“Here’s an opportunity to get a brand new building, get rid of the stuff that’s there now, and provide a service to the neighborhood. From our standpoint here, I don’t know that you’re going to do any better.” PETER SIEGRIST, PRESERVATION PLANNER FOR THE CITY OF ROCHESTER
NEIGHBORHOODS | BY CHRISTINE CARRIE FIEN
DEVELOPMENT | BY JEREMY MOULE
Highland Market’s new life
Money in the bank
Owner Danny Stefanou says that he intends to reinvent the Highland Market in the South Wedge as the go-to place for quick and easy access to fresh, healthy foods. Stefanou has owned the market at the corner of Linden and South avenues for more than 30 years, leasing it out for the last 21 years. But the building and the property are not in the best shape, neighbors say. “There are people who have not been happy with the maintenance of the property,” says Chris Jones, president of the Business Association of the South Wedge Area. “It does need paint. It needs paving.” Stefanou plans to turn the market, previously a typical convenience store, into a full-line grocery store that he’ll run himself. “Where you can go in and buy everything to make a meal,” says Peter Siegrist, preservation planner for the City of Rochester. “So we want vegetables. We want meats. We want fruits.” The original plan was to rezone the property from residential to commercial, but public outcry caused the Planning Commission to reject the proposal. Some neighbors were concerned about the site’s future under commercial zoning if Stefanou ever decides to sell, says Mike Mahoney, chair of the Highland Park Neighborhood Association.
The state Attorney General’s Office has awarded Rochester’s land bank $2.78 million, which the city will use to acquire and rehabilitate houses over the next two years. | The AG’s Office made $20 million from the state’s share of a national mortgage settlement available to New York land banks. And in September, the Rochester Land Bank Corporation submitted an application seeking $3.3 million to purchase, rehab, and re-sell 50 homes through the Greater Rochester Housing Partnership’s HOME Rochester program. The program rehabs houses and sells them at market value to first-time homebuyers. The land bank also planned to use some of the money to cover staff costs, including a full-time real estate specialist. | A fact sheet for the Rochester land bank says that the $2.78 million award will fund the full-time staff and its 50-house plan. The city’s application also sought funding for some new construction, but the fact sheet doesn’t mention that. | The fact sheet does say that the investment will be matched by $3.7 million in private financing and $2.3 million in city and state subsidies. All new construction will meet national green building standards for energy efficiency.
The Highland Market. PHOTO BY LARISSA COE
“Does he in 10 years sell it to CVS?” Mahoney says. “And there’s nothing we can do at that point.” The new proposal keeps the residential zoning, allowing the market as a nonconforming use. Siegrist says that the site’s former use as a gas station and myriad other factors make it undesirable for housing. “Here’s an opportunity to get a brand new building, get rid of the stuff that’s there now, and provide a service to the neighborhood,” he says. “From our standpoint here, I don’t know that you’re going to do any better.” Stefanou needs approvals from the city’s Zoning Board and the Planning Commission. An open house on his new proposal is from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday, November 18, at the market, 830 South Avenue. The Zoning Board’s meeting on the plan is at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, November 21, in room 223B at City Hall, 30 Church Street.
ENVIRONMENT | BY JEREMY MOULE
Plastics pollution Researchers have released a new paper on microplastics in the Great Lakes. In it they say that in many cases, the concentration of plastic fragments exceeds the concentration found in the world’s oceans. | The paper was written by researchers from the 5 Gyres Institute and SUNY Fredonia and covers samples from Lakes Superior, Huron, and Erie. Erie had the highest concentrations of plastics. Researchers also found aluminum silicate — coal ash, which is a coal power plant byproduct — particles in the Erie samples. | Researchers have said that they are concerned about the impact that plastics pollution, particularly microplastics, could have on the health of fish and other marine wildlife. They’ve identified microplastics — tiny beads often found in personal care products like exfoliating face washes — as a particular problem, since water treatment plants do not appear to filter them out of waste water. They’ve convinced several large consumer goods companies to phase out the use of microbeads in their products.
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Offering over 40 premium rums. Taste them in a rum flight, our fresh fruit mojitos, or in our creative cocktails. 289 Alexander Street | Rochester, NY | 585.232.1333 | Parking Available rochestercitynewspaper.com
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