The Town of Pittsford broke ground on the new YMCA at 2300 West Jefferson Road in May. At 140,000 square feet, it will be the largest YMCA in the nation. In addition to a pool and gym, the new facility will have a childcare center and a senior center.
The challenge of this new YMCA is its location. It sits in the middle of one of the most notoriously dangerous intersections in our area. And that’s when you are IN a car. If you are out of one, it’s like the Wild West. In spite of its proximity to the Lock E32 entrance to the Erie Canal Trail [red marker in the photo below], there are no sidewalks or protected (or unprotected) bikeways to get you to and from the new location.
The community’s current YMCA is located at 1111 E. Jefferson Road. It sits in the middle of residential neighborhoods and close to the Village. And while it has its own traffic issues, mainly due to aggressive speeding traffic, it is accessed by many (including kids) on foot and bike.The new YMCA in the middle of the Clover/Jeff Road multi-lane speeding traffic highway rodeo does not offer the same pedestrian and bike access, and that is a huge loss for our community.
YMCAs are known for being community-builders. They are all about social responsibility and providing opportunity for all. In fact, right up top in the logo for the YMCA of Greater Rochester, we see “For Youth Development, For Healthy Living, For Social Responsibility.” Yet, other than the 675 parking spots, we have seen little about how this new community center will connect to the neighborhoods and community around it, including the soon-to-be retirement community directly across the street. There is no mention of bus connectivity [see our post on the new RTS draft plan].
When you build a big new community center that is only accessible by car, you are excluding a segment of the community that can’t afford to or is unable to drive. And for those who have a choice in their mode of transportation, you take away their ability to walk and bike. And for those who choose to mainly drive, that means traffic gets worse. Everybody loses.
The Town and members of the community have communicated the desire for pedestrian and bike infrastructure around the new YMCA. We recently spoke with Pittsford Town Supervisor, Bill Smith, to get an update:
With the Y specifically in mind, the Town’s portion of the draft Active Transportation calls for a sidewalk along Jefferson from Clover to the Henrietta line and also a sidewalk along Tobey from Cricket Hill to the intersection of Clover and Jefferson.
Since the town submitted its draft recommendations, a number of residents have approached me about a sidewalk along Jefferson between the Village and Clover Street, an idea I favor because it would offer a safely walkable pathway to both King’s Bend Park and to the Clover/Jefferson intersection.
The question of financing aside, the sidewalks themselves are the easy part. The tricky bit is how to provide for safe pedestrian crossing of Clover Street either at the intersection with Tobey or at the intersection with Jefferson. This will require consent and cooperation of the State Department of Transportation. As you know, we’ve tried to address this in the Active Transportation Plan by calling for a roundabout at the intersection.
We mentioned connecting to the Lock E32 entrance for the Erie Canal Trail [see the photo up top] and he said that hasn’t been considered, yet. We see a good opportunity there and will keep pushing on this one.
If you attended our Pedestrian and Bike Safety Information Session in June, you heard Supervisor Smith underscore the challenges of that Clover/Jefferson Road intersection. He’s right about the sidewalks being the easy part.
A roundabout is the current recommendation in the Active Transportation Plan. When NYSDOT redesigned that intersection years ago, they made it widen into multiple lanes only to funnel back down to fewer lanes (and since it was recently redone, it will take some effort and funding to even consider redoing it anytime soon). At our June session, Supervisor Smith mentioned that roundabout will make drivers traverse that area more cautiously. If that’s the solution, the pedestrian crossings would be outside the roundabout. Here’s an example from the roundabout in Irondequoit near Sea Breeze:
[Photo courtesy of Sealand Contractors Corp.]
Please take a moment to email or call your Town leadership to let them know that pedestrian and bike infrastructure to and from the new YMCA is a priority. (585) 248-6221
- Town Supervisor, Bill Smith: bsmith@townofpittsford.org
- Deputy Supervisor, Kate Munzinger: kmunzinger@townofpittsford.org
- Town Board Member, Kevin Beckford: kbeckford@townofpittsford.org
- Town Board Member, Matthew O’Connor: moconnor@townofpittsford.org
- Town Board Member, Stephanie Townsend: stownsend@townofpittsford.org
We aren’t totally clear on what the new YMCA is adding in the way of infrastructure, beyond sidewalks on the property, or what options we may have to encourage them to do more. We are awaiting updated site plans of the new YMCA. Once they become available, we will share them with you. That latter part about encouraging them to do more starts with making some noise about our community’s desire to prioritize walkability.