Forest Home Infrastructure
Much of the information in this guide to the infrastructure of Forest Home was prepared by Bruce Brittain in March 2019. It covers roads, bridges, street lighting, utilities, and parks. Here is a County Highway Map that shows the principal roads in the county.
Roads
Forest Home is popular with pedestrians, runners, and cyclists. It is also a convenient route to and from the Cornell campus. But the roads were never designed to handle much traffic. As Liese Bronfenbrenner wrote in 1974, “The community may be divided over the way to deal with these problems, but is united in its desire to save Forest Home from the destructive effects of the heavy through traffic.”As early as 1909, residents petitioned to have the state road avoid the center of the hamlet, but to no avail.
In 1970, a majority of the residents approved a resolution that both bridges should be closed permanently to reduce the heavy through traffic in the village. Many of them changed their minds after the Downstream Bridge was closed to traffic for a year while being rebuilt.
In 1980, following lobbying by members of FHIA, the Town of Ithaca imposed a weight limit for vehicles passing through Forest Home.
In 2005, FHIA began a traffic calming initiative. The speed bumps and lights at the edge of Forest Home are one of the results of this initiative. For more information see https://fhia.org/traffic/
In 2023, following lobbying by members of FHIA, the Town commissioned a study that included a survey of the sharp bend between the Chapel and the Upstream Bridge and feasible turning circles. As a result, in March 2024, a vehicle-length limit of 25 ft. was implemented for the stretch of Forest Home Drive between Warren Road and Caldwell Road.
Sharp bends and single-lane bridges
The single-lane bridges limit the traffic that can get through Forest Home, but every year some heavy vehicles ignore the signs, follow their GPS maps, and get stuck at the sharp bends on Forest Home Drive and the bottom of Judd Falls Road. Traffic over the single-lane bridges follows informal conventions, which are fascinating to watch. Groups of two to five vehicles alternate on the bridges. The groups grow larger in busy periods. Every September, there is period of disarray while newcomers to Cornell learn the conventions. Most roads in Forest Home are owned by the Town of Ithaca. Warren Road and Pleasant Grove Road are County Roads. The Town does winter maintenance on all of its own roads, and has contracted to do winter maintenance on County Roads in Forest Home, as well. There is a five-ton weight limit on McIntyre Place, on Judd Falls Road north of the Jug Handle, and on Forest Home Drive from the intersection with Arboretum Road (formerly called Plantations Road) near Beebe Lake to the intersection with Caldwell Road near the upstream bridge. Emergency vehicles and trucks making local deliveries are specifically exempted. The limit is on registered weight, rather than actual weight, making the law easier to enforce. See https://www.ecode360.com/8661132. (Generally speaking, any truck with dual rear wheels – six or more tires – will have a registered weight in excess of 5 tons.) There are no weight limits on the bridges. A limit of 25 ft. on length of vehicles applies to the stretch of Forest Home Drive between the intersection with Warren Road and the intersection with Caldwell Road. This is intended to prevent the traffic disruption and property damage caused when long vehicles fail to negotiate the “S-curve” near 228 Forest Home Drive. The length limit was introduced in March 2024. There are many reasonable exceptions, which include emergency vehicles and school buses. The only “local delivery” exception is for the buildings on that small section of Forest Home Drive. For the details, see https://ecode360.com/8661112.
Note: A “right-of-way by use” (ROW by use) is one in which the roadway boundaries are established by what the municipality has been maintaining for the past 25 years, unless the infrastructure was intended to not need maintenance (embankments, ditches, retaining walls, signs, etc). This is in contrast to a deeded ROW, in which the municipality actually owns the land that the road is on.
The Byway
Privately owned and maintained
Caldwell Road
Owned and maintained by Town, ROW by use
Crest Lane
Owned and maintained by Town, ROW by use
Fairway Drive
Owned and maintained by Town, deeded 60 ft wide ROW
Forest Home Drive
Owned and maintained by Town, ROW by use; 5 ton weight limit on 100 and 200 blocks
Halcyon Hill Road
Owned and maintained by Town up to the Y with ROW by use; privately owned and maintained beyond that
Judd Falls Road
Owned and maintained by Town, ROW by use; 5 ton weight limit north of Jug Handle
McIntyre Place
Owned and maintained by Town, ROW by use; 5 ton weight limit
Arboretum Road (formerly Plantations Road)
Owned and maintained by Cornell University
Pleasant Grove Road
Owned and maintained by County (winter maintenance by Town), ROW by use
Warren Road
Owned and maintained by County (winter maintenance by Town), ROW by use
Bridges
Downstream Bridge
Deck, steel substructure and abutments owned and maintained by County; truss, walkway and driving (wear) surface owned and maintained by Town; no weight limit
Upstream Bridge
Truss, deck, steel substructure and abutments owned and maintained by County; walkway and driving (wear) surface owned and maintained by Town; no weight limit
Note: The Town owns the downstream bridge truss, the County owns the upstream bridge truss.
Street lighting
Streetlights at Intersections
Owned by the Town and maintained through a contract between the Town and New York Power Authority (NYPA)
Streetlights NOT at Intersections
Owned by the Town and maintained through a contract between the Town and New York Power Authority (NYPA)
Entrance Lamps
Owned by the Town and maintained through contacts with private contractors on an as-needed basis.
Note: In Fall 2023, the old Forest Home Lighting District was eliminated. The Town of Ithaca now has a single lighting district. This change was associated with the project to replace all streetlights with LED lights.
Utilities
Gas Lines
Owned and maintained by NYSEG
Electric Wires
Owned and maintained by NYSEG
Note: NYSEG owns and maintains the “delivery” wires regardless of who your “energy supplier” may be.
Cable
Owned and maintained by Spectrum
Telephone Lines
Owned and maintained by Verizon
Water
Houses in Forest Home southwest of the downstream bridge (i.e., Judd Falls Road, McIntyre Place, the Byway, 100 block of FHD) are provided with Fall Creek water that has been processed by Cornell University’s filtration plant on Caldwell Road. Houses in Forest Home northeast of the downstream bridge (i.e., Warren Road, Halcyon Hill, Crest Lane, Fairway Drive, 200 and 300 blocks of FHD) are provided with Cayuga Lake water that has been processed by the Southern Cayuga Lake Intermunicipal Water Commission (Bolton Point). All billing is done by Bolton Point, and all maintenance is performed by the Town, regardless of who your supplier may be.
Sewer
Owned and maintained by Town
Parks
Forest Home Park by Downstream Bridge
Owned by Cornell, leased to Town, which maintains it. Forest Home community also assists with maintenance through the Town’s Adopt-a-Park program.
See https://fhia.org/forest-home-park/
Forest Home Walkway
Owned and maintained by Town, with deeded 10 ft wide ROW. Some of the walkway is on land belonging to Cornell, with a permanent easement to the Town.
See https://fhia.org/path/
Arboretum and Wildflower Garden
Owned and maintained by Cornell, as part of the university’s Botanic Gardens.
See https://cornellbotanicgardens.org/location/mundy-wildflower-garden/
Available to download as PDFs:
Guide to Infrastructure (March 2019)
Schematic Map from Forest Home Traffic Calming Plan (page ii)