Video recording

captions Language: en so we're to the uh Thursday June 22nd Webster Town board Workshop tonight we only have one agenda item but I think it's pretty exciting one Josh artuzo our director of Community Development is going to do a presentation on the West Webster Hamlet revitalization plan recommendations and Next Step so Josh I'll hand the Baton to you thank you supervisor um so tonight's agenda I'm going to briefly go over the planning process and the schedule that this initiative uh underwent I'm going to provide an update on the last public open house and I'm going to go through this relatively quickly because I'd like to spend the majority of the time on the plan recommendations as well as the implementation and next steps and allow for some questions and discussion so in terms of the planning process and schedule that we went through just to refresh everyone's memory this was a ninety thousand dollar grant that that we received that weeda obtained on behalf of the Town through the Genesee Transportation Council there was a ten thousand dollar Town match and essentially there were nine tasks as part of our contract with the transportation Council we've since completed all nine of the tasks which lead us to a final plan report which we will be discussing tonight so the project schedule we kicked this off back in March of 2022 there were several committees formed there was an internal committee a technical committee comprised of both Town staff representatives from Monroe County and New York State Departments of Transportation as well as a representative from the Transportation Council who funded the study that committee met several times throughout the process to review the consultant deliverables our consultant being Ingalls planning and design and srf Associates and we also formed a citizen committee that was comprised of about 25 local residents business owners and other neighborhood stakeholders so the various committees met throughout the process as I said and yes there were also three public input opportunities the first one was last summer and it was virtual in nature some of you may remember they created a website social pinpoint where people could identify issues in the area on a map give their ideas and and vision for what the future could hold for the neighborhood and then we had two public open house events one in October and then another one in March the one in October was very well attended I think we had over 70 people from the community come and the final public open house we had about 40 people so we we were happy with the level of interest and Community involvement throughout the process which is always a good thing [Applause] so the basic approach that our Consultants used were basically you know where are we now taking a look at the community profile various collection of data and statistics on both the the people the business and the condition of properties um where do we want to go so developing a future vision for the Hamlet and then how do we get there which is developing an action plan that identifies priorities outcomes actions and responsible parties so that was the theme of the approach throughout the entire study um as I mentioned we did have a final round of public engagement at uh Liberty Lodge in Finn Park back in March and as I said 40 about 40 people came the primary goal of this particular one was we displayed the preliminary recommendations and had opportunities for people to provide feedback and help prioritize the various different scenarios that were considered so it really helped to focus and identify what the top priority recommendations should be with the preferred intersection configurations design themes and things of that nature um there was strong support for for most if not all of the recommendations and as you'll see um we will go through the specifics of those recommendations a little bit later um so there's a West Webster concept plan which is a a graphic illustration of some of the themes and Concepts that we'll be discussing and going through tonight then there's the land use and development component of it that gets into zoning setbacks and things that kind of Drive the Physical Realm of the neighborhood and then you have the transportation and streetscape improvements and and trying to improve and and develop a sense of place when you enter into the Hamlet you should know that you're within the Hamlet so this next slide here is the conceptual plan you can see the colored areas are basically these ever that's the entire study area um the areas that are not grayed out and then as you can see the Four Corners the intersection of Ridge Road and gravel really being the epicenter of the Hamlet area there were other areas identified for Gateway opportunities and those are are Illustrated in the dotted white circles so you have the intersection of Bay Road and ridge on the western end of the study area you have the intersection of Empire and gravel and you also have the intersection at Empire and Ridge and those those are really good Gateway opportunities to really Define entering into what is really a distinct area as it exists now and we're just looking to improve upon that so there's various transportation and streetscape recommendations that are identified by the the blue dots with numbers and we will go through those in more detail so as a result of the analysis that the Consultants did with consensus from the various committees they're really were three distinct character areas within the study area based on the existing conditions um so one of those character areas is the Four Corners um it's characterized by smaller lot sizes buildings that are relatively close to the street um somewhat different in nature obviously than the larger commercial developments along Empire Boulevard and then you have the north side of Empire really beginning where the Abbotts location is all the way up to Empire on the North side has a fairly distinct character in and of itself and then you have the south side of Empire where the movie theater and the bowling alley those are larger Parcels with larger buildings so when we talk about future land use basically we're looking to better Define these three character areas so one of the recommendations for land use and development on the left hand side of your screen you can see that there's a hodgepodge of several different existing zoning districts everything from R3 single family residential um to higher density residential all the way up to MC which is medium intensity commercial so how future zoning and land use would work with these character areas essentially there's three districts or sub districts within the study area that there's zoning changes proposed for uh the