Two Trustees Recap the August 11, 2026 Village Board Meeting

A resident asked the Board to consider waiting on voting on the Mayoral appointments that evening, as he had expressed interest via email after only recently finding out about the openings on both the Historic Preservation Board and the Planning and Zoning Board of Appeals.

Tharaha, president of Pittsford CommUNITY, stated that her organization will lead the fundraising effort to secure the additional money to buy the Frederick Douglass statue for an additional $10,000 once it is placed. The Village Board approved the rental of the statue for one year at $5,000.

We did an initial count of the Village election survey, and it was actually pretty exciting. Trustee Dave Marshall and I were witnesses to the download of the electronically submitted results. Once the meeting started, the entire Board hand counted the write-in results on camera — we even swapped piles with each other to get a second count by a different trustee to ensure the counts were the same.

I say "unofficial" only because, now that we have the results downloaded and out of the lockbox, we need to ensure eligibility by comparing them against voting records and adjust for any duplicates. I'll say this once again: if the public has spoken and June ultimately is in fact the winner, then I will vote the will of the people.

Great news for our Village. The preliminary election day survey results were counted in public by the trustees. Village residents have voiced their desire to keep Village elections in June, away from national politics in November.

I am hoping we can move forward and let our Village election be in June, as your past Trustees board voted in 2025 and as is clearly shown by the community survey. Thank you to all who took the time to send in their vote.

It sounds like Trustee Lisa Cove emailed Dorothea at some point yesterday to say to remove this from the agenda, so I still have no idea what this one was supposed to be, given we just amended this part of the code in April.

We finally avoided kicking the can here and voted on a location for our statue: in front of Village Hall.

This location accomplishes a few things. It puts up the statue that Villagers paid for months ago. By going on Village-owned land, it avoids any issues with the Town if their Parks and Recreation board were to ultimately vote no on allowing us to put it in Copper Beech Park II. It puts the statue in a high-traffic area, in close proximity to and view of Four Corners, where Frederick Douglass spoke. And it provides a high-security location to help mitigate potential vandalism.

The next steps will be having DPW clear a prime portion of our front yard for placement, and circling back with the community to discuss the opportunity to contribute toward a permanent purchase of the statue if we should so choose — a shout out to Pittsford CommUNITY for their willingness to aid in this effort.

Thank you to all who provided their thoughts, opinions, and stories to help us achieve this milestone. We will be the first location outside of the City of Rochester to have this statue, and given his history and our Village's involvement in the Underground Railroad, it is a fitting outcome.

Trustees approved a $5,000 cost to rent the statue for one year with the stipulation that the Board would vote on the placement location. There have been differing opinions on where the statue should be placed for the year of the rental. The Town's Parks and Recreation Committee was asked to discuss placing it in the Town-owned Copper Beech Park, where the hot dog stand is. Trustee Limbeck and I wanted it on Village-owned land, as it was a Village-purchased piece of art.

We approved, with the suggestion by Trustee Limbeck, that the location will be on Village property in front of Village Hall on North Main Street.

I asked about the status of the historic wooden entrance sign that needs to be put up at the North Main Street and East Avenue entrance to the Village, near French Road. The sign needs some adjustments to fit in the original space after the new NYSDOT street renovations. They will work on that.

I asked if we could paint the crosswalks on New York State roads green, as we have in the Village, for better pedestrian crossing safety. This will be discussed with NYSDOT via Jason, our DPW Superintendent.

The Westport Crossing project at 75 Monroe is finishing up Phase 1. Occupancy will start this fall.

This item was added by the Mayor, and it was related to the installation of public restrooms at Schoen Place on the front and side of the Pittsford Grain Tower. I asked about the status of an idea floated a few months ago about potentially adding public bathrooms at Northfield Commons, but it looks like that is now dead.

The planned bathrooms will be fully handicap accessible and will include both child and adult changing tables and areas, which is great. Once we get easements and legal documents finalized with the land owner, we will start with the architectural renderings, so more to come — stay tuned.

The Collins family has graciously donated a section of their land at the far end of the Coal Tower parking lot to the Village to erect two handicap-accessible public restrooms with baby changing stations. The process is underway.

Separately, Rochester By Water Inc. will be installing a handicap lift for boat access at Schoen Place.

This agenda item was regarding the existing Cooperation Agreement the Village has with Monroe County. There was only one amendment, requested by the county, that limited the scope of transferring all or any portion of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds.

