Tonight (2019-07-15) was a meeting of the Honeoye Falls Board of Trustees.
For those interested, the tax cap override was approved. Which does nothing directly to the tax cap, tax rate, or tax levy. This just means that when budget time rolls around again, there are more options on the table. Presumably, this ‘override’ would be repealed in April, directly before passing a budget, as has happened in previous years. Is all about adapting to the demands imposed by Albany.
Haylee presented on the Clean Energy Communities Program, and how the Village is already half way towards joining it. As we already have ‘LED Street Lights‘, it sounds like we will be passing ‘Benchmarking‘ and ‘Unified Solar Permit‘ to meet the requirements. I have mixed thoughts here: On the surface, these do seem like good ideas. On the other hand, it feels vaguely scam like, although I can’t quiet place how/why.
Another thing I can’t place is where I’ve seen Haylee before. Probably another meeting, but who knows. Oh well.
Apparently an old letter was found inside a monument in the cemetery, sounds like it was found during repairs. Likely an interesting story behind it, if only in it having survived so long. The Village will be talking to the Historical Department about the practicality of restoring it, as it is currently too brittle to just open. The ethics of opening it was asked as well. As this can’t be the first time such a thing has happened, the Historical Department again seems like the people to ask about similar incidents.
There will be a public hearing at next months meeting for updating the Zoning Code. I would expect them to approve it then. Tonight they talked about a few details, such as square footage and changing the zoning of a few lots. Details that, in the end, should be rather minor.
An interesting comment was made about how it would be ‘easier to allow exceptions through a variance, then deny undesirables that meet the footprint’ (to paraphrase, what I would clearly misquote). Which is where I think the current Zoning model has it backwards. Instead of deny all, except what the code allows (the current model), we should allow all, except where denied. Pro’s and Con’s to both approaches, but as we live in a (supposedly) free society, I would think the default stance should be ‘allowed’, not ‘denied’.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the July 15, 2019 meeting of the Honeoye Falls Board of Trustees.