Tompkins County, a community of approximately 100,000 located in the scenic Finger Lakes Region of Upstate New York, has released a Request for Proposals to develop a new neighborhood on 26 acres of County property in the Town of Ithaca. The Request for Proposals seeks a developer who would build a 70 unit residential neighborhood adjacent to Cayuga Medical Center.

The Request for Proposals is available on the Tompkins County Purchasing Division website at:
http://www.tompkins-co.org/purchase/rfp/index.html.

Tompkins County in collaboration with EcoVillage at Ithaca, Center for Sustainability Education, was awarded a United States Environmental Protection Agency Climate Showcase Communities grant to demonstrate and document how residential development modeled on the lessons learned from 20 years of developing EcoVillage at Ithaca could be applied to support the development of energy-efficient, livable residential neighborhoods and communities in a variety of smart growth locations. This is the only residential smart growth project among the 50 supported by the Climate Showcase Communities program nationwide.

One of the projects to be developed under this program is a new neighborhood on 26 acres of land owned by Tompkins County. Tompkins County is now seeking a developer to purchase or lease the county property and develop a mixed-use residential community.

Several features will assure that the development is environmentally and socially responsible including highly energy efficient buildings; affordable housing; a pedestrian-focused environment; on-site community gardens; and permanent protection of approximately two-thirds of the site as open space.

The developer will be selected based, in part, on the proposal's score on a number of rating parameters outlined in the draft RFP.

Proposals are due on October 9, 2012.

Questions regarding the RFP should be directed to: Ed Marx, AICP, Commissioner of Planning and Community Sustainability, Tompkins County Planning Department, 121 E. Court Street, Ithaca, New York 14850, 607-274-5560, or via e-mail at: [email protected].

An interested developers meeting will be held on a date to be set in August. Interested parties should contact the Tompkins County Planning Department to pre-register and be placed on a list to be notified of the date and time of the meeting.