[0:11] All right, everyone is here

[0:12] and it is now just past six o'clock.

[0:14] So I will call to order this meeting of the

[0:17] Pittsford Town Board and I'll ask you to join me please.

[0:20] In the Pledge of Allegiance,

[0:24] I pledge allegiance to the flag

[0:26] of the United States of America,

[0:31] one nation under indivisible with liberty and justice.

[0:37] Thank you. I have just one announcement tonight

[0:40] and that is to remind people that this Saturday

[0:43] starting at 12 noon here on Main Street

[0:46] is the annual food truck and music fest.

[0:49] Our second and last of the bookend events

[0:53] for the summer season.

[0:56] Lots of food, lots of great music,

[0:58] and we invite everyone to come.

[1:01] It's always a good time, at least when it doesn't rain,

[1:04] and we'll keep our fingers crossed for this weekend.

[1:08] We begin tonight with two public hearings,

[1:13] so I am going to open public hearing number one,

[1:18] which has to do with amendment to incentive zoning

[1:22] for one 50 French Road to permit Lily Brook signage.

[1:26] This is to amend an incentive zoning resolution

[1:30] that was passed back in 2001,

[1:32] that rather unusually contained provisions for

[1:36] signage at the site that now has needed to change.

[1:40] So the hearing is open.

[1:42] Is there anyone here to speak on the subject

[1:44] of the incentive zoning change for one 50 French Road

[1:48] to permit the Lily Brook signage?

[1:56] No one. Do we have anyone weighing in by email?

[2:00] I have not. Okay.

[2:02] I will give you one more opportunity if there's anyone here

[2:05] who wants to speak on this subject.

[2:08] Seeing none the hearing's closed, we will now proceed

[2:12] with a public hearing for a vote on creating

[2:16] new 2027 refuse districts.

[2:19] These came in rather late.

[2:20] They are special circumstances is

[2:22] to create one new refuse district and to extend another one.

[2:26] Again, I will now ask if there is anyone here

[2:29] to speak on the proposed creation of the refuse districts.

[2:33] Sir, please tell us your name and go up to the podium.

[2:46] I'm Daniel Drake. I'm president of the

[2:49] Alpine Ridge Homeowners Association.

[2:52] I, we have the petition in and we want to thank the board

[2:57] and particularly Supervisor Smith

[2:59] and also Maureen Nicks for expediting this matter.

[3:03] I know it came in late,

[3:04] but there were circumstances beyond our control.

[3:09] I know the community in Alpine Ridge,

[3:12] everyone's excited about getting a refuse district.

[3:15] I haven't heard anyone in the community speak against it.

[3:20] So once again, I just want to thank the board

[3:22] for putting it on your agenda.

[3:24] Thank you. If you have any

[3:25] questions, I'd be happy to address them.

[3:29] Wonderful, thank you so much. Thank

[3:30] You.

[3:31] Is there anyone else who would like

[3:33] to speak on the subject of the

[3:35] proposed new refuse districts?

[3:39] Do we have any comments by email? I have none.

[3:42] Alright, I'll ask once again. Anyone else wish to speak?

[3:46] Seeing none, I'll close this public hearing.

[3:49] We will take up the, the vote on both of those subjects,

[3:54] but later on in the agenda, we have a presentation tonight.

[3:59] But first I wanna recognize a member of our village board

[4:03] of trustees, John Beck, who's with us tonight.

[4:05] John, good to see you. Who was asked to address the board?

[4:21] Good evening. I'm John Beck.

[4:22] I live at 62 State Street,

[4:24] but I'm here tonight as a village trustee

[4:27] and I just wanted to address the board about a statue

[4:30] that the village recently rented

[4:34] is a Frederick Douglas statue.

[4:36] And we went through a presentation

[4:39] and some discussions where the village rented this statue

[4:43] for a year's time.

[4:45] And there was a lot of discussion, a lot of input as to

[4:49] where we were gonna place the statute.

[4:51] And you know, there were several places mentioned that

[4:56] coincided with where Frederick Douglas May have spoken when

[4:59] he was here many, many years ago.

[5:03] And I know one of the spots

[5:04] that they looked at was over in the new Copper Beach Park,

[5:08] but we, we had a lot of discussion about,

[5:13] you know, permanency and,

[5:15] and like I said, the different locations.

[5:17] But at our meeting in August, I think it was August 11th,

[5:21] after the discussion we had that evening, I made a motion

[5:24] that the statue would be placed in the front lawn

[5:27] of Village Hall and

[5:29] that was voted on unanimously by the board.

[5:32] And I know there's been some communications back

[5:35] and forth between the village

[5:36] and the town requesting a potential

[5:40] to place it at Copper Beach,

[5:42] but I just wanted to clear that up tonight

[5:43] that the statue's going to be located on the front lawn

[5:47] of the village hall and

[5:49] that's its permanent location right now.

[5:52] And I don't know if there are any

[5:53] questions, comments, or concerns. Yeah.

[5:55] Are you here speaking on behalf

[5:56] Of, of the entire board of trustees or just

[6:00] I'm speaking to the vote that was unanimous

[6:03] by the village board because there were communications

[6:07] after the fact that led to confusion as to

[6:10] where the statute might be located

[6:12] and as to the permanency of it or if it was temporary.

[6:17] The motion you before the board? Yes, I am. They've

[6:20] They've authorized you to come here with your

[6:22] Statement?

[6:23] No, they haven't, but Okay.

[6:23] Also, the communications that were sent to the

[6:27] town were not authorized by the board either, so

[6:30] that's why I'm here tonight speaking as to what the

[6:34] vote was that evening.

[6:40] Thank you. Okay, John,

[6:41] Any other questions? No, I

[6:43] Question John, are you,

[6:45] is the village hosting it permanently in front

[6:48] of the village hall or

[6:49] Is it still renting right now?

[6:50] We, we, we voted back in the spring

[6:54] to rent it for a year for $5,000

[6:58] and we're going to place it for that year.

[7:01] The vote was to place the statue

[7:03] in front of the village hall.

[7:05] Thanks John. Okay,

[7:07] John, thank you very much.

[7:08] Alright, thank you. It helps clear up a lot

[7:09] of confusion. Thank you. Appreciate

[7:11] It.

