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1.0 The Vision for the Village of Pittsford

1.2 Principles for the Future

A fundamental finding of the Comprehensive Plan Committee is that the standard model of twentieth-century suburban planning is at odds with the characteristics of the Village that people most value. Rather than modify the Village to accommodate a vision that meets optimum traffic flow, this plan seeks to recognize and enhance the historic patterns of land use, pedestrian movement, building orientation and design, and activity that make the Village a special place in the community. Commonly referred to as traditional neighborhood planning, this philosophy is a recurring theme in many of the comprehensive plan's recommendations. Although the needs of a car-based society cannot be ignored, the reintroduction of traditional planning and design principles can improve the safety, ambience, and aesthetic quality of modern streets. In traditional communities like the Village, streets are more than traffic conduits; they are lively, pedestrian friendly civic spaces, which bring people together and provide a physical setting for communal events. The following principles underlie many of the plan's recommendations:

• Maintain the Village's residential and historic character.

  The Village is fortunate to have retained a wealth of early nineteenth-century, late nineteenth-century, and early twentieth-century architecture. The Village's historic character is an outstanding resource, attracting both new residents and visitors, and must be maintained. To ensure its preservation, the Village must continue educational outreach and proper administration of its preservation ordinance, and modify its zoning to encourage compatible new construction and site design.

• Promote resident involvement.

  The Village has a long proud tradition of resident involvement. Residents of the Village are involved because they care about the future of their community for economic, aesthetic and sentimental reasons. The participation of residents in the decision making process assures their needs are being addressed and their quality of life will improve.

• Strengthen the Village's retail business climate.

  The unique retail establishments, walkable environment and appealing historic character make the Village's business district a destination for people throughout the region. Restaurants, the canal waterfront, renovated mills, warehouses and silos attract people to Schoen Place. Enhancing the success of the existing business areas requires a coordinated marketing effort, attracting an appropriate mixture of uses, improving pedestrian safety and parking options, encouraging cultural and art attractions, and providing a stronger pedestrian link between the Central Business District and Schoen Place / Northfield Common.

• Encourage compatible new development.

  Because the Village has limited vacant land available, development must be carefully designed to enhance rather than detract from the Village's existing character. New construction will reflect the historic patterns of land use, pedestrian movement, building orientation, site design, and activity. Traditional neighborhood planning will be used on vacant parcels to create pedestrian oriented streets with treed medians, entrances oriented toward the sidewalk and compatible building design of an appropriate scale. Scenic and environmentally sensitive areas shall be protected.

• Calm traffic and improve pedestrian safety.

  To meet the goals of the Comprehensive Plan, Village streets must be made safe and friendly for pedestrians. The Village's pedestrian environment has suffered from volume enhancing highway projects. Widening Village streets may lower property values, destroy the scale and historic character of Village streets, increase noise and pollution, reduce available parking, hurt retail business, reduce the residential quality of life, discourage pedestrian activity, endanger pedestrians, increase the rate of vehicular speeds and provide no permanent solution to the problem of traffic volume. Further widening of streets is contrary to the goals of the Village in providing a pedestrian friendly Village. Arterial streets should retain wide treed medians between the curb and the sidewalk and where the width permits, street parking will be permitted. Future street improvement projects should include traffic calming measures balancing traffic needs with the other civic activities sharing the public right-of-way. No driveway or side street should be wider than two lanes. The use of right hand turning lanes should be avoided.

• Encourage communication and cooperation with other agencies.

  The Village of Pittsford is the focal point of the greater Pittsford community. Ongoing communication and cooperation with the Town of Pittsford, the Pittsford Central School District, the Pittsford Volunteer Fire Department, NYS DOT, Genesee Transportation Council, NYS Canal Corporation and other agencies is required to permit the identification of collaborative opportunities and increased consideration of individual and shared concerns during planning activities.

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