Apartment/Townhouse Development Is Needed To Keep SUNY Oneonta Competitive, Growing

Editor’s Note:  This is the description of the housing plans for the top of Clinton Street that SUNY Oneonta provided to neighbors.

Amanda Hoepker/HOMETOWN ONEONTA
Student housing is planned at the top of Clinton Street, which backs up on the SUNY Oneonta campus.

A Residential Campus
This semester, approximately 3,200 students are living at SUNY Oneonta while pursuing their degrees. They enjoy the community of residence halls, the convenience of being able to walk to classes, and the security and amenities of the college environment.
The newest student housing facility on campus, Higgins Hall, opened in 2004. Since then, the college’s FTE count – a rough measure of the number of students enrolled – has grown by 300.
During the same time, on-campus housing has become increasingly popular. Returning student residence hall attrition – the percentage of students who move out of residence halls between academic years – has fallen to lower than 5 percent.
This has led to an increase in the instance of “tripling,” which means housing three students, usually freshmen, in residential units designed with two occupants in mind. At the start of the fall 2010 semester, for example, there were 128 “triples.”
The Need for Housing
SUNY Oneonta’s facilities master plan, under development now, indicates a market for additional student housing consistent with the modest increases in enrollment – the addition of 250-300 students – projected over the next decade.

A feasibility study and market analysis indicated demand for:
• Nearly 500 additional beds on campus;
• Apartment/townhouse style independent living with privacy and cooking facilities; and
• Housing proximate to campus with access to campus amenities and services.

Based on the expectation for continued growth and the popularity among students of residing on campus, the college has begun planning to construct a 200-bed townhouse facility bordering West Dorm Drive.
This new facility will be marketed primarily toward upperclassmen and graduate students. Townhouses also will fill a gap in the student housing portfolio and help the college avoid a competitive disadvantage in attracting and retaining academically well qualified students.
Progress and Planning
Engineers suggested the primary site based on the project footprint (townhouses as opposed to a high-rise), topography and relatively low level of difficulty of construction due largely in part to the slope of the lot, among other factors.
The townhouse project is in its earliest phase. Representatives from the college and City of Oneonta have met to discuss it. The mayor has toured the proposed site and the city will be the lead agency for the development’s state environmental quality review (SEQR).
Groundbreaking is scheduled for the fall of 2012. The townhouses are expected to be occupied by the fall of 2014. However, at this time, no firm decisions have been reached with regard to many design elements, nor has an architect been retained.

Artist’s rendering, courtesy SUNY Oneonta
Apartment/townhouse style housing for 200 students is planned at the top of Clinton Street.