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Input sought on proposed Auburn Trail expansion

By Mike Maslanik

The Daily Messenger (New York)

December 1, 2008

Victor, N.Y. — Opponents of a plan to widen a section of the Auburn Trail will have one last chance to make their voices heard before the Town Board decides whether to move forward.

The board will seek public input on the proposal at the next regular board meeting on Dec. 8. It planned to issue a State Environmental Quality Review declaration that day, but held off because of the public outcry.

“It wouldn’t hurt to have a public hearing on the trail,” said board member John Accorso.

Critics of the plan, who want to preserve the roughly three-quarter mile stretch between a collapsed culvert and Fisher Road, have turned in petitions and bombarded the town with e-mail messages. A handful of members of a coalition opposed to the project spoke at the Town Board’s Nov. 24 meeting.

At issue is a proposal to extend the trail by about 2-1/2 miles, from Main Street in Fishers, to Wolston Road to Powder Mills Park in Perinton, and install an eight-foot wide stone dust path.

The project, which also calls for the repair of a crumbling stone arch culvert over Irondequoit Creek, is being funded mostly by a $619,000 grant from the Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration. The project has been years in the making, aimed at linking trail systems across the region so a person could walk or bike on a trail, nonstop from, say, Canandaigua, to Greece or Letchworth State Park.

Earlier drafts of the project, prepared by Fisher Associates of Rochester, called for a trail width of 10 feet, with two-foot shoulder on each side. Engineer Chris Smith told the Town Board that they have since narrowed the trail to six feet wide.

Members of the coalition — which includes the Rochester branch of the Sierra Club, the Rochester Birding Association and the Rochester Butterfly Club — said that a widened pathway would disturb a roughly 3,000-foot area brimming with wildlife and rare plants.

Members want the three-foot wide trail to remain unspoiled.

“To me, it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal to preserve this as a three-foot pathway,” said Peter Debes, a member of the Rochester Sierra Club’s executive board.

Town Parks and Recreation Director Brian Emelson said the width of the path is an essential requirement for the town to secure the federal grant. Since it is considered a transportation project, bicyclists and hikers traveling in opposite directions must be able to pass safely. He has also argued that the changes would make the trail handicapped accessible.

“Our challenge is to mesh safety, minimal impact to the environment and provide accessibility to bikes and pedestrians,” Emelson said.

Coalition member Steve Daniel of Fishers said that the town “has not done due diligence” to determine the environmental impact and take seriously his concerns and those of others.

“We recommend that they do a site-specific study of that area,” Daniel said. “We found a couple species that could be impacted.”

He declined to say what those species were or how the extension would affect them.

In his presentation, Smith said extensive environmental studies on the area have been conducted and nothing suggests a significant negative impact.

If you go:

What: Public input session on a proposal to widen a section of the Auburn Trail in Victor.
Where: Temporary Town Hall, 1290 Blossom Drive.
When: 7:30 p.m., Dec. 8.

Written comments may also be mailed to the Victor Town Clerk, Temporary Town Hall, 1290 Blossom Drive, Victor 14564.