Western Monroe County communities hope to build future with Erie Canal
Meaghan M. McDermott • Staff writer • July 28, 2008
From the stern of the Erie Canal tour boat Rose Lummis, Nellie Gardner sees opportunity.
"I think a lot of people don't realize what they have here," said Gardner, a tour guide, as the boat cruises under the lift bridge in Adams Basin en route from Spencerport to Brockport. A passing bicyclist waves and Gardner waves back.
"To so many people, the canal is just something to drive over on a bridge or drive by and not really think about."
Thinking about the canal is easy in Rochester-area villages where the waterway's historic economic impact is still evident: Brockport, Spencerport, Fairport and Pittsford.
In those places, interspersed with the canal's natural beauty, businesses and commerce abound. Take a walk on Pittsford's canal path and you can stop for an ice cream cone or Mediterranean food. Dock at the new welcome center in Brockport and take a shower or do a little laundry and borrow a red wagon to walk to the grocery store.
But bike or boat on the canal in Gates, and you're lucky to find a nearby bathroom.
Same goes for Greece, but there, town leaders are taking steps to better use the canal as a resource for recreation and commerce.
"The canal is an educational playground," said Cheryl Bilski, chairwoman of the Greece Chamber of Commerce Canal Committee. "There is definite potential in Greece. We may never be Brockport, Fairport or Spencerport, but we have definite potential."
As the state ramps up efforts to capitalize on the historic canal by promoting the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor — which stretches 524 miles across upstate New York — nontraditional canal stops in Monroe County are taking steps to better use or protect their pieces of the canal for recreation and commerce.
In Brighton, a development that could improve public access to the canal is being scrutinized by town leaders. Gates Democrats are trying to get the word out about the canal through their town.
And, earlier this month, Greece opened a new boat launch that gives kayakers and canoeists canal access, and hosts of zoning changes are being considered that would require any new development along the canal to complement the waterway.
"Our goal is to increase awareness of our piece of the canal and provide residents with more opportunities for healthy recreation activities," said Jeff McCann, Greece deputy town supervisor.
More than a ditch
The Erie Canal, built originally in the 1820s and modified and rerouted over the intervening decades, was instrumental to not only the development of New York but was also key to the success of the United States, said Joan DeLaro, project manager with the Western Erie Canal Alliance. The group oversees management of a 134-mile section of canal through Wayne, Monroe, Orleans, Niagara and Erie counties. "The canal connected this area with New York City, a major shipping area, and allowed a lot of people to travel to the west," she said. "People living here learn about the canal and think, 'oh yeah, it's that ditch.' But, there is vast importance to that canal."
That's why Congress in 2000 designated the canal's entire 524-mile system as a heritage corridor worthy of protection and promotion. The federal government "affirms a national interest in preserving and interpreting the Canal Corridor's important historic, cultural, recreational, educational, scenic, and natural resources for the benefit of current and future generations."
The New York State Canal System comprises four canal systems: Erie, Champlain, Seneca-Cayuga and Oswego.
In mid-June, couples Andy and Mary Anton and Jay and Karen Parker, all of Oriental, N.C., drove to Macedon, chartered a packet boat and headed west for a weeklong sojourn along the Erie Canal.
"I'd studied about it as a child and always wanted to see it first-hand," said Andy Anton, a retired Naval officer. "One of the things I liked most was the variety along the canal, the diversity. Go three miles and you see little houses, go three more and there's mansions, three more and a village. And, everybody walking or biking by waves."
His wife, Mary, was also impressed.
"The trip was more than I expected," she said. "It's been very, very nice and we'll do it again."
DeLaro said drawing in more tourists like the Antons and Parkers is one of the goals of the Alliance. That, and catching the interest of the nearly 80 percent of New York's upstate population who live within 25 miles of the canal.
"People drive for hundreds and hundreds of miles to go see all these attractions, and they don't even know what they have in their own back yard," she said.
Canal envy
Sue Swanton of Gates spent an afternoon last month handing out pamphlets about activities in Gates to cyclists passing on the Canal Towpath.
"We really could do more with the canal," said Swanton, a Democrat who has run unsuccessfully more than once for town supervisor. "If we would redo our master plan, we could incorporate it as a desirable asset to develop."
The Erie Canal snakes through a small section of southeast Gates, crossing through a heavily industrial section of Buffalo Road, then across fully developed Lyell Avenue before hooking west toward Greece.