[7:14] We will now have a presentation I'm very excited about

[7:19] recently, council member LER LeBlanc

[7:23] and I had the opportunity to meet with Bill Price

[7:27] of Reimagine Rock on the subject of some very interesting

[7:32] and useful ideas that they're coming up with

[7:35] and have worked on for housing development moving forward.

[7:40] And this dovetails very nicely with our

[7:45] new zoning code that we adopted about a year and a half ago

[7:48] because we have opened up the zoning to some new

[7:52] and different types of housing

[7:54] for new construction in Pittsford,

[7:56] protecting existing neighborhoods,

[7:58] but in places where something hasn't been built yet.

[8:01] And in many ways that's the easy part, changing the law.

[8:05] Then the idea is, well, how do we help encourage builders

[8:10] to want to come in and take advantage of some

[8:12] of these new opportunities?

[8:14] And that's where some of the ideas

[8:15] that we discussed come in.

[8:17] So with my own thanks to council member Satler LeBlanc

[8:20] for making the introduction between ourselves and Bill Price

[8:24] and Reimagine Rock, I'd like to introduce Bill Price

[8:27] to make our presentation.

[8:35] Good evening, Mr. Supervisor and members of the board

[8:37] and staff to the public.

[8:39] Welcome and thank you for the opportunity to present this

[8:45] idea that we have.

[8:47] With me tonight is Jim Yako.

[8:49] Jim is the CEO of Greater Rochester Association of Realtors.

[8:55] And let me, let me kinda start this with

[9:00] where did, where did this idea come from?

[9:02] This is reimagining our whole housing strategy

[9:07] in Rochester and the Finger Lakes region.

[9:11] Jim's organization covers a geographic area very similar

[9:16] to community design, Rochester,

[9:18] which is generally the Finger Lakes regional economic

[9:22] Development councils geographic area.

[9:25] So nine county area.

[9:28] Jim goes a little further almost over to Auburn

[9:30] and all the way down to the southern tier in the north, the

[9:36] New York state line, we do, we do as well,

[9:39] but we don't go quite as far east as you do.

[9:43] The other members of Reimagined Rock housing,

[9:47] in addition to community design, Rochester, the realtors,

[9:52] is the Mortgage Bankers Association as well

[9:55] as the Rochester Area Home Builders Association in 2023.

[10:01] That group, which works together fairly regularly on

[10:06] matters of housing, housing production, housing finance,

[10:11] anything to do with some of the, the laws

[10:13] or the regulatory processes involved in, in housing,

[10:18] they notice a substantial slowdown in housing production,

[10:24] home sales, rental properties being, becoming available.

[10:28] And they together wrote a white paper in 2023,

[10:32] I believe it was August.

[10:35] And then, and Jim has been a long time

[10:38] supporter of community design.

[10:39] Rochester came to us

[10:41] and said, can we put on a design workshop

[10:45] and really talk through these issues?

[10:48] And the, the thing that what we did was we said,

[10:53] let's involve everybody in that that's involved in housing.

[10:57] We had economic development agencies, we had towns

[11:00] not only elected officials,

[11:02] but town staff that handle application intake

[11:05] and, you know, site plan approval, subdivision

[11:09] bank financing, mortgage originators, appraisers,

[11:14] everybody in in involved, nonprofit,

[11:17] nonprofit organizations involved in housing.

[11:22] We came up, we sat around, we, we talked amongst

[11:26] like disciplines, and then we split up

[11:28] and talked amongst different disciplines at the tables,

[11:32] came up with 50 major prime idea primary ideas.

[11:37] They were filtered into 12 different categories.

[11:40] Those, those categories were things like finance,

[11:44] construction, technology, making, permitting, easier,

[11:50] state regulation, local municipal regulations.

[11:55] So then we, we ultimately ended up writing a paper

[11:59] based on everything we learned and some additional research.

[12:02] And that's what I would like to present tonight.

[12:07] Okay, so what, what is going on in the market?

[12:12] I mean, I'm sure everybody here, whether you're students

[12:16] and you've heard it at home or you know, within your family

[12:20] or anybody with elderly parents,

[12:23] that there is a housing crisis.

[12:25] We are not producing enough housing

[12:28] and we are not producing enough diversity of housing

[12:31] to meet the needs of the various age demographics

[12:35] across our community.

[12:38] Right now, we are only building one housing.

[12:41] There's only one housing unit permitted

[12:44] for every eight new jobs that are being created.

[12:48] We need to be building approximately one new housing

[12:52] or residential unit for every two jobs that are created.

[12:57] And we already know Monroe County Economic Development has

[13:01] told us we have at least 13,000 jobs

[13:05] on the books ready to come to Rochester

[13:07] and be created in the next three years.

[13:11] Our inventory of houses for sale is very low.

[13:16] We, we have less than a month supply that

[13:20] that can change month to month.

[13:22] But the typical inventory is about a four to six month

[13:27] inventory of houses available.

[13:29] We are, we're nowhere near that.

[13:31] That continues to cause problems with the bidding wars,

[13:36] the price, the increase in pricing just

[13:39] to get a, to get a house.

[13:42] So we have that problem.

[13:45] And then the cost mentioned previously

[13:47] that generally speaking,

[13:50] they're being sold at 16% over asking,

[13:54] I believe in the Brighton's and Pittsford's

[13:56] and Penfield, that number's much higher.

[14:00] So that 16% is kind

[14:03] of an aggregate number across the region.

[14:06] If we could proceed, there are some additional numbers that

[14:12] help define this crisis a little bit.

[14:15] And this, this is not numbers that are reflective

[14:20] of the city of Rochester or any one particular town.

[14:25] All of our communities are experiencing around these numbers

[14:29] where 30%, almost 31%

[14:33] of households are now cost burdened.

[14:36] That that term means that you are paying more

[14:40] in a mortgage or rent payment than 30% of your income

[14:45] used to be 26% was the benchmark

[14:48] of when you were gonna go get a mortgage.

[14:51] That's what you would apply for, is something in the range

[14:54] of 26% of your gross monthly income.

[14:59] Now renters are even higher cost burden.

[15:02] It's almost 46% just shy of 50% of renters

[15:08] are spending more than 26%.

[15:11] Am I saying that right? 27. Okay.

[15:14] 27% are spending more than half

[15:16] of their gross income on rent.

