SACKETS HARBOR — What should the village do with 71 acres of land?
The village is hosting the second of two community design workshops on the former Augsbury Oil Co. property. The forum will be at 7 p.m. Thursday at the municipal building.
"We will have a couple more exercises to develop ideas for future development," Heritage Area Director David W. Altieri said.
The property, now controlled by the nonprofit Local Development Corp., lies across Ambrose Street from the Sackets Harbor Battlefield State Historic Site.
The project is an outgrowth of the green initiative the village started this spring. Amanda E. Cesari, a SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry graduate student in landscape architecture, has been working this summer as an intern on the project. The project will be her capstone project for the three-year program, which leads to a master's degree.
"It felt like I was shortchanging the project just to have it as summer work," she said. "It's interesting and complex and feels like something that could be worked on for that period of time."
Ms. Cesari will be drawing on several areas of expertise for SUNY-ESF professors, such as culturally and historically sensitive design and brownfields. She expects to use the Center for Community Design Research and the expertise in community projects.
Mr. Altieri said the village will benefit from more experts looking at the project.
"We're hoping to get much more specialized and detailed concepts," he said.
Under the extended time frame for the project, Ms. Cesari is able to solicit community input through early spring.
During the workshop Thursday, she will be verifying responses from the first session and asking about spatial layout for development on the site.
Ms. Cesari said, "We'll talk about how what people want on the site will affect other things on the site."