On March 3, 2025, the Rochester City Council held a regular session at the Government Center Council Chamber, starting at 6:00 p.m. The meeting included public comments, two public hearings, approval of a large consent agenda, and several key discussion items including the Center Street Ramp restoration, 18th Avenue SW reconstruction, a skywalk art installation, and rebidding of the BRT project. The council also handled routine business such as appointing a new city clerk and approving a sister city resolution.
Please rise as you're able for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge of allegiance to the United States America into the Republic for which the standards. Welcome everyone to the March 3rd, 2025 City Council meeting. This is an opportunity on our agenda for members of the public to speak on items that we will not be taking a regular press public testimony during a public hearing later in the agenda. Each person has two minutes to speak for a total of 20 minutes. And because of the limited time, we want to make sure that as many as possible have an opportunity to speak. And uh participants are further encouraged to limit comments generally to topics that are within the scope and jurisdiction of the council's ability to affect policy. If you have any materials to share with the council, you may give them to the city clerk over there. Anne Caseel is uh sitting right there, and uh she will distribute them distribute the items to uh myself and our and my colleagues. Um you will be invited to speak in the order that you signed up. Please state your name clearly and make sure uh that the clerk has your information if you need follow-up. And with that, we will start with Kelly Moran. Welcome. Thank you. I'm Kelly Moran. I'm an attorney at IBM and a member of this year's class of leadership Greater Rochester, a year-long program ha hosted by the Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce to develop community leadership skills. One aspect of the program is that our cohort divided into two groups executes community impact projects to positively impact our community. My group's project is an activity path, which we are calling Elevate Wellness due to its location in the downtown Rochester Skyways. Our goal is to inspire increased movement and physical well-being through an interactive pathway that engages and draws people along to accumulate physical movement in an enjoyable way through three types of elements interactive murals, ball runs, and a medallion hunt. We've been working with local businesses and artists to source the designs, artwork, and physical installations for each of our elements. Right now, our group is deep in the fundraising process and getting permissions from local partners to install elements in their spaces. We're setting the project up for long-term success with a plan to address ongoing maintenance, and as the project designs advance, we look forward to working with the city to develop an agreement around the approval, installation, and maintenance of this project. We're very passionate about our project, excited about the progress that we've made so far, and grateful for the opportunity to have a positive impact on the Rochester community. Thank you. Thank you. Next up is Lori Ing's. Yeah, my name's Laurie Inksler, I believe I emailed you information. That's about 18th Street, um, Southwest project that's being designed. Um just as some concerns that we have. I live off of Brook Lane, which is parallel to 18th. There's always been a water issue that's come down off of 18th to down to Brook Lane, and they're continuing to do that and haven't got information how they're gonna solve that. As well as now they're diverting gonna divert some sewer issues down to Brooklyn as well. And the other issue was that they're gonna um change our access because that right now it's a cutoff for 18th, people are going way too fast, don't stop. Sometimes it's hard for me to and others on our lane to even get out to get to work. Because there's so many cars and they don't let us out. Um they're going way too fast. And now they want to change that, and now there'll be more cars coming to go to Lenwood because of how they're designing that. So just really concerned about that. There's 50 houses in the Lenwood development, and so that's 50 plus cars that'll be dealt with there as well. There is one of the things that they've proposed is a bike path on 18th, which is really steep. Um, and there are some houses that are really close to 18th that would impact them greatly, as well as just being so steep. I don't know how bikes would want to ride on that. Um, let alone uh be a sheer drop-off there, and potential for environmental issues and more water issues for us at Brooklyn. There are some other options for bike lane. They could cut, I believe I gave you a map as far as cutting over at um down going through Mary Hills, and that goes right to Bamber Elementary, otherwise going straight over to 40th and coming down Bamber Valley Road, and again, that's a more gradual one. It wouldn't require a lot of um fill. It probably would be cheaper, and it would be a much more enjoyable ride for people as well. Thank you. Thank you. Next up is Ryan Stack.