The Town of Ithaca Planning Board determined the Game Farm Road project will not have a significant negative impact on the environment in a six to zero vote on Tuesday. 

The Game Farm Road project is a plan designed to build theCornell’s women’s field hockey team with a-brand-new artificial turf, a state-of-the-art clubhouse and amenities at Game Farm Road. 

The project has received both support from Cornell athletics and backlash from local environmentalists.

The “negative determination” label given to the project means the potential construction of the new Cornell women’s field hockey turf has been deemed to “not result in any significant adverse environmental impact,” according to the Board’s website. 

The move comes after the field construction was “delayed” as a result of “recent municipal approvals challenges,” according to Nicki Moore, Cornell’s director of athletics and physical education. The team’s former home field, Marsha Dodson Field, was previously torn up to prepare for the construction of Game Farm Road. Now, the team must consider other alternatives — including traveling approximately 50 miles to Syracuse University to play its home games. 

This move has caused waves, including upsetting the former namesake donor, Marsha Dodson, who received no formal notification of the destruction of the field. 

Through its step-by-step analysis, the Planning Board evaluated the turf’s impact based on 18 different categories of impacts on the Town of Ithaca — including its effects on living organisms, the environment and aesthetics. 

In this process, Cornell was asked to fill out a checklist of how each project was expected to affect each category. If there were issues with the effects, or further questions, the Board had Cornell detail the category and how it would impact the environment.  

For each factor, the Board determines whether or not “the proposed action” will result in a magnitude of change that is significant. If they determine the action will have “large magnitude,” the project must answer a series of specific questions as to how the environment will be affected. 

Some categories — like impact on human health and impact on land — were evaluated twice.  In the end, all evaluated categories were determined to be “small in magnitude,” and thus a negative determination was granted. 

According to Planning Board Chair Caitlin Cameron, the project is now ready for the next steps of approval — site plan, special permit, zoning and sewer exemptions — all of which the Board will be “presented with and thoroughly review” before deciding on a positive or negative determination.

The field’s construction has been a controversy for the Town of Ithaca and Cornell. The potential presence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — commonly known as PFAS — has fueled the debate between delaying or continuing the construction. PFAS are synthetic “forever chemicals” that may be linked to harmful health issues in animals and humans. 

Numerous Town of Ithaca residents attended the meeting in person and over Zoom and emailed in their concerns with the field. Several residents urged the Board to make Cornell complete a Generic Environmental Impact Statement — a state government document that outlines the effects of a proposed project on the surrounding environment. Since November 2024, residents have expressed their concerns with the field’s composition and how the PFAS would impact the town.

According to documents Cornell submitted regarding the project, the chosen composition of the turf is the Greenfields TX Pro Plus water-based tufted grass, which is composed of 100 percent polyethylene monofilament — a type of plastic known for being ultraviolet resistant. 

In addition, the chosen shock pad for the field is Greenfields’ EcoCept base layer, which is made of “recycled plastics, recycled rubber and a binder material” — and PFAS-free synthetic turf. This type of turf is allegedly safer and easier to use than other types of turf. 

However, since late November of 2024, the Town’s residents have claimed that there needs to be a full environmental impact statement and independent testing of the material to ensure it is indeed PFAS-free.

Town of Ithaca resident Caroline Ashurst stated the concerns of the town about PFAS were “legit” and that the fertility issues she believes to be linked with PFAS were important to consider.

“If there is a Cornell person in the audience right now just stop lying — it is a very bad look for you,” Ashurst said, referring to the impacts on PFAS. “PFAS are toxins and they are literally killing the human and animal life cycles.”

Yayoi Koizumi, founder of Zero Waste Ithaca, commented that Cornell was “pushing an environmental and ethically indefensible turf project” on the Town of Ithaca. 

“Cornell has fought tooth and nail to avoid conducting a full environmental impact statement,” Koizumi said during the meeting. “If they are so certain of the safety of this project, why are they so vehemently opposed to a comprehensive, transparent [and] public review?”

The Board stated in their State Environmental Quality Review Full Environmental Assessment Form that the product is PFAS free” — and they will later confirm this further by independent laboratory testing before the turf arrives for construction at Game Farm Road. Therefore, they said all comments made about “the effects of PFAS are not relevant to this project.”

The Board also noted during the meeting that if Cornell “decided that they wanted to change” any aspects of the project from Phase I — the part of the project that constitutes 10,500 square feet of the field and utility infrastructure — then that is considered “substantial change” that requires a reevaluation of the environmental impact and another step-by-step investigation and vote to allow for construction to continue. 

Phase II of the project is slated to contain plans to build a clubhouse and amenities for the team including locker rooms, coaches’ offices and film rooms. 

While the negative determination of the environmental impact will move forward with the field, there is still no guarantee of the field’s completion before the start of the 2025 season.

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