Gateless in Brighton - Costello removes the gate from the proposed Gated Community
I’m pleased to see this.
BRIGHTON — Developer Anthony Costello announced today that there will be no gate at the entrance of The Reserve, the 351-unit complex he’s planning in Brighton.
Several members of the community, including town Supervisor Sandra Frankel, voiced opposition to the gate proposed for the entrance of the project over the past few months, arguing that it was exclusionary. Frankel said it didn’t fit with the open, welcoming and inclusive character of Brighton.
[snip]
In June Costello said The Reserve, where homes will cost between $275,000 and $600,000, would provide a certain lifestyle people were looking for, one with private access and a clubhouse.
I guess you can call this backpeddling
Costello said a marketing study found “overwhelming support” for a gated community in Brighton. At a press conference this morning he said the gate was meant purely to keep traffic out, not any segment of the population.
Keep out traffic but let in people?
I glad this happened. Now how are all those couple McMansions selling in Brighton? If there was such a demand for homes that cost $600K they would be sold by now.
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but how are suburbanites supposed to exile themselves from society without walls? and we all know how devastatingly noisy and constant that brighton traffic is. to help boost the jobs in the area costello should get a tax break from maggie’s comida buddies to hire an armed guard to protect the private club house from the onslaught of people the lack of a gate will create.
Such a cynic you are.
Good question about the COMIDA involvement. I wonder if that is involved.
I am confused. There is the CityGate project, the commercial/retail project that is getting protested on Thursday night, AND this (non)gated community???
You aren’t the only one.
Sorry. Hit “add” to soon.
There are three projects, if I understand correctly. Maybe four.
City Gate is mostly in the city with only a small piece extending into Brighton. It’s mixed residential and commercial/office.
Then, there was the Clinton/590/Canal project. I think that’s the one that *was* going to be a gated community. The “Reserves”, I think but am not sure.
Then there is the 590/Winton/Senator Keating project. That’s the one that Costello objects when the people opposed to it call it a “mall”. It’s for multi-level office space, one or more restaurants, and a hotel.
Maybe there is also an expansion of the Clinton Crossing medical office park.
I wish I could give you more information– but I haven’t been able to find much authoritative. There is Save Brighton but they have a particular view point, to say the least.
I asked a member of the town board– and to be honest, felt dismissed. I was told there was information at the town web site but haven’t found much of anything useful.
I know the gated community part bothered me a lot. I’m glad to see the gates are gone.
I see a lot of energy in the people objecting to Costello’s “mall”. I don’t have an opinion yet– I don’t know enough one way or the other. I do know that the town board member dismissed the objectors as people who were spreading misinformation– but when she described the project, it sounded pretty mush the same as what the people who are objecting to it say.
I saw Costello’s pictures of the residential development when he brought them to the town board– maybe a year ago– I thought they looked very nice.
It’s hard, though, for me to believe that people will pay $600K for those properties.
I think that the best that we can do is hope that the zoning board looks at the projects very carefully (I think that they all require some zoning variances) and makes wise decisions about what changes they allow.
Okay. As far as the commercial/retail/medical complex is concerned, 1,000,000 sq. ft of building space is proposed. This exceeds the building space at Marketplace Mall. The parking lot space will be twice that of Pittsford Plaza. And, the 82 acres of land is zoned residential according to Brighton’s Master Plan of 2000. Costello hopes to get a five-story hotel, a Ruth Chris Steakhouse, a Whole Foods Market. Now, he’s talking about a skating rink too. I didn’t mention the redundant medical/office space being proposed either. Increased traffice in all directions and changing the character of Brighton. This, when there are vacancies all over the place.
This is good news. You’re right about the McMansions. I can’t understand how people can argue the demand for such housing in Brighton is “overwhelming” when there are several such homes that have been on the market for months and months and months. Their availability to the market predates the mortgage crises and subsequent downturn in sales.
as a home owner in Brighton, I’m not real hot on more office development. I already avoid Winton between 3 and 6p and this would seem to make that worse.
however……..Ruth’s Chris and Whole Foods - if confirmed - certainly could sway me.
ok, people are complaining about rezoning the land from residential, but they are also complaining about the residential that IS proposed. you’re losing me here….
“keep out traffic”… but, but, but there aren’t any through streets planned, right? I’m glad the gates are gone. Gates divide.
[...] Development was covered extensively here. Costello dropped his proposed gate to his gated community. The D&C covered it here and we discussed 10 hotels with 2 miles of the [...]