[15:19] 48% of increase in our,

[15:24] in our median home income,

[15:26] or I'm sorry, home price has gone from

[15:30] what it was in 2020.

[15:32] 2020 we are now at, it was around what,

[15:37] 230 we are now.

[15:39] I think it's closer to 270,000, 300,000,

[15:42] pushing 300,000 is the median home price.

[15:46] And $14,400 is essentially the gap between

[15:52] what lenders will approve versus

[15:55] what people actually can, can afford.

[15:57] There's a substantial gap in that initial assessment of

[16:02] how much you can, can pay.

[16:06] I had, I, I did wanna show another slide that is kind of,

[16:09] if you could advance before we get into this.

[16:13] There were, I, I did a, a slide that showed,

[16:17] this is from US Census Bureau that shows the number

[16:20] of people that migrate every day out of Pittsford

[16:25] to other places for their job.

[16:28] And the number of people res a number of people, workers

[16:32] coming into the town for their job.

[16:35] The number of people that commute into Pittsford on a daily

[16:39] basis is over 10,000.

[16:41] So it's 10,100.

[16:44] And this is in the American Sta

[16:49] American Community Survey of the US Census Bureau.

[16:52] It's a neat, neat way of seeing

[16:54] who's coming and who's going.

[16:56] So of workers in Pittsford,

[17:01] 13,000 leave Pittsford every day to go to their job,

[17:05] whether it's in Henrietta, Penfield, the city, wherever.

[17:09] And you can actually hit search on that is

[17:13] where are those people working so you can figure out,

[17:16] you know, where are they commuting every day, back

[17:19] and forth, and only 1300 people live

[17:23] and work in the village, or I'm sorry, in the town.

[17:27] So those are some pretty dramatic numbers.

[17:29] And when you start talking about who is it that we want

[17:33] to invite to live here, well, we want to invite the people

[17:38] that work here to potentially live here.

[17:41] Whether that's fires teaching, you know, people

[17:45] that work in some of our retail,

[17:48] but also the folks that are leaving every day.

[17:51] You know, can some of those jobs come back into the

[17:53] village and into the town?

[17:56] So that all plays into both your economic development

[18:00] strategy and your community development strategy.

[18:03] Looking to balance that much closer to a more even number.

[18:08] I mean, even if you tripled the number of people

[18:12] who will live and work here, would be a, a substantial

[18:16] sustainability solution,

[18:19] but also a much better economic situation for,

[18:24] for the town and the village.

[18:26] So when we wrote the book on this, we wrote

[18:30] what we call the white paper.

[18:31] It's not a book. We came up with four lenses.

[18:36] It's taking those 12 categories and 50 ideas

[18:39] and boiling it down to four

[18:41] and seeing if we can't solve, find a way to solve all

[18:45] of the ideas under four different lenses.

[18:49] The first one is to create a pattern book.

[18:52] A pattern book is to design houses

[18:57] that would fit the character of the village and the town.

[19:01] And these would be residential units that are single family.

[19:06] These are duplexes, triplexes, row houses

[19:11] and multifamily up to eight units.

[19:15] We are not talking about designing things

[19:20] that are 120 units.

[19:21] Those will always go before the planning board.

[19:26] They'll go before, you know, if necessary, the town board.

[19:29] But what we're looking to do is get buy-in.

[19:33] These, these residential units would all be vetted ahead

[19:36] of time by the town, by the town's planning board,

[19:41] a design review committee, historic preservation commission.

[19:45] We would encourage towns to review what we come up with

[19:49] and consider adopting those by right.

[19:53] So that if you said, okay, this, this house,

[19:57] this model would be brand new,

[19:59] but it looks like it could go anywhere in the town,

[20:03] we would accept this if it was put on a vacant lot.

[20:07] If somebody decided to take a large lot

[20:10] and split it, we would accept that being put in.

[20:14] The part that makes that faster is

[20:16] that it would've been adopted

[20:18] and codified into the town code.

[20:21] Therefore a builder, your mom or dad

[20:24] and uncle, a business owner can go pull a building

[20:27] permit and build that tomorrow.

[20:33] Architectural compatibility with the community, vetted

[20:37] by the community and modified as needed by the community.

[20:41] We will come up with the initial thoughts

[20:44] and the initial concepts,

[20:45] but they can be modified to meet the needs of each community

[20:49] manufacturing readiness.

[20:51] We want these particular designs to ultimately be dimension

[20:56] and sized to meet the dimensional requirements

[20:59] of manufactured housing.

[21:02] Manufactured means modular

[21:04] or penalized so that we can reduce the amount

[21:09] of time over onsite built.

[21:12] We are not by any means saying that it's only modular

[21:17] or panelized onsite.

[21:19] Stick built can still happen with these.

[21:24] The other is by having these by, right?

[21:28] If we had five towns in Monroe County that agreed to these

[21:33] with some modifications, then we know

[21:36] that there's gonna be a market for the, the re the more

[21:41] prog, the faster production.

[21:44] And then the banks

[21:45] and the lenders would be able to have financial products

[21:49] to pro to align with those new, those new homes.

[21:55] And this is why we had finance people in on this,

[21:58] as you know, hey, it's not easy

[22:01] to finance a duplex right now.

[22:03] It's easy to finance a detached single family house

[22:07] or a 60 unit multi-family.

[22:09] It's not so easy to, to finance some

[22:12] of these smaller products.

[22:16] The next lens is to take a look at

[22:22] housing from a more economic standpoint

[22:26] and start talking about the economics of housing.

[22:31] We talk about economic development of a community.

[22:33] We talk about how community development, basically your,

[22:37] your housing, your amenities, your, you know,

[22:42] your community services, all work, all work together.

[22:46] Too many times that all

[22:48] of our economic development folks will, will tell you

[22:51] we aren't doing enough community development planning

[22:54] with our economic development planning.

[22:57] We're out there getting jobs, bringing new business in,

[23:00] new industry in Webster, just got fair life.

[23:04] Webster's struggling to meet the demand for the housing

[23:08] that those jobs are creating.

[23:11] So this is, you know, the kind of thing that we have to kind

[23:14] of make sure we, we coordinate.

[23:17] You guys just did an update to the zoning code

[23:21] along Monroe Avenue.

[23:22] Bill is, there is, was it other, other places?

[23:25] The other places as well and different types.

