The evening of 2023-03-27 was a meeting of the Mendon Town Board.
Topic of the meeting was a Public Hearing for an amendment to the Comprehensive Plan. A paper copy was available at the meeting, and is also available online.
There were a few comments, but no one in the room seemed to be against the idea the amendment represented. The Board will likely act on this amendment at their 4/10 meeting, I suspect to adopt it.
A couple of the comments were about how details of implementation would work out. As that would be for an eventual local law, the Board offered no opinion on that tonight. Fair enough, process has it’s place. Get first things done first. Then on to defining a local law and details.
There was one comment that had me thinking, it was about the hamlet and how effective micro-hotels (ie short term rentals) would fit in well there. It didn’t seem to have a particular call to action, but where my thoughts went was the Village of Honeoye Falls. There are a number of vacant store fronts. The former True Value is the first that jumps to mind, but I’m sure others exist. Could they be repurposed as short term rentals/micro-hotels/call them what you will? It would require the property being refurbished for that function. But as it’s a business area already, the neighbors are unlikely to complain. It would also require working with the Village Zoning Code, and I haven’t looked up how that addresses this topic. But it is one theoretical way to fill an otherwise empty storefront.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the March 27, 2023 meeting of the Mendon Town Board.
Link to agenda on Town website.
In the interests of full disclosure, I am on the Town’s Zoning Board. We have had applications on the topic of short term rentals in the past, and I suspect we will have some in the future. For whatever that is worth…