This one was to approve the Mayor's appointments to the Planning and Zoning Board of Appeals, as well as the Historic Preservation Board.

The previous mayor, Bob Corby, and the current Mayor had a — well, let's just say "spirited" — interaction regarding Bob's view that he should be on the Historic Preservation Board, plus his belief that the current boards are full of inexperienced members.

The Board voted unanimously to approve the PZBA alternate 1 position candidate, as well as to allow one of the existing alternates to become a full member of the PZBA. The Board voted almost unanimously for the Mayor's HPB alternate 2 position candidate; however, Trustee Lisa Cove abstained because she wants to mentor the candidate, but the Mayor did not give her explicit enough assurances that Lisa can mentor them.

The Mayoral appointments were: Rabia Stevenson, Historic Preservation Board alternate; Dennison Terhaar, Planning and Zoning Board of Appeals member; and Peter Goodman, Planning and Zoning Board of Appeals alternate.

If you are interested in serving on one of our very important boards, please send your interest with a resume to the Village Clerk.

It looks like I was right, this was one added by Trustee Dave Marshall. Either way, the Board agreed that this discussion should generally be moved to a workshop.

I was and am still confused why Trustee Marshall was so focused on trying to force two not-really-residential properties — the cooking store next to the dairy, as well as the other property at the corner of Schoen and Main Street — into a residential bucket versus their current Village Gateway Business and Mixed-Use Erie Canal district designations, respectively. The existing zoning classifications make much more sense versus trying to say those two areas are somehow residential, especially if the dairy has a home on its property yet it is still classified as Village Gateway Business district. It seems odd to single these two out in this manner.

Again, this ultimately smells of spot zoning to me, because one of the properties above is owned by a friend of Trustee Marshall and Trustee Cove, and the owner would directly benefit from the zoning change, as it would allow them to rent their property out as an Airbnb whereas their current zoning district designation would not allow them to do so. Stay tuned.

Discussion on using General Code Inc. for code codification services, at a cost of $13,995, was presented to the Board by the Village Clerk. She states we have not had an outside code review in 20 years.

Although it took almost one year of working on my initiative to improve the safety of our Village sidewalks for pedestrians, we finally voted through the long overdue changes to Chapter 176, Article X of our Village Code. This part of our Village Code was last updated in the 1990s, so we were woefully behind in terms of safety regulations and state statutes on sidewalks. Many of the e-bike and e-scooter changes came directly from feedback the Board received from officers with the Monroe County Sheriff's Department regarding crash data and enforcement of existing state laws.

The biggest changes to be aware of: electric bicycles and electric scooters are now illegal to operate on any sidewalk within the Village. Non-motorized devices — bicycles, skateboards, scooters, in-line skates, roller skates — may still be used on sidewalks in most zoning districts, but operators must stay at least 50 feet from any pedestrian and must dismount to pass one. And no one is allowed to operate a bicycle or skateboard/scooter on public sidewalks in the TDD, VCB, and MU-EC zoning districts.

The next step will be informing the Pittsford School District, as well as the Monroe County Sheriff's Department, about the changes to our code so that they can aid in education of students and adults about the rules, and enforcement of the rules and applicable penalties.

No comments were received at tonight's hearing. The top points, as I read them:

• No motorized vehicles are allowed on sidewalks.
• You must be over 16 years of age to ride a motorized vehicle.
• Enforcement is able by the Sheriff, Village DPW staff, the parking ticket officer, or the building inspector / code enforcement officer. Confiscation will happen with a first offense, and a $100 fine for the return of the vehicle.
• Riding a non-motorized (pedal) bike is prohibited on the Erie Canal path between the Main Street bridge and the State Street bridge. You must dismount and walk the bike.
• Bikes on sidewalks must maintain no less than 50 feet distance from pedestrians and are not allowed to pass while mounted. You must dismount and walk to pass.
• No bikes, skateboards, or scooters shall be mounted on sidewalks in the TDD, VCB, and MU-EC zones — primarily the dense business districts of South and North Main Street and State Street. You must walk your vehicle.

This public hearing was regarding a new spa business in Northfield Commons, right below Neutral Ground. The Board voted unanimously to approve the special permit for the new business.

The application was for Relax and Wax Spa at 50 State Street. No comments from the public were received, and the Trustees approved the Special Permit.

"Make our job harder — please get involved." For the taped video of the meeting, visit the Village of Pittsford YouTube channel.