[23:28] But for example, mixed use commercial

[23:29] and residential on the Monroe Avenue commercial

[23:32] Corridor.

[23:34] Some of the applications would, would align

[23:37] with this, some would not.

[23:39] You know, so you know how much of what happens on

[23:43] that corridor could be as of right build, you know,

[23:47] maybe some of the four to eight units if you

[23:49] chose to go that high.

[23:51] You know, there's certainly a lot of pavement out there

[23:53] that we could, we could fill up with mixed use.

[23:57] Let's go to our, our next, okay.

[24:01] Incremental development ecosystem.

[24:04] Incremental development means increasing the number

[24:07] of people who build.

[24:10] I think we could all mention, you know,

[24:11] who built the house we're in

[24:13] or you know, the five to eight different builders

[24:16] that come in to the town

[24:18] and, you know, routinely apply for subdivision

[24:22] or, you know, site plan approval.

[24:24] The idea here is to let you know smaller people

[24:29] who have an interest in it, have a family need

[24:33] to build something, have a need to expand maybe

[24:37] above their business, behind their business to

[24:41] increase the number of people building housing.

[24:45] Not just the guys that come in here.

[24:48] They, as we can see, we haven't been able to meet the demand

[24:52] with that, with that market

[24:55] or the non, the non-profits out there building

[24:58] affordable housing.

[24:59] We have not met the market demand.

[25:01] So we need to increase the number of people

[25:04] who are able to do the building.

[25:07] So, you know, we are looking at ourselves at community

[25:11] design helping with a kind of a bootcamp to teach people

[25:15] how to do development.

[25:17] There's lots involved, so you do need

[25:19] to teach 'em what's involved.

[25:22] We know the mortgage bankers are ready

[25:23] to really start talking about different financial tools

[25:27] and then also really look at land trusts

[25:30] and land banks as, you know, those that have a,

[25:35] a lot of different properties

[25:37] that are maybe available to build on.

[25:41] Can. Yeah, yeah.

[25:44] I just wanna point out the, the,

[25:46] this is really the secret sauce.

[25:47] Getting the incremental development, the small person

[25:51] involved in developing housing

[25:53] streamlines the whole process.

[25:54] It, I say all the time it's easier to find a hundred people

[25:56] to build one home than one to build a hundred homes.

[25:59] And then we go through this much lengthier approval process,

[26:03] but we have to give them some certainty.

[26:05] So the pattern book gives them some certainty

[26:07] that I can pick too close, that I can pick one

[26:11] of the designs and I know I can get a permit within a few

[26:14] days a week and then I can just get moving.

[26:17] The, the time involved in going through the 12

[26:19] to 18 month process we have right now is intimidating

[26:23] and it keeps people away.

[26:25] If we can get this group of incremental developers going,

[26:28] they tend to do infill

[26:29] and belt development, small scale build on vacant lots,

[26:32] build where there's infrastructure build

[26:34] where there's sidewalks and power

[26:35] and water brings the cost of the housing down without having

[26:39] to to go any great lengths on the quality of the housing.

[26:44] So we're trying to shave time, shave cost off of the cost

[26:47] of the housing and make it easy for the individual

[26:51] to be part of solving this crisis.

[26:57] And our, our last lens that we we looked at is

[27:03] really streamlining the approval process itself.

[27:07] I'm a 33 year veteran of the town

[27:10] of Brighton planning board.

[27:12] And I, I know both what the environmental review process

[27:17] and what the town permitting process

[27:23] does as far as slowing things down.

[27:26] The idea again is, you know, there's gonna be proposals

[27:30] that come in that are gonna need

[27:31] to go through the regular process.

[27:33] But what we would like to do is we'd, we'd like to see,

[27:37] you know, these BuyRight residential units approved

[27:41] at the town level

[27:43] and then codified, you know, so that we can take,

[27:46] I I think we could say, I,

[27:49] I know nationally if you take a typical subdivision

[27:53] or a typical mixed use project,

[27:55] you're actually looking at close to 33 months

[28:00] is the typical timeframe it takes to get approved.

[28:03] Now every project's different.

[28:07] Every, every town is different.

[28:09] Every state's environmental laws are different,

[28:12] but nationally that is the average.

[28:15] We say what we'd like to do is we'd like to take, you know,

[28:19] a six to 18 month process, which could be, you know,

[28:22] getting your duplex approved, getting a three, a three

[28:28] plex row house, you know, approved.

[28:30] We'd like to take that down to five to 10 days.

[28:34] We were originally more aggressive on that,

[28:37] but let's, if we can get this down to under a month,

[28:41] you know, we would, we, we could build a lot more.

[28:46] So I'd love to answer any questions.

[28:50] You all have a handout I'd like to point you to

[28:54] reimagine rock housing.org

[28:57] where the entire white paper sits.

[28:59] There's a, a lot more detail, a lot more examples in it.

[29:03] This is kind of a, a brief and a quick presentation.

[29:08] Love to answer any questions whether you have 'em now

[29:11] or, or later.

[29:14] You know, bill, one, one

[29:15] of the things I find most appealing in the,

[29:18] the concepts you're presenting is exactly

[29:20] what you have up in the screen right now that

[29:23] with pre-approval with designs in a planning book

[29:28] that you cut down on the time,

[29:29] which cuts down on the carrying cost.

[29:31] And just to be clear, so we,

[29:33] I'm looking at the line on your slide, 25

[29:36] to 45,000 saved per project.

[29:38] So if we were talking about a really big project, well

[29:40] that's not a lot, but we're talking about these smaller,

[29:42] we're talking about one-offs,

[29:43] we're talking about maybe the eight row houses,

[29:45] or actually in Pittsford it would be four

[29:46] because that's the, the limit.

[29:48] But you get the idea. Yeah.

[29:49] So that is a significant saving that could be passed along,

[29:52] Right?

[29:53] Yeah. The, and these may be conservative numbers again,

[29:58] if we get a, get ourselves to the point where, you know,

[30:02] more towns are, are buying into this

[30:04] and we can get some

[30:07] or all of that production, you know, so if we're saving time

[30:12] on the approval process, if we're saving money on the

[30:18] interest in taxes of carrying costs,

[30:21] and if we're saving time on site,

[30:24] we're we're building in a factory, we're bringing

[30:26] to the site, you know, town inspections become limited only

[30:31] to utilities

[30:32] and any penetrations through the slab,

[30:35] all the other inspections happen at the factory.

