August 16 update on recent activity.

Let's review the proposed Costello developments for Brighton and the reasons we oppose them.

1. A five-story Embassy Suites Hotel, conference center, 108,000 square feet of retail space, and multi-story office buildings, totalling just about 1,000,000 square feet of development and 3420 parking spaces. Charts of the development show most of the area bounded by Winton and Clinton on the east and west and I-590 and the projected Senator Keating Boulevad to the south and north filled with buildings and parking lots. The development has a 4 acre "linear park" through it, I believe for pedestrian and bicycle access. The density of floor space per acre is 12,000+ square feet, whereas the 2000 Town Comprehensive Plan envisioned a maximum of 5000 square feet.

Well over 700 residents of Brighton have already signed our petition opposing rezoning (most of the signatures are hard-copy, not online).

We are not against development in Brighton, but against this type of large-scale, inappropriate development. We emphasize that the developer, Anthony Costello Development requires a zoning change to implement his plan. What we are asking is that the town retain its current zoning (residential) or the zoning for this area projected in the 2000 town plan. If the zoning is changed beyond the town plan, we would ask that the town board bargain for more amenities than the developer is currently offering (for example more park land).

This development is unnecessary given the large amount of vacant office and retail space in the area, the declining population of Monroe County, and the stable population of Brighton. The property tax impact of the development is unclear, given that green space increases property values (as shown for example by a recent University of Chicago study of the Chicago suburb of Orland Park) and overdevelopment lowers them. An early 2008 Planning Board memo warns that the development "overwhelm" the transportation network. The immense parking lots may create drainage problems. The hotel, to name one building, is taller than the Brighton building code allows.

2. The Reserve, a residential development on the north shore of Erie Canal, will consist of around 340 housing units. Costello Development has dropped the idea of "gating" this community, for which we commend them. However, the buildings in the Reserve are still taller than the Brighton Building Code allows, and the large number of new residences will put an additional burden on the town school system, which already lacks space for new students.