ITHACA — 60 senior-focused apartments are coming to downtown Ithaca, as lawmakers have finally signed off on a plan to redevelop a former county library site.

Lawmakers were split for weeks on what to do at the site, and had considered two proposals in the end. Questions also surfaced about the ties lawmakers had to developers who had come forward.

Tuesday night, county lawmakers voted 8-5 in favor of a plan put forward by the Travis Hyde Group. That plan also calls for office space and room for the senior organization Lifelong at the site on Court and Cayuga streets.

The proposal was chosen over one submitted by developer Franklin Properties.

Also on Tuesday, lawmakers voted down a proposal to put the decision off for another two months. Lawmaker Nathan Shinagawa, who was one of the swing votes to move the Travis Hyde proposal forward, said a choice needed to be made.

“And I came to the realization that if we don’t pass something, that property would become vacant and be a drain on taxpayers, or what would happen is it would go to the open market where anything could happen, and I didn’t feel that was right for the community either,” he said. “So I made the difficult decision to change my vote so we could have something to move forward.”

Shinagawa said the Travis Hyde proposal has certain advantages over Franklin, such as move living space, and despite public support for the Franklin proposal, he thinks Travis Hyde will prove its worth to residents.

“People just wanted a project to move forward, and that way we can get it through the democratic process of bringing it to all these committees and getting community input to continue to revise the project,” he said. “Travis Hyde also has a pretty good history of revising their projects and listening to the community.”

Before any construction begins, environmental reviews must occur at the site, with the city, county and developer coordinating on the effort.