[30:39] So it's, it's not like we have to wait three days

[30:42] for an inspector to show up.

[30:43] There's just a lot of time savings

[30:46] and then more predictability for the finance institutions,

[30:50] more comfort for them.

[30:51] And then you get the lending that happens

[30:53] that sometimes is hard to quantify.

[30:56] But you know, one, one

[30:58] of the things we did in our workshop was we asked every

[31:01] discipline, whether you were a a, a banker,

[31:04] you were a realtor, you were this an architect, everybody,

[31:09] we said, what does your fee, what do, what do you add

[31:13] to the cost of housing?

[31:16] What does your profession add to it? It, it's amazing.

[31:21] The bricks and mortar aren't that much.

[31:23] There's a lot, there's a lot of fees that go into it.

[31:27] I'm not surprised. Well, as I I said this

[31:30] dovetails very nicely with many aspects

[31:33] of the changes we made

[31:34] to our zoning code about a year and a half ago.

[31:37] And I, I, at least for myself,

[31:40] would be very interested in seeing how the development

[31:43] of the pattern book proceeds.

[31:46] If there's as part of your process, there might be a way

[31:49] that we could try to include some patterns

[31:53] that would be appropriate for Pittsford

[31:54] that we think would a, a pass muster from our

[31:57] design review board.

[31:58] And I think this has great promise for us.

[32:01] The thank you and the,

[32:02] and the pattern book proposals were submitted yesterday.

[32:07] We have six from some pretty exciting firms.

[32:12] So that's still going.

[32:14] So there were six types

[32:16] of homes per like in the book, the pattern book.

[32:20] Are they prefab buildings on a slab?

[32:26] No, no.

[32:27] What we wanna start with is we just wanna start

[32:31] with the concept sketches.

[32:34] So we want, you know, roof lines, massing window patterns.

[32:38] We want to mimic houses that are in the village

[32:41] or around the town.

[32:43] And in fact we would probably like the town to tell us,

[32:48] you know, hey, this is quintessential Pittsford,

[32:52] this is quintessential around de QUT or whichever town.

[32:56] And then we'll make sure that those are,

[32:59] those design elements are incorporated into,

[33:03] we're gonna have single family duplex triplex

[33:07] up to an eight plex.

[33:09] But there's gonna be different.

[33:10] Yeah, I think you, there's six

[33:13] designers bidding to do the book.

[33:15] Oh, I'm sorry. The

[33:16] Book itself, we're expecting 25 to maybe 30. Yeah, we'll

[33:19] Different Designs to incorporate all these things

[33:20] that bill's talking about so

[33:22] that every town can have a little bit of flexibility

[33:25] and then you can adjust on your own

[33:28] after the basic designs are replaced. So

[33:30] What I was picking up on is

[33:32] inspections would happen at a factory.

[33:35] Yep. And then there would be a fast pass permit process.

[33:41] So long as you didn't go below the, the pad.

[33:45] Oh no. Okay, so it too much, too much jargon. Sorry.

[33:49] Yeah, it's, I'm not no on expert.

[33:52] No, I think

[33:54] In the instances we can streamline production

[33:57] that's attractive because UpSpring costs down

[33:59] and helps speed up the time from permit approval

[34:01] to people living in the home, which is good for everybody.

[34:04] Not everything is gonna be modular

[34:06] or penalized. That's just a piece of

[34:07] It.

[34:08] Yeah, that's a piece you mention that

[34:09] Because that's a great way to increase employment.

[34:12] You can build in the winter when we

[34:14] can't build out of the site.

[34:15] And then you can build these on site,

[34:17] you can put 'em together very quickly

[34:19] and they're high quality homes.

[34:20] Modular homes are high quality homes is not

[34:22] what we think about from the seventies

[34:23] and s So that's just one aspect of it.

[34:26] But my apologies, this

[34:28] Still will be an important business.

[34:29] Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Basements. Yeah.

[34:32] Stick regular furnaces. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

[34:36] Any other questions? Board members for our presenters?

[34:40] If none and gentlemen, thank you

[34:41] so much for bringing this in. You too.

[34:43] Question. Go ahead. Sorry, please. I mean, I'm just trying

[34:46] to put a story like how do I flow this?

[34:48] So, so you mentioned that Brighton, you, you presented this

[34:53] to Brighton and other towns.

[34:54] Has anybody else is constraint signing on

[34:58] Or Yeah, we have entire counties

[35:02] who are looking to join on.

[35:07] I'd say we're at least six at this point.

[35:09] Yeah. We've been having four small discussions.

[35:12] This is the first one town board presentation,

[35:14] but I've spoken to you about a dozen different towns.

[35:16] Ontario County is very aggressively trying

[35:19] to solve their housing crisis and,

[35:21] and many of the towns have signed on

[35:24] to support this in general.

[35:25] They want to see what the designs look like,

[35:27] but the concept of the town remains in control of

[35:30] what gets approved for this process.

[35:33] But once we get to that point, everything is streamlined

[35:36] and faster and is very appealing

[35:37] because it gets people in homes quicker,

[35:39] they start paying taxes more quickly, construction comes in

[35:42] and starts adding to the making back to the town.

[35:45] It's all positive.

[35:46] And these are designed

[35:47] to be built largely in Bill on vacant lots,

[35:50] which is another additional benefit.

[35:51] So the, the response has been very good waiting to see

[35:54] what the, the consultant we hire starts

[35:56] putting out for designs.

[35:57] And that'll be the next phase of more meetings like

[35:59] This.

[36:00] Has there been any modeling of what would be the, how,

[36:04] how would we impact the house prices

[36:07] once these houses are built?

[36:09] Meaning that right now Pittsford, if the,

[36:13] I think median house is getting sold at

[36:15] 500 K minimum, right?

[36:18] Once we, you put this up, how will that impact

[36:22] the median house rates?

[36:25] Was there any modeling done or any idea?

[36:27] I so that way we can

[36:29] Are you, you're, i you're you're saying

[36:35] what will be the impact if we're able

[36:37] to bring this in at a lower cost?

[36:39] Does that affect the property value,

[36:41] Property values, properties, Values?

[36:44] I have not. We have not done that.

