What is this all about?
As part of its West Campus Residential Initiative, Cornell eliminated the student parking lot that used to be located at the corner of University Ave and Stewart Ave. To replace it, they are planning on constructing a new lot farther down University Ave, behind the Von Cramm and 660 Stewart houses.
This lot will be for cars for "occasional use" by students. It will provide at least 140 spaces, covering an area about the size of two football fields. It will be brightly lit every night, noisy, and be surrounded by a screen of non-native Norway Spruce trees.
The woods are in the historic backyard designed by Warren Manning for three mansions owned by Robert Treman, a prominent citizen of Ithaca around the turn of the century (and the man who donated the land for both Treman parks). The area provides a much needed buffer between the University Hill neighborhood and the Cornell campus, and has been designated a historic district by the City of Ithaca.
We are opposed to the construction of this lot because it would cause a significant decrease in local property values, privacy, aesthetics, and overall quality of life for the residents of this neighborhood, and destroy the historic integrity of the Treman estate. Furthermore, this issue highlights the problems with Cornell's transportation policy, and we believe that reforming that policy will be more effective in the long term than providing stopgap measures such as new parking lots.
Residents of the neighborhood have been actively engaged in the public
process to halt construction of this lot for over a year and a half. Last spring, they won a decision from the City of Ithaca Planning and Development
Board which denied Cornell permission to build. The board
offered Cornell 6 months to reach a mutual agreement with the city.
Unfortunately, instead of working with Ithaca, Cornell opted to sue the Planning Board, and a State Supreme Court judge ruled in Cornell's favor, forcing the board to accept the parking lot. This action undermined the Board's right to decide local planning decisions and put a serious dent in town-gown relations.
