Tonight (2019-06-17) was a meeting of the Honeoye Falls Board of Trustees.
The big topic of the night was the public hearing on updating the zoning code. To skip to the end: no action tonight, probably action at the August meeting, after more discussion next month.
The weekends Music Festival seems to have gone well, despite some rain. At least that’s the opinion expressed during the meeting. Personally, I thought it was rather empty when I visited. But I’m not a big concert fan, so I likely picked the worst time to walk through.
Every Tuesday from 6:30-8:30, through August, there will be music in the park, much like last year. Sounds like the promotional fliers aren’t out yet, but they should be soon. Again, for those that like that sort of thing…
As an aside during other conversation, it came up that the Mathstone foundation on Norton street should actually have a building built on it this fall. As it was an aside, no exact date was given. Personally, I’m just glad it hasn’t been forgotten.
Those minor tidbits out of the way, the big topic was the Zoning Code (Chapter 190) Update and the linked public hearing. Larger turn out then I would have expected, but still plenty of open chairs (I counted 4 people there for the hearing, including me).
Political signs (as opposed to other kinds of signs) came up, in that we aren’t supposed to regulate based on content of a sign. While I can understand this, from a 1st amendment point of view, it’s also rather silly. I’m sure if I had a sign telling people to go kill a particular person, it would be taken down real quick (and justly so). Which pokes a hole in the ‘no content restrictions’ idea. So you don’t name it ‘political’, phrase it about events and timing. Something like ‘signs for an event must be taken down within one week after the event’. Election over? Time for the signs to go. But would also apply to any other event, thus not targeting politics, while also caring about the content. As such a solution is too obvious, this may illustrate how difficult certain topics may be to legislate.
Square footage of structures (retail in particular, but others were touched upon) was the big discussion. Good amount of back and forth between the presenters, the trustees, and the public. While it sounds like the code will end up somewhere around ~15,000 square foot for commercial, that wasn’t decided tonight. There were comments about how larger is bad (personally I have no opinion, apart from the standard ‘less government is better’), but at the same time one of the trustees said it was sad to chase away good ideas, which is what having too low a limit has the potential to do.
Deric offered the opinion that retail square footage is trending down. I find it amusing that the owner of what is likely the largest retail building in the Village, thinks retail is shrinking. Might mean he is in a unique position to evaluate these trends, or it might mean he has a vested interest. Either way, it felt ironic.
I think a statement about having the ‘type of business we want’ illustrates the inherit problem here. The idea that, somehow, government (the Village in this case) can choose what is the ‘right’ activity for particular properties is something I find worrisome. Especially when it comes up how past ‘great ideas’ didn’t seem to work out as planned. Better to set the default stance to ‘all is allowed’, and then forbid those things that are clearly bad/harmful. In the end, let the property owner figure out what to do with their land. After all, they do own it (right?). Instead, the code takes the approach of ‘deny all’, and then allow those ideas they think are ‘good’.
I knew suggesting the switch wouldn’t go anywhere, as this isn’t the first time I’ve brought the idea up (and probably won’t be the last). In the end, I just hope I was able to get the idea across. I know I’m not the best speaker (or writer), so often wonder how well the words I think I say actually get across the idea I am attempting to communicate.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the June 17, 2019 meeting of the Honeoye Falls Board of Trustees.
Agenda was not available anywhere I could find. Perhaps it will be on the Village’s website in the future, perhaps not…