Ithaca Mayor Robert Cantelmo gave his State of the City address Tuesday, outlining the city’s priorities and challenges for 2025.
Housing was a top concern for city officials last year. The city council passed legislation prioritizing renter protections and regulating short-term rentals. Cantelmo said the city will continue to prioritize housing legislation in 2025.
During his address at city hall, Cantelmo outlined plans to overhaul Ithaca’s zoning ordinances using $250,000 in state grants. Cantelmo said the rewrite will open the door for more housing in the city.
“Modernizing our land-use policies is critical to increasing the housing supply, combating rising property taxes, and ensuring that all Ithacans can find affordable places to live,” he said.
Cantelmo also outlined plans to address homelessness, announcing a new advisory committee on encampments. The committee will look into the root causes of homelessness in the city and make recommendations on how to respond to the issue.
The committee will also be tasked with assessing Ithaca’s encampment policies. One of those policies, implemented about a year ago, created a sanctioned area for camping on city land.
Ithaca’s new deputy city manager, Dominick Recckio, will lead the committee, which will include multiple common council members and city staff.
Cantelmo said the city is also bracing for the impact of new FEMA flood maps in 2025. He said the new maps could force many homeowners to seek flood insurance.
“Developing mitigation using these models is logistically and financially impractical and, we believe, unnecessary,” he said.
The city will be appealing those models, he told reporters in an interview following the address, and advocating for a more “realistic” way to mitigate flood risks in the area.
Cantelmo had a message for homeowners worried about the new maps.
“I would just say if there are folks out there who are concerned about the FEMA flood maps, to just know that at the city we are here to be your advocate,” he said. “We are also human beings who are impacted by this.”
Cantelmo told reporters that overall, the city is on a “strong growth trajectory,” referencing an increase in city staffing rates and what he called “one of the most productive [city] councils in a decade.”
The Ithaca Common Council’s first meeting of the year is Wednesday, Jan. 8.