first one being the Hamlet core which is identified in like an orangish color primarily in the in the area of Ridge and gravel and that and along Ridge Road near that intersection that's characterized by smaller lot sizes less required setbacks really trying to maintain that Hamlet character and feel so the Hamlet transition area is just to the south of that and that would be along the north side of Empire Boulevard which is currently MC again medium intensity commercial calls for fairly large lot sizes and pretty substantial setbacks from the street and then obviously the the third one is on the south side of empire in the pinkish salmon color and that would be recognizing that there's opportunity over time for these larger development Parcels potentially for some mixed use Redevelopment so those are the three main sub districts within the study area in terms of land use character areas so there's some illustrative examples of how this would actually physically come to fruition so the Hamlet core again would be a combination of vertical and horizontal mixed-use buildings they'd be two to three stories active ground floors with lots of transparency at the ground level um basically near the street high level of pedestrian friendly essentially making them walkable the main entrances would be oriented to the street and then for the Hamlet transition area which again is the north side of Empire this area would transition from like a larger commercial property area along Empire Boulevard to the smaller Hamlet scaled mixed juice development so kind of like a transition and again this would provide a mix of uses encourage cross access for vehicles shared parking lots enhanced Landscaping treatments especially in the front yards and and visible from the street and then for the south side of Empire Boulevard the Hamlet Corridor again these are larger Parcels with larger buildings but they they do provide opportunity for over time Redevelopment consisting of a mix of residential and Commercial uses um again connecting with shared parking lots pedestrian connections dressing up the streetscape it really all goes hand in hand to kind of tie the entire study area with its different characteristics together so uh there was a rendering put together that kind of shows the existing what's now the abbots ice cream shop with a more formalized parking situation there's currently a vacant piece of land directly to the east of the building and with this graphic on the screen shows is a potential infill development on that vacant parcel while still you know containing the off street parking defining the uh Ingress and egress of the parking lots as you could see there's the addition of sidewalks and crosswalks along Empire Boulevard uh to improve pedestrian safety and again here's another image of what that area could look like and the form that the buildings would take in relation to the streets then we go into the Hamlet core area and this is a potential I think you've all seen this image before this this is what um the intersection of Ridge and gravel could look like if some of the recommendations were to be implemented that's actually a rendering of what a rehabilitated 600 Ridge Road could potentially look like [Applause] so another recommendation you know building upon what I just mentioned would be to develop a mixed residential district to align with the future land use map and this would primarily be from where the residential starts along Old Ridge Road just east of Ridge and grip uh yeah Ridge and gravel uh to the intersection of bay and Ridge Road so this area is primarily single family residential there's a few uh doubles scattered in this stretch um but the the plan recommends taking a look at potentially permitting some other higher density type residential uses like duplexes and and fourplexes um this housing speaks to what they refer to as providing housing for the missing middle these would be um as I mentioned higher density more units um and would provide you know some nice infill development while still keeping in character with the existing neighborhood so another one of the recommendations would be to implement a variety of green in infrastructure and improvements these would most likely coincide with any transportation project or Road intersection reconfiguration obviously we would encourage Street trees and other green infrastructure wherever appropriate um so this slide is illustrating the preferred Alternatives that were identified through the public feedback and open house sessions the Consultants provided a couple different options for each of the corridors and this is all under the assumption that we're working within the existing right-of-way so in terms of old Ridge Road the preferred cross-section includes sidewalks on both sides of the street the addition of Street trees and a tree lawn and then a 11 foot uh travel Lanes with five foot sidewalks and this this is actually feasible as I said within the town's existing right-of-way now there might be some engineering details that need to be worked out but they have confirmed that this is doable um and then in terms of gravel road again the preference was for sidewalks on both sides of the street just two travel Lanes 11 feet wide and then the side with the fire department the the West Side would have a seven foot uh Tree Lawn in between the sidewalk and the properties and a five foot tree area between the road itself and the sidewalk which creates you know a sense of safety for pedestrians walking on the sidewalk and then again the preferred concept for Empire Boulevard was similar again everyone was in favor of of including sidewalks on both sides of the street if possible there's obviously a significantly larger right-of-way with Empire Boulevard but it would still remain two travel Lanes with the center Center turn lane and again addition of sidewalks and Street trees and tree lawns uh going back to the whole concept of creating a more defined sense of place some of the elements that you can install or Implement throughout the neighborhood to get that consistent feel and look would be you know pedestrian amenities like park benches trash receptacles um street lights banners things of that nature bicycle infrastructure and it really just kind of ties the whole look and feel of the area together for a cohesive visual so another Transportation related recommendation would be to implement access management practices for Empire Boulevard our code does already call for shared parking agreements wherever possible however this this particular stretch of Empire Boulevard really has a lot of asphalt there's not a lot of defined entrances and exits to these buildings so the thought is over time as some of these sites uh