Questions about the future of Canandaigua’s lakefront — and how much the public currently knows about it — dominated discussion Monday night as city officials advanced plans for a new Finger Lakes Community College Culinary Arts Center of Excellence near Lakeshore Drive.
While the formal agenda item before the Canandaigua City Council Planning Committee involved relocating pedestrian and sewer easements for the proposed culinary center project, much of the conversation focused on broader concerns about long-term plans for adjacent property and whether residents are only seeing one piece of a much larger redevelopment vision.
Council member Gwen VanLaeken repeatedly pressed officials and city staff about public input opportunities and whether discussions involving future parkland and lakefront redevelopment have moved further along behind the scenes than residents realize.
“I don’t mind moving this out of committee,” VanLaeken said. “What I do mind is that we aren’t forthright about what is really being talked about.”
VanLaeken said residents deserve time to process and react to any broader lakefront vision, even if portions of it remain conceptual.
Ontario County Planning Director Tom Harvey acknowledged conversations have already begun involving the remaining property near the proposed culinary center and the possibility of future parkland development. However, he argued those discussions are still in early stages and intentionally separated from the culinary center approval process.
Harvey said the county segmented the environmental review process specifically to avoid delaying the culinary center project while allowing more extensive public participation later if broader park plans move forward.
“There’s a lot more discussion I believe that needs to go on between the county and the city and the CADC about how we get to the parkland and what that’s going to look like,” Harvey said.
Mayor Thomas Lyon added that conceptual discussions involving parkland had already surfaced publicly during grant application discussions last year.
Officials said any future park development would likely require its own environmental review and separate public approval process through the city.
Culinary center proposal moves forward
Despite the broader debate, officials still moved forward with the immediate request tied to the FLCC culinary center project. The planning committee voted to send the easement proposal to the full City Council for consideration.
Project architect Dave Krom said the proposed facility would be a 19,250-square-foot, single-story building housing Finger Lakes Community College’s culinary program, New York Kitchen operations, and Cornell Cooperative Extension programming.
Officials said the current culinary facilities inside New York Kitchen are no longer sufficient for the college’s long-term needs. The new facility would include instructional kitchens, demonstration space, public gathering areas, retail and tasting space, and an outdoor patio overlooking the lakefront.
The easement changes would reroute an existing sanitary sewer line around the new building footprint and relocate a public pedestrian access route connecting the city parking lot to Lakeshore Drive.
City officials said the project would result in a net loss of seven city-owned parking spaces, though the development itself would add 94 parking spaces overall.
County officials said a public hearing on the project is scheduled for May 21 before the Ontario County Board of Supervisors, with written public comments being accepted through May 20.
Water plant upgrades and budget concerns also discussed
The Finance Committee later approved moving forward with a bond authorization tied to major upgrades at the city’s aging water treatment plant.
The roughly $15.5 million project includes upgrades to filtration systems, dissolved air flotation equipment, computerized controls, and a new carbon dioxide pH suppression system. Officials said the city must authorize bonding before applying for state grants that could cover roughly 40% of the project cost.
Engineering consultants said portions of the treatment plant are now about 50 years old and beginning to fail.
The meeting also included debate over city budgeting practices after VanLaeken questioned why several fee increases and spending requests were being presented outside the normal annual budget process.
Among those discussions were proposed water permit fee increases, electrical upgrades at Fire Station No. 1, and a proposal to modernize the fire department’s decades-old policy manuals through Lexipol.
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