Report on July 23, 2008 Open Forum Discussion of Costello Developments

The vast majority of speakers at Wednesday's open forum spoke in opposition to one or both of the proposed Costello developments - "the Reserve", which is the gated residential community, and the "Clinton Crossing Corporate Office and Retail Center", which is the hotel/retail/office center with almost double the parking of Pittsford Plaza. Speakers addressed the negative impact on recreational users of nearby parks, the increased traffic that would result on Winton Road, the excess of retail and office space in the area as a whole, the lack of development coordination with neighboring communities, the probable negative effect on property values of nearby residences, the positive effects of having more green space in a community, and other arguments against changing zoning to accomodate the two developments. It was also suggested that if the town is going to give Costello Development a change in zoning it ought to require more amenities in exchange than Costello is currently offering.



Anthony Costello Jr. and one other gentleman questioned claims I made in this blog and in the email I circulated in the community. Their claims boiled down to the following:

1. Use of the term "mall" for the hotel/retail/office center is inaccurate, as is use of the term "gigantic". Clearly proponents of the project do not like the use of "mall" because of its negative connotations. The term is inconvenient for them. However, the project includes 108,000 square feet of retail space, and almost double the parking at Pittsford Plaza. So I'm not going to apologize for use of the term "mall". From this point on, however, I'll be using hotel/office/retail center or the like. The impact of this project on the area, given the parking and total building space planned, would be similar to that of Pittsford Plaza. You can also think about the medical office development around Lac de Ville and Westfall as a comparison. This also leads to the question of whether more medical office space is needed in Brighton.

2. I did not cite specific studies in support of my claims that the proximity of green space often increases property values. I have cited one study in an earlier blog post. A summary of various studies on green space impact on property values can be found here.

3. I gave the wrong figure for Anthony Costello's donation to the Brighton Canal Days Festival. This is correct, and I noted the error in this blog, as well as at the town board meeting July 23.