are redeveloped we could then begin implementing the access management potentially reducing the number of uh access drives which also helps with the transportation the flow of Transportation as well minimizes vehicular and pedestrian conflicts and just provides a safer environment for pedestrians so one of the specific recommendations for uh the intersection of gravel and Empire is is an intersection realignment that would essentially take Gravel Road and curve it South to line up with Empire Boulevard as a tea intersection rather than the current why I guess you would say um so it would include new ADA Compliant curb ramps Associated pedestrian features um countdown signals high visibility crosswalks and it would align with a new Access Road that would be in between an existing Plaza and the AMC theater obviously this would require installation of a new traffic signal where there isn't one that currently exists but it would definitely help with pedestrian Crossings you know as I'm sure you know there's been there's been some accidents over the years in this stretch of Empire and and we believe that this intersection reconfiguration would help a great deal on a number of items another major recommendation is some roadway and streetscape improvements along Gravel Road again connecting the four corners of the Hamlet to other areas new crosswalks new sidewalks again ADA Compliant curb ramps on the corners and really just giving an opportunity to connect the southern portion with with the central portion of the study area another potential uh recommendation that we would want to consider is the intersection of Ridge Road and Empire Boulevard and the way that it is being proposed here would would create minimal changes essentially you'd be um trying to formalize more of a corner rather than a shoot off of Empire Boulevard and you could do that in a couple different ways um either raising the area slightly with a mountable curb and concrete treatment or coloring the pavement in a way that notifies the driver that you're not supposed to be traveling in this area and the thought would be to really slow down the traffic in that area providing a new formalized pedestrian Crossing at this location that lines up with the bowling alley and the addition of a sidewalk on the south side of Ridge Road to so that residents could Traverse you know from the Hamlet core over to some of the commercial businesses to the east so another another intersection reconfiguration uh is Bay Road and Old Ridge Road and the thought here would be to potentially reduce one of the travel Lanes along Bay Road and replace with Landscaping that would shorten The Pedestrian Crossings it would create again visual enhancements for The Pedestrian and improved amenities again curb ramps signals and things of those that nature so here is kind of a a map a singular map showing what I've just described in more detail sidewalks are proposed sidewalks are indicated in the orange dotted lines the conceptual intersection realignments are circled in blue and the entire study area being outlined in yellow so when we talk about trying to strengthen a sense of place we wanted to think about what what would be an appropriate theme so we did come up with a variety of potential themes that were discussed and reviewed and voted on by the various committees and what was ultimately agreed upon and or there was the most consensus on was the theme of it being a vintage area you know there's a lot of history in in this area the Old Trolley line used to go up and down old Ridge Road there was the ice house there was the drive-in movie theater and a lot of the discussions you know surrounded you know paying tribute to the old days so ultimately the um the proposed theme in terms of signage um streetscape enhancements uh banners icons um essentially follows the Vintage historical theme so what you're looking at are potential uh signage and lighting opportunities way finding gateways with the Vintage theme and that was uh there was pretty strong consensus that that that fit this area the most so now in terms of uh another recommendation that came out of the plan was enhanced code enforcement so obviously the town board just passed a property maintenance chapter at its last meeting we will begin to utilize the tools that we will have for a focused code enforcement initiative in this area to try and get some immediate visual improvements and then another recommendation is to establish the Hamlet as a priority investment Zone now I'm not exactly all that familiar with with that we would have to do a little more research um but that is being recommended nonetheless so in terms of implementation um there are a total of 14 recommendations that that came out of the plan and it's it's been they've been identified in an implementation Matrix that lists the recommendation it identifies a rough cost estimate to what some of these um projects you know might might cost it identifies potential funding sources whether it be grant opportunities um you know the various Grant grants that are out there for both transportation and you know building Rehabilitation potentially uh then it identifies uh what what parties should be involved you know who who should be leading this particular effort whether it be the town the state the county Etc and then what is the desired timeline um so short term is generally within the next year or so medium-term goals would be anywhere from two to five years and then there's some longer term goals that we realize uh may take a little bit longer perhaps five to ten years um so as I mentioned 14 recommendations we have identified priority recommendations uh ones that their the team felt should be pursued first and foremost so one of the major ones is to refine and adopt the Hamlet mixed use District to align with the future land use map so we'll have to have further discussions and we'll have a much more detailed Workshop I think to to discuss the the proposed code revisions but that is nonetheless um one thing that we feel is pretty important the reason being you know there's the Jade Palace site there's the former Webster Furniture stripper site and the current zoning that's in place today really limits the the opportunity to redevelop those properties um so we feel that it's important to tackle that as one of our main main priority recommendations in the near future um then obviously implementing some of the preferred streetscape improvements there are a lot of them being proposed we recognize that it may not be feasible to tackle the entire area all at once but we have nonetheless identified the central point the intersection of Ridge and gravel as being one of the top priorities for improvements um yeah Gravel Road being