News Blog

Rochester Mayor Tom Richards will conduct the fourth and final Voice of the Citizen — Budgeting for Public Safety forum from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Monday, September 16, at the Carter Street Community Center, 500 Carter Street in the city's northeast quadrant.

The city has set aside $200,000 in the fiscal year 2013 to 2014 budget for "citizen budgeting," a process that will allow residents to transform their ideas into projects or investments aimed at improving public safety in neighborhoods. Christine Carrie Fien


The Monroe County Industrial Development Agency will meet at noon on Tuesday to tackle a busy agenda. Among the items: exemptions for two E.J. Del Monte Corp. hotel projects.

For one of the projects, the company will invest $2.4 million to convert an existing Courtyard by Marriott hotel on Paddy Creek Circle in Greece to a Fairfield Inn by Marriott. E.J. Del Monte Corp. is seeking sales tax exemptions that’ll amount to $122,048 and plans to create the equivalent of three full-time jobs. A public hearing on the application is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Monday, September 16, at Greece Town Hall, 1 Vince Tofany Boulevard.

E.J. Del Monte Corp. is also seeking tax exemptions for its $18 million Hilton Garden Inn at College Town in the city. A payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement for the project was approved in February, but the company is seeking additional sales and mortgage tax exemptions worth $831,200. The company estimates that it’ll create the equivalent of 50 jobs. COMIDA will hold a public hearing on the application at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, September 17, in the Watts Conference Center, 49 South Fitzhugh Street.

The COMIDA board meets in the Watts Conference Center, too. Its Tuesday agenda also includes incentive applications from NOHMS Technology, a lithium battery development company based at Eastman Business Park; High Falls Operating Company LLC, the North American Breweries subsidiary that operates the Genesee brewery; and Fee Brothers, which makes cocktail mixes, bitters, and botanical waters.


[UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 17] The Village of Pittsford has canceled Wednesday night's public hearing.

Original post: At 7 p.m. on Wednesday, the Village of Pittsford Board of Trustees will hold a public hearing regarding the village planning board’s site plan approval for the 75 Monroe Avenue project. The hearing will take place in the auditorium at Pittsford Sutherland High School, 55 Sutherland Street.

The hearing will focus on an appeal of the decision, filed by project opponents. The village has a unique law on the books that lets residents and “any applicant or interested person” appeal planning board decisions to the Board of Trustees. That’s what’s happening here, and the public hearing is part of that process.

The project developer is suing to get that law thrown out, and the case is pending in court.

A Mark IV Enterprises subsidiary wants to build a 167-unit apartment complex with a restaurant and publicly accessible waterfront. The project site borders the Erie Canal. Jeremy Moule