Rochester City Council will hold a public forum on Thursday,
August 10, to hear comments and concerns about the development of Parcel 5 at
Midtown. The open comment period starts at 5:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers in
City Hall, 30 Church Street.
The city announced in April that, if City Council approves
it, Parcel 5 would be sold to the Rochester Broadway Theatre League and Morgan
Communities to develop a 3,000-seat
performing arts center topped by a 150-apartment building. Development of
the site has been a hotly debated topic — it was expected that city officials
would have chosen a proposal by Gallina Development for
a mix of commercial space and condominiums, but Mayor Lovely Warren endorsed
RBTL and Morgan Communities after they submitted a revised proposal that
included housing. Another one of the proposals was for Visionary Square, a green space with
room for vendors, and several grassroots groups have continued to advocate for
a park-like area at the heart of downtown. And it’s become
a campaign issue for both mayoral and city council candidates.
City Council has to approve the sale of Parcel 5, and so far,
the Warren administration has not sent legislation to the council. Meanwhile, opposition
to the arts center has been picking up.
“We know there is a need for a thoughtful public discussion
regarding Parcel 5, and we want to hear from our constituents in advance of any
formal legislation regarding this parcel,” Council President Loretta Scott said
in a statement today.
Council’s decision to schedule the form comes on the heels of
news, first
reported by WXXI News last night, that letters
from several Rochester arts organizations have been sent to City Council
raising their own concerns about the Performing Arts Center proposal. At least
the Arts and Cultural Council for Greater Rochester, Geva
Theatre Center, and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra have sent letters.
According to the Geva letter sent
on July 31, arts leaders are concerned “that the process of awarding Parcel 5,
and now the City Council’s consideration of the project, has seemed
mysteriously opaque. We do not know when public comment will be heard on the
proposal; meanwhile, there is a full campaign by the theater developer to
‘sell’ the project as a fait accompli. This alarms many of us.”
In the RPO’s letter, dated August 2 and signed by President
and CEO Ralph Craviso, the organization raises
concerns about the impact a Parcel 5 performing arts center would have on other
Rochester cultural institutions. The RPO wants the city to perform an impact
study to “determine how the current Parcel 5 proposal would affect other
Rochester arts institutions, and in particular, our community’s performing arts
institutions.”
Those who want to speak at the public forum can sign up in
advance by calling 428-7538, or can sign up that night at City Hall. Comments
can also be sent via email to council@cityofrochester.gov and by mail to City Council, 30 Church Street, Room 301A, Rochester,
New York, 14614.
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This article appears in Aug 2-8, 2017.
I think the impact on other arts venues will be positive. A rising tide lifts all boats. Informative public forums, fine; but quickly, please. The proposal was already selected and not without reason. The main focus now should be to secure the funds and complete the project before the opportunity vanishes.
In many instances in other cities, the new arts attraction gets all the attention for funding and from the public while other legacy institutions suffer.
Lincoln DeCoursey – A rising tide may lift all boats. But that doesn’t guarantee that all those boats will stay afloat.
There is a finite number of people who attend arts functions in Rochester. Syracuse, Buffalo, Hamilton, and Toronto offer all the same shows as RBTL, so tourism dollars are not likely to go up by much, if at all. A new venue will cannibalize ticket sales at other local venues at first, out of curiousity, then RBTL will be back to the numbers it already draws. At that point, subsidies will have to kick in to keep the project built on a prime piece of downtown real estate in business.