Community Concerns
What is wrong in the current Rochester Renaissance Square plan?
Background
On November 25, 2003, two days before Thanksgiving, the Rochester Genesee Regional Transit Authority held the only public discussion of their plans for the Rochester Central Bus Station. The plan was for a $58 million underground bus station facility to be erected on (and under) Rochester’s Main Street at South Clinton Avenue. Secondary projects were forecast to be built on the surface of the area.
The Public Comment period for the project began November 25 and ended 20 days later on December 15.
A few months later, the name of the plan changed to the "Rochester Renaissance Square" project and instead of only an underground bus terminal, the project also includes an Arts Center and a Computer Center for MCC. The questions about the bus station still remain unanswered.
It is a huge project with ramifications for Rochester's budget and its downtown for decades to come. We think that there has not been enough public involvement in the planning process, nor has there been adequate transparancy in regards to the planning process.
Let us be clear: We are not against an Arts Center nor an MCC Computer Center, nor are we against having a bus terminal in Rochester. We have the following concerns about the bus terminal component of the Rochester Renaissance Square proposal.
Concerns About the Downtown Bus Station
After years of promotion and millions of tax dollars spent by the RGRTA designing an underground bus terminal for the intersection of Main and Clinton, many questions remain unanswered and of great concern to Rochester’s future vitality.
Examples include:
- How will slowing bus service and making the system more costly to operate help passengers? The bus routes planned as of ‘05 show a maze-like addition of at least 2 complete circles to each bus trip through downtown. (See the sketch below.)
- How will vastly increasing the number of buses circling downtown’s central block increase its “quality of life” or economic vitality? An astonishing 194 buses per hour are scheduled to travel through 2 key intersections during peak hours. People, including shoppers, residents, students, visitors, and families tend to avoid the exhaust and danger of heavy bus traffic whenever possible. Don’t you??
- Where else is there an example of so many buses sharing an enclosed airspace with passengers? Just how unhealthy are diesel fumes? What will it cost to vent this 32 bay bus garage, and who will pay these bills for the terminal’s 80 years of design life? Where will the carcinogenic pollution go?
- If the new Performing Arts Center will cost $100 million and we must raise those funds privately, what exactly are the financial advantages created by the bus terminal? What will happen if the Art Center is not built? Note that zero dollars have been allocated thus far.
- What about MCC campus parking? The 700 space Mortimer Street Garage will be torn down to make room for the terminal. Money and space to rebuild this parking is not included in the Renaissance Square plan costing $230 million. And how congested and unattractive will MCC’s new location be with 194 buses going past their doors every hour? (Fact, not fiction!)
- Why are we still considering an outdated "hub & spoke" design? A modern decentralized system with a series of transfer stations will shorten passenger transit time and keep unnecessary buses away from our busiest intersections.
- Where will the promised “downtown revitalization” come from? Moving the MCC campus one block will not benefit downtown. Putting bus passengers in a basement will further decrease Main Street pedestrian activity. The Performing Art Center is currently more of a hope than a reality. Poorly planned bus terminals are an unproven way to create “downtown revitalization.”
- What happened to public participation? Why has a construction start date been scheduled before holding even the first public input meeting about Renaissance Square and the “new” bus terminal? Meanwhile, the RGRTA has ominously “suspended” the public input process for over a year....
The Rochester City Council has veto power over this impractical bus terminal design and they can demand something better. Reach them at 428-7538. Ask how the City of Rochester will make up the tens of millions property tax base that would be lost if the county plan is approved.
Size Does Matter! By considering the bus terminal and its location in a slightly larger context (make the square outline BIGGER), huge new transit efficiencies, cost savings, and a myriad of other advantages are possible, providing long-term value to the Renaissance Square stakeholders and the community overall.
Problems by the numbers
(More concerns)
Average number of additional ninety degree turns buses will have to make per trip through downtown: 9
Percentage of buses using the station that will have to travel through the intersection of Main and Clinton: 100
Percentage of these buses that will have to pass through that intersection a second time on the same trip: 50
Number of meetings RGRTA has planned that also satisfies the legal requirements for public interaction with environmental review process: 1 (Nov 25, 6pm Riverside Convention Center)
Number of places RGRTA has informed the public of that meeting: 2 (a listing in D&C legal notices, and in a file on the RGRTA web site)
Number of other meetings RGRTA will be required to hold with public: 0 (subject to change)
Number of surveys or polls that have been published about the Transit Center issue since 2001: 1 (D&C, September 30, 2001)
Number of questions in that survey where Main and Clinton was identified as the station site: 0
Number of stores and restaurants with sidewalk access that will be closed by project: 11 (including Family Dollar general store, Chinese restaurant and furniture store)
Number of other stores or restaurants within sight of Main and Clinton intersection with sidewalk access. 0
Age of oldest buildings to be demolished: 149 years (c. 1855)
 
Number of acres of the project's "foot print": 6.3
Annual amount of property tax revenue will be lost by replacing private property with a public facility that pays zero property taxes: $100 thousand+ (No official figure has been released.)
Cost to taxpayer to construct the Mortimer Street Garage: $11 million
Years of useful life left in Mortimer street garage: 15+ (The City's plans are to sell it at current assessed value, raze it, and replace it with a differently designed garage.)
Annual operating costs of a smaller, $9 million North Carolina Bus Station with no underground area: $1.8 million
RGRTA’s projected annual operating expenses for the larger, $58 million facility with a substantial underground area: $1.35 million
Number of WXXI shows available to cover local issues on Bob Smith and “Need to Know,” per week: 11 (In the last 3 years WXXI has produced 1650 of these programs.)
Number of these shows that had the Transit Center the primary focus or topic.: 0
Number of D&C articles that covered the pros and cons of the project beyond level of sound-bite: None found but still looking.
Number of federal dollars provided by Al D’Amato to launch project in the mid-nineties: $1 million
Number of developers who have signed on to build the housing and office tower portrayed as part of the project on the RGRTA web site: 0
Number of independent architects, urban planners, and traffic designers who have publicly supported this plan: 0
Number of riders that will find the new bus system too slow to use: Unknown
Legislators' Letter of Concern (April, 2004)
Two of our State legislators voice concerns PFABBS share in an open letter to County Executive Maggie Brooks on July 9, 2004. The letter has yet to be replied to. Read the letter.
The Mayor's Letter of Concern (December, 2003)
Letter from Mayor Bill Johnson to the RGRTA which raises concerns over the project. Download the letter (2.1mb PDF) (requires a PDF reader like the free Adobe Acrobat Reader)..
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