Rochester Development Blog

Among mid-sized cities, Rochester may be #1 in our hearts, but it's #2 in an important metric. According to Roofstock , Rochester, NY has the second highest property tax rate among mid-sized cities (Population 150k-350k) in the United States, only behind Aurora, IL. On top of this tax, Rochesterians also pay an 8% sales tax (4% county on top of 4% state), and state income tax, the 7th highest in the nation. The tax bill for living here is painful to be sure. Chief Justice John Marshall once wrote "The power to tax is the power to destroy", and while it often doesn't go as far as that, it isn't hard to see taxes make people go out of their way to do something. For example, the tax rate in Monroe County is 8%, while in the bordering Ontario County the tax rate is 3.5%. Eastview Mall sits in the town of Victor, just across the county border from Monroe. Almost all of the customers for Eastview originate in Monroe county, yet because of how a line was drawn on a map s...

I'm just going to start this one by saying that people roping off a section of the natural world and calling it "theirs", aka land ownership, on a society wide basis has proven to be, well, bad. And now that half of you have angrily closed your browser, I'll be happy to explain what I mean to a sympathetic, or at the very least, an intellectually curious audience. A Brief History of Land Use in America If we go back into the mists of time, the idea that you have to pay money, or work for a lord and give him some portion of your produce to live isn't exactly new. Any sufficiently advanced society has some form of money, some form of landlord-tenant relationship. It certainly existed in Roman times, and even in some Native Americans tribes, like the Aztec. The institution of land ownership is pretty similar everywhere, but it has shaped the United States in a pretty unique way. In the early days of colonial America, when native tribes were obliterated by disease and...

Last night I attended my first ever public planning meeting, this was for Rochester ZAP changes for the southeast quadrant, which I've covered extensively in my previous post . I already had a pretty good idea about the material that was being presented, but it was also neat to hear from other people in the community. So this is a pro-city blog. I like cities, and I think it was a mistake for Americans to turn away from cities in the 20th century. And of course not everyone agrees with me on that. The start of the presentation felt like a reassurance that "no, we're not getting rid of your single family zoning". There was one older lady who talked about how she fought really hard to keep a strip of street zoned residential a few decades ago, and if it was rezoned now she threatened to move out of the city. Another lady was complaining about the planned project at the former Colgate campus, which is a pretty cool site and project, and I'll make sure to make a futu...

 Rochester is changing up it's zoning plans from this To this: The new zoning plan will change how land in Rochester is used in accordance with the Placemaking Plan in Rochester 2034 . More development will be allowed in each district, and the map has changed to allow more intensive land use and higher density development. Here is a table of the new districts and the major changes from the old ones: Old Name New Name Comments/Changes R-1 LDR - Low Density Residential Generally single-family housing Minimum lot size decreased to 4000 sqft from 5000 sqft Existing 2-unit buildings allowed R-2 MDR - Medium Density Residential Increases building limits from 2-family to 4-family R-3 HDR - High Density Residential - C-1 BMU - Boutique Mixed Use Multi-family uses allowed C-2 NMU - Neighborhood Mixed Use Craft Production permitted 9000 sqft maximum up from 6000 FMU - Flexible Mixed Use Kind of a new category, few restrictions High density residential, commercial, light industrial allowed C...