SUNY Oneonta Plans 200-Student Housing

Townhomes By 2014 At Top Of Clinton Street

For the first time since Higgins Hall opened in 2003, SUNY Oneonta is planning new housing for its students:  townhomes and apartments for 200 at the top of Clinton Street.
“We’ve been working on this for some time,” said Tom Rathbone, vice president/facilities, adding that student surveys indicated desire for “another option.”
Rathbone’s department has been interfacing with City Engineer Jim Hawver, who said the goal is to ensure the municipal storm water system is sufficient to handle the additional runoff.
The university also looked at the top of Ford Avenue, but determined Clinton Street, which veers off to the right as East Street curves past Hartwick College, is a better site, he said.
The land is owned by the college, which like all state agencies is exempt from local zoning.
For her part, Alderman Liz Shannon, whose Ward 7 includes the site, agreed the additional housing would take pressure off the city’s neighborhood.
City Hall’s proposed zoning revisions, which arrived in City Clerk Jim Koury’s hands Monday, Jan. 10, and will be disclosed Tuesday, Jan. 18, at the Planning Commission’s monthly meeting, aims in part to protect houses in intact neighborhoods from being broken up for student housing.
“I would encourage the colleges to build more dorms,” Shannon said.
The plan is to accommodate current students, not to expand enrollment, and would probably be limited to upper classmen, Rathbone said.
“These will be more for independent living with more privacy (than regular dorms), if you will, and a few more amenities,” he said.
As usual, the construction will be funded through the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York, and paid off over time by students’ rents.
DASNY is working with the local school on identifying an architect to design the project, Rathbone said.