Ithaca Journal

Recent complaints of environmental contamination at the site of an affordable-housing complex on Spencer Road have gotten the attention of a federal agency, but the practical effect may be limited.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development advised the City of Ithaca to reopen the public-comment period on using federal money to help Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services and not-for-profit developer Pathstone Corp. build the 35-unit Stone Quarry apartments project on Spencer Road.

ALBANY – Plenty has changed since Gov. Andrew Cuomo took office nearly four years ago.

Same-sex marriage has been legalized. Local property-tax increases have been capped. Income-tax brackets have been tweaked. Tougher gun-control measures are in place.

The gas-rich Marcellus Shale, however, is the same as it ever was in New York.

ALBANY – During a campaign stop Wednesday in Buffalo, Gov. Andrew Cuomo heaped praise on Terry Pegula.

A photo of a sign giving notice for a hearing on site plan review of the Stone Quarry apartment
project was provided to the City of Ithaca. (Photo: City of Ithaca)


Ithaca residents of the area around Spencer Road and Stone Quarry Road pledge to keep fighting the planned affordable-housing rental complex that won city approval this week.

Two development proposal in separate city neighborhoods are generating vigorous petition drives and discussions.

A Chicago-based developer and manager of student housing has filed plans with the city for a 45-unit apartment complex at 1 Ridgewood Road, in the area of the Cornell Heights neighborhood where proposed rezoning has bogged down.

CA Student Living has filed a site plan review submission with the city for three buildings on a 2.4-acre parcel. It would have 114 beds. The property, under a sale contract, according to the plan’s submission cover letter, has frontage on Ridgewood Road and Highland Avenue. The total project cost is put at $8 million.

Walter Hang, the owner of Ithaca-based Toxics Targeting and a well-known organizer in the Southern Tier, said he's focusing his efforts on the Binghamton University stop.

In an email Monday to thousands of fracking critics, Hang said the Obama visit will "dwarf all others in importance."

"We're working with as many groups as we possibly can to make this a national event on shale fracking," Hang said. "We're going to be putting out the call to action to groups in Pennsylvania and Ohio and all over New York."

ALBANY — Nearly five years after New York first looked at large-scale hydraulic fracturing for natural gas, both sides of the highly contentious shale-gas-drilling debate have finally reached common ground -- not on policy, but on a perceived lack of transparency.

ALBANY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday pushed back against the suggestion his administration is playing politics in further delaying a decision on hydraulic fracturing, saying the issue is “too important to make a mistake.”