By Kate Hill

Staff Writer

On Aug. 19, the Village of Cazenovia Planning Board held a special meeting to hear the concerns of village residents regarding The Landing at Burke Meadows — a proposed 70-unit affordable senior and family housing development off Burton Street.

The village received a planned development district (PDD) application for the project in spring 2019 from Housing Visions, a Syracuse-based nonprofit developer that specializes in providing affordable housing for families and revitalizing communities.

CRIS (Community Resources for Independent Seniors) — a Cazenovia, Nelson and Fenner area organization — reached out to Housing Visions nearly a decade ago to address the need for senior housing in the community.

On June 3, David Cox, P.E., a civil engineer from Passero Associates, presented the developer’s preliminary plan for a combined senior and family housing project to the Village of Cazenovia Board of Trustees.

The board voted to forward the plans to the planning board for further review.

Housing Visions’ representatives informally presented the sketch plan to the planning board on June 10.

Discussion on the project continued at the board’s July 8 and Aug. 12 regular monthly meetings.

During the July 8 meeting, the planning board voted to designate itself as lead agency for the State Environmental Quality Review Act process. In doing so, the board took on the responsibility of determining whether or not the proposed action may have significant adverse environmental impacts.

Cox, the project’s chief engineer, architect Mira Mejibovsky, and Housing Visions President Ben Lockwood represented the applicant at all three meetings.

According to the project team, The Landing at Burke Meadows would include a three-story, 40-unit senior building, as well as five family townhouses, each containing six units.

All units would be available for rent, rather than purchase. As landlord, Housing Visions would receive and review all renter applications.

The independent living senior facility would be tucked in toward the back of the property, while the “residential-style” townhouses would be positioned closer to Burton Street and designed with the intention of fitting in with the surrounding single-family homes, according to the proposal.

The approximately 15-acre property selected for the project includes both a wetland area and a heavily wooded area.

According to Cox, the developer plans to leave the wetlands untouched; to preserve as much of the woods in the back of the property as possible; and to maintain a buffer of vegetation between the residential properties to the north and south.

The plan also includes an amenity area — potentially featuring a patio, raised flowerbeds and bocce courts —that would serve as an outdoor gathering space for senior renters.

The entrance to the development would be located directly across the street from Burton Street Elementary School.

The road would loop through the development and connect to Emick Lane — a dead-end street that runs through an existing subdivision off Burton St. — providing two access points for emergency vehicles.

The road through the development would feature sidewalks on both sides, trees and dark-sky compliant lighting, accoridng to the proposed plans.

The proposal currently includes one parking space per senior unit and 1.5 spaces per family unit.

According to Cox, the applicant plans to “loop” the water main to help to boost pressures and flows.

Some of the runoff from the project would flow into the storm sewer on Burton Street and be transported through a 12-inch pipe across private property to Chittenango Creek.

Runoff would also continue to flow to the existing wetlands.

The post-development runoff would be equal to or lower than pre-development conditions, as per requirement.

The developer intends to manage the post-development stormwater runoff with three infiltration basins and a dry pond.

Housing Visions also plans to maintain drainage swales to help direct runoff away from neighboring properties.

On Aug. 19, the planning board held a public hearing on the proposed project.

The special meeting attracted more than 50 residents from Burton Street, Evergreen Lane, Emick Lane and the surrounding area.

The applicant’s representatives were not available to respond to inquiries and address concerns.

Village Attorney Jim Stokes attributed their absence to the fact that the public hearing was unexpectedly moved from Aug. 12 to Aug. 19 due to an internal error publishing the legal notice.

Adam Walburger — who served as acting chairman at the previous meeting — started the Aug. 19 discussion off by reading a statement submitted by Cox on behalf of Housing Visions:

“The applicant has heard the concerns of the board and the public and has requested more time to revise the plans and provide additional information. The applicant will review feedback received tonight and see if any modifications can be made to help address concerns. Whether you are for or against the project, we want to hear from everyone. We desire to have a project that meets the needs of the community in the best way possible.”

Throughout the meeting, the board heard from a number of Burton Street-area residents, who all voiced their opposition to the proposed development.

The community members highlighted several principal concerns:

The scope of the project

Several individuals said although the development was originally proposed as senior housing, it had somehow transformed into something very different — a densely populated, mixed senior and family development.

Village Mayor Kurt Wheeler — who attended the meeting to take notes on the public’s concerns — explained that Housing Visions altered the scope of its project for several reasons.

“When they actually looked at the demographics and the market and how the costs of the project would work out, they discovered that the hybrid of general all-age affordable housing and senior housing was going to be more workable for our community,” he said.

Burton Street resident Suzanne Munger said although she and many other neighborhood residents support the idea of senior housing and respect Housing Visions, they feel that the dramatic zone change (from R-10 to PDD) requested by the developer would drastically alter the character of the existing neighborhood.

“We’ve done some informal counting in the neighborhood — going up to Fenner Street on Burton, including Evergreen, Emick, a little bit of Burr and a little bit of Clark Street and all of Burton — there are about 65 houses,” Munger said. “This [development] would have 70 residences . . . your talking about doubling the population, and we don’t believe that it’s in keeping with the current neighborhood.”