top priority and then a portion of Ridge Road as well from Cane Patch to Empire um so again uh here's a conceptual plan um I won't go through each of the 14 recommendations again because I covered most of them in in earlier slides but I also wanted to mention you know you know we did receive some feedback from some business owners particularly on the Abbott site and you know there were concerns about losing parking or you know based upon some of these proposed recommendations but really um Matt Chatfield from Wida kind of did a quick sketch and it was further further refined by our consultants and basically to show that even with some of the proposed recommendations limiting access points constructing sidewalks if you create a more formalized parking situation um you know well-defined spaces with lines and a circulation pattern that makes sense you could actually um maintain or even increase the number of parking spaces that are available for nearby businesses so that's what this next visual is essentially showing the Abbotts building and then the yellow building being a new structure that's on a on what's currently a vacant place of land again a substantial amount of off-street parking even with um the improvements in place so these are just some more visual examples of of what the development Alternatives could look like so this would be for the Empire Boulevard North section the transition area between suburban and urban showing improved pedestrian connections directly from the sidewalk to the businesses tree Lawns that get the pedestrian um far from vehicular traffic reduction of the access points more well-defined access points with Landscaping treatments that just really improved the visual Aesthetics of the area um now this this is a conceptual rendering of what that could look like over time as Redevelopment occurs and then this area again just shows a more higher density Urban feel pedestrian scaled amenities and signage a mix of uses both commercial and residential and some of the same themes of shared parking reduced access points and just improving the walkability of the area so this this next visual is a conceptual rendering of a potential Redevelopment scenario for the AMC theater site you could still have one large anchor building with several smaller outbuildings that have a mix of uses pedestrian connections open space Green Space and Landscaping more attractive than a sea of asphalt so that brings us to our next steps so the final draft of the plan has been completed and provided to the town we're here tonight on June 22nd giving this presentation to the town board The Next Step would be to either formally accept or adopt the plan so that it has the endorsement of the official endorsement of the town we would look to come back and and pursue the zoning changes this fall and then Matt and Wida and others would pursue Transportation grants in the next round of funding that I believe will be coming in the fall of this year and then we would continue to work on implementing the rest of the recommendations based on the implementation Matrix that I went over previously so with that I would be happy to answer any questions when was that picture taken yeah what oh is it downtown for the four corners is that the one with the boat and yeah that picture was taken last summer wow well pitcher's worth a thousand words and and you know enhanced code enforcements that's going to help it all right sure yeah absolutely um like short term from this standpoint it'll help a lot agreed yeah yeah we want to keep the momentum rolling um there's been a great deal of interest in this project this is just one component of a larger effort to help Revitalize this area so I would like to thank our Consultants Matt Ingles from Ingles planning and design and Andy as well as srf and all of the citizen and business owners that participated on the various committees that's that's key and I'm you've done a lot of work on this and have the uh the business owners and residents buy-in is pretty significant going forward yes to your point keeping the momentum going and as you know now that now that we have a planned document that has Community Support right it helps strengthen our opportunity to grant funding yes I want to thank uh I think Josh his team I want to think they're telling board because this is in Man of course this is uh pretty dynamic project you're putting forward I mean a fairly detailed plan of what a portion of the Town that's sort of laid fallow for decades and really gone into just repairing disuse and can be done I it's it's this is I'm pretty impressed all I can say I I've got a question though you're talking about considering zoning changes um we would have to consider you're saying consider zoning changes this is probably more discussion rather than the actual changes themselves well we were provided with a draft ordinance that the Consultants prepared so we do have a fairly clear idea so this would be for the new the new districts or the new types of zoning correct and getting rid of the old ones basically correct okay probably I mean part of what we should maybe do and I'm sure it's probably going to be considered as part of the comprehensive plan is is to maybe some of these old older or existing uh categories might be done away with entirely uh potentially I mean we've got we've got a lot of we've got a lot of very small districts that probably should be redone and sort of it's a misuse really of zoning when you have small districts and uh like you have here right it's a mix of yeah various kinds of commercial and residential it's it just it doesn't look good it doesn't make sense because it defeats the whole purpose of having a zoning code anyway but what about um contacting the state I mean obviously Empire Boulevard is a state road correct and gravel is a Town Road right gravel is accountable it's a county room and what about Ridge Town Road I'm sorry it's Town Ridge is a town yes that's interesting so Ridge old Ridge Road is a town road gravel is County yep all right so we've got it we've got all agencies we would be dealing with um with the but obviously New York State the Department of Transportation but also the county correct all right and they they did they were represented throughout the whole process they said on our committee so that they do have buy-in um for the most part obviously there'd have to be more detailed engineering um done to make sure that everything's feasible but um yeah in in Josh to that point Charlie you get a kick out of this I think that was it last spring that we got the the New York State Department of Transportation Monroe County Department of Transportation Matt Posse of us walked that whole perimeter pretty much yeah of 22.