[36:46] We have, that was our second lens was that economic modeling

[36:51] and what, what we want to do is

[36:55] we we're looking at economic modeling.

[36:57] I had not thought of that particular angle,

[37:01] but the economic modeling that, that we want

[37:04] to do is show you show towns

[37:08] what does infill development mean in the way

[37:12] of tax revenue generation on roads

[37:16] or on parcels that are already served

[37:18] by existing infrastructure.

[37:20] So now you're getting more revenue per acre.

[37:24] So what does that, how does that help you financially?

[37:27] That was more the, the model that we were looking at

[37:31] and which are the most productive land use models.

[37:35] We know, you know, the denser,

[37:37] the more mixed use are much more revenue generating

[37:41] and higher in revenue per acre tax revenue.

[37:45] When you get to the detached single family,

[37:48] that becomes more of a, a bit of a wash of, you know,

[37:53] how much revenue you're getting versus the cost

[37:55] of community services.

[37:57] We also want to examine that.

[37:59] Yeah, I think, I think that'll help your case much

[38:02] stronger if we are able to model that as well.

[38:04] Because I think there is two stories that you are telling.

[38:06] One story is that hey, there is going, I mean,

[38:10] for at 500,000 you still have

[38:13] to pay a certain amount of tax.

[38:14] The tax burden is going to come down

[38:16] and you're essentially replacing

[38:18] that lost in home value if there is one right.

[38:21] With that, with the tax burden register.

[38:24] So, so what I would, what I would suggest is as part

[38:28] of this, these documentation,

[38:29] if a modeling can be presented, we, it'll be helpful for us

[38:32] to have that discussions with our community members

[38:35] and saying, these are the plus

[38:36] and minuses of, of signing up with this. And so something,

[38:40] And if I may, part of my rationale,

[38:43] and this comes back from my preparation, is how can we

[38:47] as a community be fiscally responsible

[38:49] and be fiscally resilient as we move forward?

[38:54] You know, Pittsford values the services that we have,

[38:59] you know, and I think about our,

[39:00] our young adults in this community

[39:02] and about the reasonableness

[39:03] that they're gonna be able to have a home in the future.

[39:06] I think about my college students and whether

[39:07] or not they're gonna be able to afford a home,

[39:12] and I wonder if they think about that, if

[39:13] that's even something in their future,

[39:15] if you'll ever be able to purchase a home.

[39:17] I know a lot of college students are thinking

[39:19] that's not even part of their future

[39:21] to be able to purchase a home.

[39:23] Yeah. Add to that the,

[39:24] But I also wanna add to that, that as far

[39:26] as our fiscal responsibility

[39:29] and our responsibility to this town

[39:31] and to be resilient as a community, this is part of

[39:36] being responsible and thinking about using our resources

[39:40] and then that includes these parking lots that are empty

[39:46] and not being used to provide housing.

[39:50] And so, which can also provide

[39:54] feeding two birds with one hand, which is

[39:59] entry homes for people as well as revenue

[40:04] for our community to continue

[40:06] to provide the tax base that we need.

[40:08] So there's a lot of fiscal modeling that shows that,

[40:11] that this can work both for both.

[40:13] Yeah. And also we, we give one more demographic

[40:17] that is our seniors who have

[40:19] No Place what to go do you call one

[40:21] and a half acre lots.

[40:22] Right. And who want to downsize

[40:25] and they have no place to go.

[40:26] So I, there is value in this conversation.

[40:29] All I'm saying is that I think there is,

[40:33] you will be asked these questions and,

[40:35] and being ready with some sort of modeling, which explains

[40:40] the loss in

[40:44] how housing value versus the benefits

[40:47] of increased services and tax revenue.

[40:50] I think there is a really good story

[40:51] that you can put together and tell that story to,

[40:54] to win over some of these concerns as well.

[40:57] Can I just say I think this is a very different product

[41:00] than the typical home that's been built

[41:03] for the last 15 years.

[41:05] And, and that's the whole point is there isn't any

[41:08] of this type of form, the typical starter home

[41:10] isn't being built anymore.

[41:12] The only way to do that is through this process,

[41:15] it will fill a gap

[41:16] that will make the town more attractive to certain people.

[41:19] I think it actually ends up helping boost prices

[41:22] rather than dropping them.

[41:23] But absolutely good feedback. We'll

[41:25] At least maintain, at least maintain it.

[41:27] Yeah. Yes. It's not gonna reduce.

[41:29] Yeah. And and those were some of the concern,

[41:31] like Pro Smith said those were some

[41:34] of the concerns about new housing need

[41:36] or young needing housing or seniors needing housing

[41:40] because they have to downsize, they cannot

[41:43] maintain half an acre lotts or one acre lotts.

[41:46] It's a lot of burden for cleaning leaves and,

[41:49] and going long, right?

[41:51] So, so we, we,

[41:53] because of those conversations, we went with mixed zoning

[41:57] of the mono corridor.

[41:59] Yeah. We, we, we wrote our zoning laws

[42:01] or really rated our zoning laws

[42:04] to have our mono corridor be mixed zoning.

[42:06] What I'm, what I'm also interested is,

[42:09] are you having conversations with the landowners

[42:12] and property owners themselves to say

[42:15] there is these opportunities,

[42:16] would you be willing to sign up?

[42:17] Because it's been two and a half years

[42:19] that we signed off on mixed zoning on Monro Mon Corridor

[42:24] and we haven't had one developer,

[42:26] I don't know if developers been reaching out at dispenser's,

[42:29] not here, but I don't know if developers have been reaching

[42:32] out and saying, oh, we see coal mine here

[42:35] and we'll go build houses on top of Wegmans.

[42:38] We haven't had one conversation.

[42:39] So I'm curious also, like, are you having this conversation?

[42:43] Is there willingness to take out the parking lot situation

[42:47] that we are talking about and then build more housing there?

[42:50] I I've had a handful of conversations

[42:52] with very large developers who you would know

[42:56] who their first reaction is.

[42:58] I'm not sure that there's opportunity for me to do that.

[43:01] They don't know that towns are changing their zoning.

[43:04] They're interested, they understand that mixed use is good

[43:07] and they understand the need

[43:09] for senior housing in particular, close

[43:11] to services, close to transit.

[43:13] They're willing to look at it.

[43:15] We have to do a better job

[43:17] of telling them the opportunity is there

[43:19] and that the towns are willing to work with them.