Additionally, Bruce Kaiser, of Emick Lane, said eight acres of the approximately 15-acre property are wetlands and therefore undevelopable.

“That [leaves] less than seven acres, and we are going to have a population of approximately 150 to 200 people . . . that’s a lot of people in a small space,” he said.

According to Kaiser — and several other residents who echoed his opinions — the proposed increase in population density in the Burton Street area would undoubtedly change the look and feel of the established residential neighborhood.

Robert Ridler, president of CRIS, said although CRIS is in favor of affordable housing for seniors, it has no intention of dictating where it should go. That decision, he explained, is up to the community.

“We endorse senior housing, but we are not here to force it down somebody’s throat,” he said.

The project’s ability to meet the needs of the community

A number of the residents also expressed their beliefs that the proposed development would fail to meet the actual needs of the community.

Sally Ryan, a former resident of Corwin Street, said the parking included in the plan is insufficient for the proposed number of renters and that the lack of garages or other storage spaces would be a major problem for seniors in particular.

Munger said Housing Visions’ reputation for revitalizing communities would be of no real value to the Burton Street-area neighborhood.

“Burton Street is a perfectly vital, healthy, well-maintained [community with] modest, individually-owned homes with seniors and families, singles [and] couples,” she said. “We don’t need that kind of help.”

Peg Golden, of Clark Street, voiced her concern that the senior housing facility could eventually be opened up to non-senior renters. She noted that although Windmill Courts apartment complex on Clark Street was approved for senior housing, it is no longer strictly for seniors.

Impact on traffic and safety

An increase in traffic is a major concern for many Burton Street-area residents, several of whom said they are worried about the potential congestion of the neighborhood roads and the dangers posed to pedestrians.

Concerned residents noted that Burton Street is already a heavily traveled road that can become choked with traffic traveling to and from the elementary school; Cazenovia Community Preschool; Continental Cordage; the Evergreen Lane and Emick Lane residences; the baseball field and ice rink; and other village locations.

Evergreen Lane resident Lisa Schaffner — who served as a teacher at Burton Street Elementary School for 31 years — expressed particular concern about the location of the development entrance.

She said she has been nearly hit on multiple occasions when crossing from Evergreen to the school.

“They come around that blind corner too fast,” she said. “In this area, it is already overdeveloped and [overrun] with traffic . . .I’ve talked to the bus drivers and they said that when we have rain and drainage, they put out cones because the buses don’t feel it is safe to proceed onto Burton Street to pick up the students.”

Once school resumes in September, a traffic study will be conducted to evaluate the project’s impact on school bus and pedestrian movement on Burton Street, at the school driveways, and at the Clark Street, Burr Street and Fenner Street intersections during peak morning and afternoon school commute periods.

Increased sewer and drainage issues

Concerns regarding the impact of the proposed construction and increase in population on the land and on existing municipal infrastructure were raised on multiple occasions.

Munger said she has major concerns about the adverse effects of the development on the town’s wastewater infrastructure in particular, which — according to Jim Cunningham, plant operator of the Town of Cazenovia Water Pollution Control Facility — is already under considerable stress and in need of replacing.

Munger and her neighbors also said they worry that the developer’s plan to deal with storm water runoff will be inadequate.

The Burton Street residents noted that the storm drain near the bus circle at the elementary school regularly overflows, flooding their yards across the street and causing the open ditch in the back of her properties to overflow.

Following the residents’ remarks, Wheeler said senior housing, affordable housing and neighborhood connectivity are key aspects of the long-term goals outlined in the 2008 “Village and Town of Cazenovia Comprehensive Plan.”

“The challenge that boards like the planning board and the village board face is that sometimes there are broad goals that everybody supports until they are in their neighborhood,” Wheeler said. “The challenge is finding the right place to do the things that most people support in general, but that most people don’t want in their own neighborhood . . . we are here to try to strike that balance . . .”

The public hearing will continue at the Sept. 9 regular meeting, during which the applicant’s representative is expected to be present to address the public’s concerns.

In the meantime, the board will continue to accept written comments and feedback from the public and to make recommendations to the applicant.

According to Stokes, it is very likely that the applicant’s proposal will undergo some level of alteration in response to the feedback received.

“It’s very common for projects to evolve and to change,” he said. “What’s in the original application is not necessarily what you end up with, and . . . it’s usually a result of this type of process, where there’s give and take and so forth.”

After the board has thoroughly considered the potentially modified application, it will make a SEQR determination and a recommendation to the village board.

“We rely on experts that are retained by the village,” said planning board Chairman Rich Huftalen. “We have a diverse set of board members here that look with a skeptical eye at everything that is presented . . . it’s not a duty that we take lightly . . . I can assure you that [the application] will be carefully considered.”

The village board will open its own public hearing on the proposal on Sept. 3.

Once the village board receives a recommendation from the planning board and closes its public hearing, it will make a determination on the zone change.

“They are not bound by the planning board’s recommendation; they can go against it either way,” Stokes said.

If the village board grants the zone change, the planning board will make a determination on the final site plan.

“We are several meetings away from any of that happening,” Stokes said.

The village planning board meets on the second Monday of each month at 7 p.m. in the Village Municipal Building. For more information, visit villageofcazenovia.com.