[ news from the week past ]
Carpenter gets Water Authority job
The Monroe County Water Authority board appointed Pittsford Supervisor Bill Carpenter as deputy executive director, with a $137,000 annual salary. The Republican Carpenter will resign as supervisor, a position he’s held since 1994. Critics say Carpenter’s appointment is another example of patronage in Monroe County.
City to start land bank
City Council was expected to approve legislation Tuesday night to establish a land bank. The entities are meant to help governments address vacant properties. But to establish the land bank, the city has to file an application with the state, and that deadline is November 30. The application requires a copy of the local law establishing the land bank.
Windstream’s profits drop
Windstream Corporation, the company that purchased Perinton-based Paetec Holding Corporation in 2011, caught financial analysts’ attention when its stock value dropped. The drop was due to a weaker end-of-
City
year forecast from Windstream CEO Jeff Gardner, who told the Wall Street Journal that the company’s profitability will be about 1 percent less than originally forecast. A new Windstream facility is supposed to open in the old Midtown site in downtown Rochester sometime next year.
News
Kodak deals with bondholders
NEIGHBORHOODS | BY CHRISTINE CARRIE FIEN
Homeowners wanted
Eastman Kodak has reached a $793 million deal with bondholders that could keep the company alive. According to the Wall Street Journal, Kodak needs to sell $500 million in patents to ensure the company gets the financing it needs to emerge from bankruptcy.
The plan is in its infancy, but City of Rochester officials may take a program designed to increase owner-occupied housing downtown and replicate it in the city’s neighborhoods. Which neighborhoods, when, and exactly how the program would work are still open questions.
Fire chief chosen
Rochester has a new fire chief. Salvatore Mitrano III replaces former chief John Caufield, who left earlier this year to take a position outside the city. Mitrano, who has been with the Rochester Fire Department since 1987, has been the city’s interim chief since March. His annual salary is $126,584. Mitrano takes over a department of 476 uniformed and 23 civilian personnel, with a $42 million annual operating budget.
November 14-20, 2012
A tax abatement helped with the conversion of the Capron Street Lofts in downtown Rochester. The city may try a similar program in the neighborhoods. Photo by MATT DETURCK
“There are no decisions, just ideas at this point,” says Bret Garwood, the city’s director of business and housing development. “We’re still just talking about it.” The Core Housing Owner Incentive Exemption offers propertytax exemptions for the creation of market-rate owner-occupied housing in the downtown area. The exemption applies to increases in property value. If you make improvements that increase the value of your home, the subsequent increase in your tax bill is phased in over a 10-year period. The CHOICE program also applies to units converted from other uses to owner occupancy. Garwood says CHOICE encourages developers to build more owneroccupied units, and makes the housing more affordable. Homeowners are typically more invested in their
properties and their communities than renters, officials say, and can help stabilize troubled neighborhoods. A logical place to replicate the CHOICE program may be in one or more of the city’s four Focused Investment neighborhoods, Garwood says: Beechwood, Dewey-Driving Park, Jefferson, or Marketview Heights. The city has singled out these areas for intense investment. All four areas have a high percentage of rentals, and the FIS plans for each include increasing owner occupancy. “I think it makes sense to do it where there are opportunities to create owner-occupancy units where they don’t exist now,” Garwood says. The CHOICE program helped the Capron Street Lofts conversion, he says, as well as the construction of North Plymouth Terrace at North Plymouth Avenue and West Main Street.