[43:21] And I think there's at least three I've spoken

[43:23] with you would be very interested in that conversation.

[43:25] Yeah. From, from my perspective, I think,

[43:28] I think I was on the zoning,

[43:29] I was the zoning liaison also for zoning board.

[43:33] Now it's my clerk council member.

[43:35] Cur, I think there is a lot of willingness to

[43:40] move the permit timeline to much faster process.

[43:43] I ask anybody in our zoning board or

[43:47] or staff, everybody will tell you, yep, we are willing

[43:50] to move faster, but those opportunities need to be made.

[43:54] Right. But I want to make sure

[43:57] that you are having those conversations

[43:59] because we have enabled those

[44:03] policies two year, two and a half years

[44:05] or two years ago now,

[44:06] and we haven't heard from anybody that would be willing to

[44:11] create more housing here.

[44:13] One last thing I wanted to talk about Bill is that we,

[44:17] two years ago when we started having some

[44:19] of these conversations, there was only a thousand houses

[44:21] that we could build at a single family housing situation.

[44:26] Correct. The the la there was only,

[44:29] there was only enough land

[44:30] for a thousand more houses has then shifted from,

[44:33] Was that the number? Is that

[44:34] I think it, It, it, it sounds

[44:37] roughly speaking. Roughly

[44:38] Speaking, right?

[44:39] So we have roughly enough land for th it was two years ago.

[44:44] I don't know how much it is now.

[44:46] Maybe we've come down, we built 200 houses since those,

[44:49] The conventional single family homes, single,

[44:51] Conventional, single house, a big house, and

[44:52] a big lot convent.

[44:53] Okay. Right. So some of this infill

[44:56] that we are talking about there is if, if,

[45:01] if we are not able to sell that area, we'll run out of

[45:04] that infilled space for you to have these conversations.

[45:07] So I want to want you to think about that as well

[45:10] because it went from thousand to month, maybe 800 now

[45:13] and it sort not stopping building houses.

[45:16] We, we are hard market here, right?

[45:18] So, so something for you to think about as well as

[45:21] how fast do you want to move

[45:22] and how fast are you able to sell this idea

[45:24] because like council member Ang said

[45:29] we are in need of it,

[45:31] but we have to answer all these questions as well.

[45:35] Thank you.

[45:38] Other questions or comments folks?

[45:40] If not now, I will thank you for being with us tonight.

[45:43] Thank you for that. Thank you for the opportunity.

[45:44] Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you.

[45:49] Thank you. Alright. Right.

[45:52] We will move on to legal matters.

[45:54] I will ask, is there anyone signed up to speak Thank you

[45:58] with respect to any of the legal matters there

[46:01] and I will ask town clerk,

[46:02] do we have any email comments on any of the legal matters?

[46:05] I have none. All right, then we can proceed.

[46:08] So we begin with the amendment to the incentive zoning

[46:11] for 150 French Road

[46:13] to permit the Lily Brook signage board you have

[46:16] before you a resolution to make that approval.

[46:19] Do we have any discussion or comment or questions?

[46:23] I, I had a follow up question from when

[46:26] we set the hearing.

[46:28] We were talking about the light that's at the bottom

[46:31] of the sign and we just,

[46:35] I think had a consensus, correct me if I'm wrong,

[46:37] that we would like to make sure that the sign complies

[46:41] with our current lighting requirements.

[46:44] I think I can speak to that. Yes, it does.

[46:49] What we, we don't allow in residential districts

[46:53] is in infill lighting that lighting from behind

[46:57] or glowing letters in it.

[47:00] But we do allow light to be cast directly from

[47:05] below what?

[47:06] Above, onto the sign to see it.

[47:09] That's a part of the, of the light

[47:14] of the sign regulations.

[47:16] I just discussed that upstairs with April Zaki

[47:21] and Doug Re's absence today.

[47:24] As I I understood that that might be a concern.

[47:30] Any other questions? If none, I will

[47:35] move that the application

[47:36] to amend the incentive zoning resolution covering the

[47:38] property at one 50 French Road

[47:40] to allow specific entrance signage,

[47:42] identifying both the Sisters of St.

[47:44] Joseph and friendly senior living, Lily Brook be approved

[47:47] as set forth in the written resolution that you have.

[47:50] I will second it. Mayor Curie? Yes. Hava Navar. Yes.

[47:56] KO Shakar. Yes. Set. LeBlanc? Yes. Smith?

[47:59] Yes. Thank you.

[48:02] And Tiffany, thank you for being with us from Lily Brook.

[48:07] We move on to the resolution

[48:09] and order for establishing the new refuse districts,

[48:14] the Alpine Ridge in which we had a speaker tonight

[48:17] and the extension to Wilshire Hill Board members.

[48:21] Any questions or discussion?

[48:25] If none, do we have a motion to approve?

[48:28] I move to approve the rough refuse districts.

[48:32] I will second it.

[48:36] R Yes.

[48:37] Havin Nabar? Yes. KO Shakar? Yes. Is Satler LeBlanc?

[48:41] Yes. Smith?

[48:42] Yes. Thank you.

[48:45] And we come to setting a public hearing for the

[48:51] veterans property tax exemption law.

[48:54] This, as you may recall from discussion at our last meeting,

[48:56] this is for fully disabled veterans.

[49:00] And I misspoke at the last meeting.

[49:02] I was under the impression at the time that we had

[49:04] to have actually voted on it by October 1st.

[49:08] I was incorrect. We have longer than that.

[49:11] So if we set our hearing

[49:13] for our next regular meeting on October 6th,

[49:16] we will have passed it in in sufficient time.

[49:21] Do we have a handle at all

[49:24] or an inkling of how we determine

[49:27] if somebody is totally disabled?

[49:30] I wanna be clear. I completely support the concept.

[49:34] I just wanna make sure it's done something we can execute.

[49:37] Yeah. Yeah. That's a that's a good question.

[49:39] And they actually, the state law requires

[49:42] that there be a specific letter be given by, from the State

[49:48] Veterans Bureau that's out there

[49:50] and they, so that's the way it's done.

[49:52] We, you can'ts not something that's up to us.

[49:55] You have to, and it can't just come in

[49:58] and say, I get a note from your doctor.