Throughout much of Gates, the canal is tens of feet below the bicycle path, and nearly all the land near the canal is already being used by residences and industries. Where it crosses Buffalo Road, there are few nearby businesses: the Gates Motel, Rick's Prime Rib and a Dolomite Products gravel quarry.
"I am very envious of those villages and places where you can do something with the canal," said Town Supervisor Ralph Esposito. "Our portion is so inaccessible, we really have limited options."
There are no plans for new canal development in Gates. But some changes are in the works elsewhere. In Brighton, controversy swirled when a developer recently proposed a 351-unit gated community on 63 acres near the canal.
In exchange for zoning changes, the developer has offered to improve the town's canal frontage, install a public boat launch, expand a canal access parking lot and add decorative lighting, benches, interpretive signing and a picnic pavilion at Meridian Centre Park. The proposal is undergoing a state environmental quality review.
In Greece, where nearly half of the town's roughly six miles of canal frontage is undeveloped, officials are considering zoning changes that would steer any development there toward capitalizing on the canal.
Proposed changes would include mandating that developments that front the canal must offer a mix of retail, residential and office uses. Business possibilities include a small hotel, townhouses, canal side restaurants and cafes, a dock for tour boats or kayak rentals.
"We are trying to implement some recommendations from our master plan and achieve a balance between three goals: securing some long-term economic stability by expanding the tax and employment base; providing for open space preservation; and improving or enhancing the public access and recreational opportunities that exist along the canal," said Gary Tajkowski, Greece's director of development services.
Wouldn't it be nice
Rest areas. Showers. Fuel. Restaurants. Shopping.
These things aren't uncommon on the eastern portions of the Erie Canal as it bisects Monroe County.
From the canal's start in Perinton as it crosses in from Wayne County, those going west on the waterway or nearby canal path pass through Fairport and the commercial strip along the Main Street lift bridge; they pass through Perinton Park then to Bushnell's Basin and Pittsford's attractive Schoen Place center for dining and shopping. There's Lock 32 State Canal Park in Pittsford for barbecuing and resting; in Rochester, there's Genesee Valley Park and a chance to head up the Genesee River for a quick stop and visit to the city.
Once west of the city, however, the amenities are fewer and farther between. There's Canal Ponds, Henpeck and Greece Canal parks in Greece; then the villages of Spencerport and Brockport.
The abundance of development along the canal's eastern shores is a function of how the area developed after the canal opened, said DeLaro, of the Western Erie Canal Alliance.
"The people traveling to the west ended up settling on the eastern side of the city and when businesses like Kodak were in their heyday and people started moving out of the city, they settled again on the eastern side," she said. "On the west, some of the towns are just starting to think about canal development."
Bilski, the Greece canal committee chairwoman, said her group has plenty of ideas for what could be in Greece.
"What would be nice here is a boater's area where travelers could stop, rest and have showers and fuel and overnight tie-ups," she said. "It would also be nice to have a restaurant that could cater to that harbor, a marina-themed place to have breakfast, lunch and dinner on the canal, even a coffee shop."
Such amenities are vital to the economy of Brockport, where boaters last year stopped for overnight stays more than 600 times during boating season.
"Tourism draws people and dollars and spending into downtown," said Ian Coyle, former village manager. "That's the bread and butter of Brockport."
But it will be some time before canal-related businesses make even a dent in Greece's economy.
Gallina Development Corp. has floated preliminary concept plans to the town Planning Board for a complex that would include a hotel, housing, retail, offices and possibly a marina on the Greece side of Gates-Greece Townline Road, but company President Andy Gallina said it was too early to consider that plan anywhere near fruition.
Tajkowski said he did not know when canal-area zoning changes might be approved.
"But if we can achieve our mixture of goals, the economic development, recreational opportunities and preserving some of the natural areas, it will overall add to the general quality of life in the town," he said.
John Cooper, captain of the Rose Lummis, moved his business from Seneca Lake to the Erie Canal this year hoping to take advantage of an untapped market. He'd like to see even more protections for the canal area, as well as well-regulated development.
"This whole area should be a national park," he said.
Taking a break from telling a boatful of passengers how Brockport used to have a thriving hothouse tomato industry and how Medina sandstone shipped along the canal from Orleans County was used to build Buckingham Palace, Gardner said the canal is "a national treasure."
"The lives we live here today are all dependent on what the Erie Canal did."
MCDERMOT@DemocratandChronicle.com
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