TC Action’s Amici House, located at 701 Spencer Road, has now opened.
News coverage:
The Ithaca Voice just ran a piece about the recently released data from the Ithaca-Tompkins County Transportation Council‘s study on vehicular crash rates in Tompkins County.
The section of Spencer Road from the South Meadow St Extension intersection going south to Elmira Rd was ranked 11th for City of Ithaca streets in terms of crash rate (vehicular collisions measured per million vehicles). This is interesting as the focus of our dialogue with the City about traffic safety improvements has thus far been focused on the north-end of Spencer Rd.
It should be noted that our neighboring street of Old Elmira Road was ranked as having the 8th highest crash rate in the City of Ithaca for 2013 and is ranked 6th in terms of crash severity.
Here is the most recent news article about the Stone Quarry Apartment project,published in the Ithaca Voice:
Feds Say Ithaca’s Low Income Housing Developers Didn’t Disclose Toxic Contamination
In light of the undisclosed toxic contamination at the site, the federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) agency, which was going to give low income housing funds for this project, elected to make the City of Ithaca recomplete and resubmit their environmental assessment of this project for these funds. HUD will need to recertify the project.
The City of Ithaca has, again, concluded that this project would have no negative environmental impact. There is a 15 day window (ending August 27th) to give feedback to the City if you disagree with that conclusion. After that, there will be a 15 day comment period with which feedback could be provided to HUD about the City’s environmental assessment.
If you would like to give feedback to the City of Ithaca about this project, it can be mailed to:
Ithaca Urban Renewal Agency
City of Ithaca
108 E Green St
Ithaca, NY 14850
Or it can be e-mailed to Lynn Truame at: LTruame@cityofithaca.org.
Tomorrow evening (Thursday, July 31), Spencer Road residents Bob and Jean will be on WRFI, 88.1 FM during the Community Radio news program that airs from 6 to 6:30. They will have about 5 minutes or so to inform listeners of our concerns about the proposed Stone Quarry Apartments. Tune in or listen online at: http://www.wrfi.org/online-stream/
If you have not already signed the petition, please consider doing so by clicking here. If you have signed, thank you! Now please ask your family members, friends, and co-workers to read it and to consider signing, also. Numbers matter. Thank you for your support.
Update: If you missed the radio program, you can download an archived version of the interview here (mp3 format). Or listen here:
Thank you to WRFI Community Radio News hosts Charles Dunaway and Laurie Sankin for including us on your program!
Another great article from the Ithaca Voice talking about from where the confusion around the contamination at 400 Spencer Rd comes: What caused confusion over toxic contaminants at Ithaca development?
In an article published by the Ithaca Voice yesterday evening, it was revealed that there are toxic pollutants at 400-4006 Spencer Rd where the Stone Quarry Apartments are set to be built. The site does not currently meet the standards for residential occupancy, due to the contamination, and will need to have remediation in order to bring the site up to state environmental standards.
More information can be found in the article here:
Major Toxic Pollutants Found at Stone Quarry Site
The Stone Quarry Apartments project is going before the Planning and Development Board this evening at 6pm (108 E. Green St). If you are interested in sharing your opinion, please plan on attending this meeting (you will need to arrive prior to 6pm in order to sign up to speak) or e-mail you comments to Charles Pyott at: cpyott@cityofithaca.org and ask for them to the passed along to the PDB.
Update: After the PDB meeting, the Board voted to table to project until next month.
More news articles:
More detailed information about the contamination can be read in the Toxics Targeting Letter to the mayor: Final Construction Approval of the Stone Quarry Apartments Should be Withheld Due to Toxic Concerns
There was an armed robbery reported at Ithaca Taxi Dispatch (400 Spencer Rd.) in the early morning of July 9th.
There are more details about it in this article in the Ithaca Voice:
Cops: Two Men, One Wielding Knife and Club, Robbed Ithaca Business
If anyone has any information, please report it to the Ithaca Police at: (607) 272-9973.
There was an article published in the Ithaca Times on Wednesday, June 4th, that spoke to the neighborhood’s and our common council representatives’ opposition to the Stone Quarry Apartments project and the mayor’s dissatisfaction that our alderpersons are advocating for the residents of their ward while using common council letterhead.
The article can be seen here: Ithaca Times – Ithaca Council Members Get Separate Stationery After Fracas.
Spencer Road Neighborhood Association 