[50:00] You have to have a specific letter that, that is

[50:05] prescribed by state law to, to get

[50:07] In.

[50:08] Okay. Thank you. And at the time of the hearing,

[50:10] I I'm gonna be asking about what we think the cost

[50:13] to the town will be.

[50:17] Okay. I I I can try

[50:18] to give you a little pre look at that.

[50:24] Our assessor said that he thinks

[50:26] that this has the ability right now to,

[50:30] to involve a 45 seriously

[50:34] and permanently handicapped veterans.

[50:38] Okay. Thank you.

[50:44] Thank you. So do we have a

[50:45] motion to set the public hearing?

[50:47] I'll move Setting a public hearing for veterans tax

[50:52] property tax exemption law.

[50:56] I'll second. Yes. Hava Navar. Yes.

[51:00] Ko Shakar. Yes. Staler LeBlanc. Yes. Smith?

[51:05] Yes. Thank you. And that brings us to financial matters.

[51:10] I will ask you once again, do we have any public comments on

[51:12] any of the agenda items under financial matters?

[51:15] I have none. Okay, then we may proceed.

[51:18] We begin with surplus inventory.

[51:23] And I find myself explaining this a lot,

[51:26] but we have new people at every meeting

[51:28] and so I'd like them to know what we're doing

[51:30] and just as the Tom War must vote, with minor exceptions for

[51:35] to buy anything on behalf of the town,

[51:37] the Tom War also must vote to approve getting rid

[51:41] of property owned by the town.

[51:42] So when equipment comes to the end of its life

[51:45] and it's time to get rid of it

[51:46] or trade it in, it requires a vote of the town board.

[51:49] And that is the surplus inventory list that we are is

[51:52] before us now for approval.

[51:56] Questions. Board members?

[51:58] No. If done, I'll move approval

[52:01] of the surplus inventory.

[52:03] I'll second.

[52:08] Sorry. Uri? Yes. Hava. Navar? Yes. Ko Shakar? Yes.

[52:13] Is that lo LeBlanc? Yes. Smith.

[52:16] Yes. And that brings us to the vouchers.

[52:21] This is again for the benefit of our audience.

[52:23] This is over the town board goes over all the accounts

[52:27] payable and approves them so

[52:31] that the checks can be written and we can pay our bills.

[52:34] Questions board members about the vouchers.

[52:38] Two, two questions or related questions.

[52:40] One is on the additional accounts paper listing

[52:43] that we received today, page one there is a mention of

[52:50] a Volvo excavator with, with trade-in for 87,000.

[52:57] The, that was, you're asking about the

[52:59] Volvo excavator, correct?

[53:00] Yeah, that's just part of our yearly fleet

[53:03] replacement schedule.

[53:04] So that finally just came in.

[53:07] Okay. And and the tradein is, tradein was one

[53:11] of the surpluses that we

[53:12] Trade-in was the Yeah.

[53:13] And last few meetings, right? Correct. Okay.

[53:16] And also on the, on the

[53:21] accounts payable page number 52,

[53:27] Let me get there.

[53:28] Sorry, number is

[53:31] There, is excavator rental, I'm assuming

[53:36] for this, waiting for this, correct? No,

[53:39] We normally have, we normally have more

[53:44] projects going on than we have equipment.

[53:46] So typically each year we will do short term rentals,

[53:51] especially around excavators.

[53:53] So currently we are actually renting two

[53:55] excavators and we own two. So,

[53:59] Okay, So that's eight more thousand eight.

[54:01] Eight and half thousand more. Yeah.

[54:03] Yeah. Yep. But actually most cases

[54:07] that would be on the high side.

[54:08] Usually if we have to rent a machine, it's usually

[54:10] for just a couple weeks over the summer months.

[54:13] But with the, the sidewalk projects that we're undertaking,

[54:18] we're renting them for just a little bit longer than we

[54:21] would traditionally, but still far cheaper

[54:25] than purchasing.

[54:28] That was going to be my next question.

[54:29] Do you think it's value in adding more?

[54:32] No, it's, we're, we're probably at a,

[54:34] at a good point right now in terms of the, the amount

[54:36] of time that we rent versus what we own.

[54:39] Thank you Paul. I'm all set.

[54:43] Any other questions about the vouchers?

[54:46] If none, do we have a motion to approve? I move.

[54:50] I'll second Aie? Yes. Hava. Navar? Yes.

[54:55] KO Shakar? Yes. Satler LeBlanc. Yes. Smith?

[54:59] Yes. We do not have anything under Personnel matters.

[55:05] I do not have anything to bring up under other business.

[55:08] Does anyone else?

[55:11] I have one please. Just friends of Pittsford.

[55:14] It's a volunteer group helping with our Pittsford Library.

[55:18] Sorry, friends of Pittsford Library.

[55:19] Yeah, they're always looking for volunteers to help

[55:22] with book sales here.

[55:25] So I would wanted

[55:27] to make sure I made this public announcement.

[55:29] I think the friends of Pittsford Library, we're also going

[55:32] to reach out to our communications team to see if

[55:35] that can be posted on the, on the

[55:40] e-magazine as well.

[55:42] So anybody listening, if you're interested, reach, reach out

[55:46] and help our friends

[55:48] and friends of fit for library with their,

[55:52] with their book sales and events. Thank

[55:55] You.

[55:56] Okay, we'll get that into the e-news then. Perfect.

[55:57] Thank you. Anything else folks,

[55:59] before we go to public comment?

[56:01] I did have one thing. Please.

[56:02] For those that haven't already, our,

[56:04] our environmental board created a survey

[56:06] for our community climate action plan

[56:08] and it's on the front page of our of Our Town website.

[56:12] It'll be there until after the music fest this weekend.

[56:15] So if you haven't yet, go on and fill it out.

[56:17] Give us your ideas

[56:19] and thoughts on the different projects

[56:21] that would benefit Pittsford

[56:22] and we would greatly appreciate it. Thank

[56:25] You.

[56:26] Thank you for that reminder.

[56:28] If nothing else, we will move on to public comments.

[56:31] Do we have anyone signed up to comment? We do not.

[56:34] Do we have any email comments?

[56:36] I have none seeing no comments.

[56:39] We are at the end of our agenda

[56:40] and with thanks to everyone for coming tonight.

[56:43] We are adjourned. Thank you.

TOP Board 9/15/2026

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