Impacts on sprawl
Many factors have lead up to creating sprawl and it's continued progression. We hope to use these pages to touch on some of these factors in particular the factors or projects effecting our region and towns. One of the easiest examples of a project that accelerated sprawl and changed the character of a town is the construction of Route 441. The Village of Penfield has never been the same. There are attempts being made to bring the village experience back but once a 4 line highway was put in the middle of their town, it will be a difficult thing to recreate. Pittsford learned from Penfield's mistake and has avoided the expansion of the roads to four lanes to address the traffic problems. If they expanded the roads to address the traffic, they recognize they would lose the charm of the village, and accelerate the development occurring in their town.
Special bulletin:
The coalition helped put together a free forum called;
"From Plan to Pavement: How Our Roads & Highways Get Built".
The forum highlighted 3 road projects (Route 332, 531 and University Avenue) and present how decisions were made to enhance these roads and what the process was. As a citizen, this is a valuable discussion so that your community may be able to avoid Penfield's dilemma. Both experts and involved citizens were on the panel to discuss each project and what the role of residents in the community are on these types projects.
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A report from that forum is in the works and will be in some part be published as a resource for citizens concerned about road projects occurring in their community. We appreciate your patience while we put it together. |
A more recently proposed project is the new thruway exit for Chili. There are many questions how this will impact western Monroe County and our community as a whole. It's present location is in the middle of a agricultural district. Many from the surrounding area are opposed to this project. The NOEXIT group was formed by Wheatland and Chili residents getting together to protect the character of their community.
The Smart Growth Coalition feels that the proposed exit is a perfect example of how government encourages and supports sprawl. This project is a demonstration of how government spending actually leads to the eventual increase of our taxes. Let us be clear, the primary goal of for this exit is economic development targeted for the west side or our county and this is an important goal that the coalition supports completely. This project we believe will at best accomplish some economic benefit for Chili at the expense of the neighboring towns (Gates, Wheatland, Henrietta, etc..) and at worst destroy the quality community Chili presently is. Certainly the 1900 people that signed a NOEXIT petition opposed to the project see this end result. They have created 20 reasons why they are opposed to this project.
Our choices for development and growth need to be more carefully thought out.
This may be the most critical concept. Our community is ever changing and continuing development is an important part of our community's evolution. The Smart Growth Coalition is not opposed to development. It is concerned that the type of development we are seeing is costly to in terms of our taxes, travel time, loss of Green space, etc.. Development that promotes more choices to address housing needs and transportation is critical step to control sprawl. The Urban Land Institute is promoting progressive steps to address these issues. The New Urbanist movement promotes development that can make a positive impact on our communities. Check out the New Urbanist News and the Congress of New Urbanists.