines, a report produced by consulting firm Goody Clancy to determine the best methods for future development of Collegetown.

Instead of accommodating the unbiased and thoughtful analysis of the Goody Clancy plan, the Ithaca City Council is proposing to reject Goody Clancy’s bold vision for a rejuvenated and developed Collegetown. Their myopia endangers the quality of housing and off-campus social life for future generations of Cornell students, and is a decision that we as students must fight against.

About a year and a half ago, on Nov. 27, 2007, I wrote a column entitled “This Space is for Rent,” pleading with Cornell to help revitalize Collegetown and explaining that Harvard had just helped a new business to open in the area near its Cambridge campus. I said that the new Harvard business was reminiscent of exactly what Collegetown needed.

The description of the new establishment in Cambridge was as follows: “The store … will serve deli sandwiches with a seating area, … high-end grocery items, … and convenience items, like 7-11. [The store] will also have a produce section, a salad bar and a large prepared-food buffet section, similar to Whole Foods.”

As the moratorium on construction in Collegetown nears expiration and the planning of the neighborhood’s future remains under debate, more students are beginning to voice their opinions and exercise their influence on the planning process. Last night, members of the Student Assembly attended a meeting of the Collegetown Neighborhood Council, where community members and students discussed the progress of the development plan recommended by Goody Clancy consultants.

A new gourmet delicatessen opens today on the corner of College and Dryden, bringing new competition to the Collegetown economy.

Green Café, owned by Charles Park, is modeled after its flagship café on Park Avenue in New York City. The restaurant will occupy a building previously leased to Bank of America for 27 years. The building has been vacant for three years, with the Green Café construction beginning around a year ago. Featuring everything from espresso, smoothies, antipasto sandwiches to homemade tofu, the new 24-hour restaurant overlaps the menu of many Collegetown restaurants.

I was but 11 years young that night when five wholesome hooligans first sung and danced their way into my heart, or when I first saw the Disney Channel special where ’N Sync performed at Disney World. I was immediately enchanted, and when my mom took me to Target the next day to buy some socks to send me in future care packages at camp or boarding school, I made her buy me the tape of ’N Sync’s eponymous album. She protested, mostly because people didn’t buy tapes by the year 1998, but I came out of the store victorious, anachronistic audiocassette in toe-thumbed hand.