Forest Home Infrastructure
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.
Roads
Note: 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.
Note: 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.
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 and maintained by NYSEG through a town-wide contract with Town
Streetlights NOT at Intersections
Owned and maintained by NYSEG through a contract with Town (Forest Home Lighting District)
Entrance Lamps
Owned and maintained by Town as part of Forest Home Lighting District
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 west 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 east 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)