ITHACA, N.Y.(WENY)-- On the shore of Cayuga Lake in the town of Lansing sits the largest slab of privately owned lakefront property in the Finger Lakes region, Bell Station Landing.  

Bell Station Landing includes 470 acres of land, 3,400 feet of shoreline and is owned by New York States Electric and Gas Corporation (NYSEG). NYSEG had been prepared to auction off this land to the highest bidder at the beginning of October, but just yesterday Governor Kathy Hochul’s office announced that the energy and gas company had made an agreement to cancel the auction and permanently protect the land from industrialization. 

The fight to preserve this large section of land had started years ago and originally, the plan was to negotiate the sale of the property to the Finger Lakes Land Trust; which had officially been identified as the broker by the Department of Environmental Conservation. Assemblywoman Dr. Anna Kelles with the help of State Senator Pam Helming has been paying attention to this project since the very beginning and were the ones who brought it to Gov. Hochul’s attention. 

“Because it’s already on the DEC priority list for conservation, it guarantees that the DEC would pay the appraised value,” said Kelles. 

Dr. Kelles said NYSEG had pulled out of their negotiations with FLLT and announced they would be putting the land up for auction to the highest bidder, the energy company also started to promote it for residential use. 

“That is an issue because forest lands would [have] been cut down and two it is on a very steep slope so it would significantly increase erosion in an area that is already experiencing Harmful Algal Bloom outbreaks,” said Kelles. 

Bell Station Landing is home to a large population of Maple and Basswood trees which are the habitat for four species of birds that Dr. Kelles said have been consistently on the decline. 

“The reason they are on a decline is because of a loss of habitat and this is one of the largest intact forest land habitats in the state for these birds,” said Kelles. 

Not only is this large section of land home to endangered birds but it is also home to two endangered plant species and while politicians like Dr. Kelles and Sen. Helming were doing a lot of the muscle work, the public was also speaking out against this auction. A petition on Change.org has over 4,000 signatures from people that did not want to see this land turned into a residential area. 

“There’s no one that I have spoken to that wants this to go to auction,” said Kelles.

The plan is to keep the bottom section of the land, closets to the waterfront, forested and to install a large solar array at the top section of the land. 

Dr. Kelles said often communities are torn about the idea of installing large solar array’s but in this scenario, everyone is on board. 

“To have everybody on board for this initiative that is not only environmental conservation focus but also an initiative that would help us reach our CLCPA goals,” said Kelles. 

The Finger Lakes Land Trust would also like to install a public wildlife management area with hiking trails, no exact plans have been announced yet but for updates, you can go to FLLT.org