Canandaigua officials wrestled Monday with how far the city should go in regulating tree removal on private property, whether to offer a new 100% property tax exemption to certain disabled veterans and how urgently to move forward with millions of dollars in upgrades at the city’s water treatment plant.
The Aug. 10 Ordinance and Environmental committee meetings stretched more than two hours, with some of the longest discussions centered on questions that did not produce immediate decisions. Council members agreed to continue studying potential tree regulations and moved the veterans exemption to the Finance Committee for further review, while advancing $760,000 in water treatment plant design work to the full City Council.
The Environmental Committee also received an extensive update on the city’s tick-borne disease initiative, where Ontario County health officials warned that the Finger Lakes remains a high-risk area and reported Lyme disease cases running significantly ahead of last year.
Tree removal debate exposes divide over property rights
The Ordinance Committee’s first discussion grew out of complaints about extensive tree removal on private property near West Gibson Street and Sucker Brook.
Councilmember T. Orlando Fox had requested the discussion, suggesting the city consider some form of review when property owners remove a significant number of trees. The meeting packet included tree preservation laws from Scarsdale and Irvington as examples, although council members repeatedly said those regulations were more expansive than what Canandaigua might ultimately consider.
The Scarsdale law, for example, establishes permits, replacement requirements and penalties for removing certain trees. Its stated purposes include reducing runoff and flooding, protecting wildlife habitat and preserving the environmental and aesthetic benefits of mature trees.
But council members quickly acknowledged the central difficulty: protecting broader community interests without unnecessarily restricting what residents can do on their own land.
Fox suggested the city could focus on large-scale removals rather than homeowners taking down individual trees, with a threshold such as 12 trees triggering review. Ordinance Committee Chairman Erich Dittmar said he was interested in exploring something aimed at clear-cutting or substantial removals rather than regulating routine property maintenance.
Residents offered sharply different views.
West Gibson Street resident Janet Constable described the removal of numerous mature trees behind her property and expressed concern about runoff and flooding. She said 17 black walnut trees were initially removed before additional clearing occurred and argued the city should intervene when tree removal reaches the scale of clearing a wooded area.
Dave Botte, a member of the city’s Tree Advisory Board who said he was speaking only for himself, suggested any regulation could be narrowly tailored to flood-prone areas or other environmentally sensitive locations.
The city has considered the issue before. City Manager John Goodwin said the Tree Advisory Board developed a proposal following another large-scale tree removal several years ago, but City Council ultimately declined to adopt it. That proposal would have required notification rather than a permit.
West Avenue resident George Smith strongly opposed a new ordinance, arguing it would represent government intrusion into private property rights.
Smith, who said he owns several acres with hundreds of trees, warned that permitting could create fees, additional bureaucracy and more work for city staff. He also rejected comparisons between Canandaigua and affluent Westchester County communities such as Scarsdale and Irvington.
“This is going to be a hot button item,” Smith told council members, urging them to proceed cautiously.
The discussion increasingly shifted from protecting trees themselves toward identifying a specific public interest that could legally justify regulation.
City Attorney David Whitcomb told council members municipalities have broad police powers to regulate private property, but said the city would need a clearly defined public need. A regulation based on flooding or public safety, for example, would present a different legal question than one based primarily on aesthetics.
Goodwin also cautioned against assuming trees alone would have prevented flooding near Sucker Brook. He said professional engineers working on the city’s flood mitigation project have recommended removing trees in some locations to create a 30-foot floodplain bench.
The city already regulates sediment and erosion associated with projects disturbing an acre or more, he said.
Ultimately, council members did not settle on a proposed number of trees or specific permitting system. The issue was tabled for additional work, with officials indicating that any future proposal would likely focus more narrowly on environmentally sensitive areas and demonstrable public safety impacts.
Full tax exemption for some disabled veterans gets closer look
The committee then turned to a newly expanded state law allowing municipalities to completely exempt the primary residences of qualifying permanently and totally disabled veterans from property taxes.
The exemption is optional, meaning Canandaigua must affirmatively adopt it before eligible veterans can receive it.
City Assessor Tina Rados told council members the law has been amended several times and remains complicated.
Under the current version, qualifying veterans must meet one of several service or discharge criteria and also be considered permanently and totally disabled because of military service by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Documentation from the VA would be required.
Rados said significant restrictions contained in earlier versions were removed. The latest version no longer requires a 100% disability rating, an unemployability determination or eligibility for a housing modification grant.
That produces circumstances council members spent considerable time trying to understand.
Rados said someone with a disability rating below 100% could potentially qualify if the VA considers that person permanently and totally disabled. Conversely, a veteran with a 100% service-connected disability who does not have permanent and total status would not qualify for the new full exemption.
She stressed that she was neither advocating for nor against adoption but warned council members to consider how exempting property shifts the tax burden onto everyone remaining on the taxable roll.
Her analysis provided an intentionally broad worst-case scenario.
If every property currently receiving the city’s veterans disability exemption qualified for the new full exemption, approximately $21.4 million in assessed value would be removed from the tax roll. Because those properties already receive exemptions, the additional reduction in taxable value would be approximately $17.13 million.
Under that scenario, the tax rate would rise by roughly 10 cents per $1,000 of assessed value. A property with a taxable assessment of $250,000 would see an increase of about $25 annually.
Rados emphasized that the scenario almost certainly overstates the actual effect because not every veteran currently receiving an exemption would meet the permanent-and-total requirement.
Botte, who said he previously worked for the VA and is a member of the Finger Lakes Veterans Advisory Council, argued the actual number of eligible homeowners would likely be much smaller.
He said Ontario County data shows 484 veterans with 100% disability ratings, but noted that 100% disability and permanent-and-total status are not the same thing. Some would not have P&T status, while others would not own homes and therefore could not benefit from the property tax exemption.
Botte urged the city to adopt the exemption, arguing that permanently and totally disabled veterans represent a relatively small group and often face substantial financial challenges.
Council members made no decision Monday.
Instead, the issue will move to the Finance Committee for a deeper examination of the potential fiscal impact. Officials said the city has time: to affect the next assessment roll, the local law must be in place by March 1, 2027.
Rados asked council to make its decision earlier if possible so eligible veterans would have enough time to obtain documentation and apply before the March deadline.
Tick-borne disease cases continue climbing in Ontario County
The Environmental Committee devoted much of its meeting to an update from Canandaigua’s Ad Hoc Tick-Borne Diseases Education and Prevention Committee, created last year to improve public education and reduce exposure.
Matt Hengi, Ontario County’s communicable disease coordinator and co-chair of the committee, said the region continues to face an unusually high risk.
Based on local surveillance, Hengi said there is roughly a 53% probability that a tick encountered in Ontario County carries at least one pathogen, putting the Finger Lakes among the highest-risk areas in New York.
Local Lyme disease numbers are also moving in the wrong direction.
Hengi said Ontario County was already running about 40% above last year’s Lyme disease case count at the same point in the year. He also explained that historical numbers substantially underestimated infections because previous surveillance definitions generally required patients to have the characteristic rash associated with Lyme disease.
The committee has responded with public education at schools, trailheads, the Department of Motor Vehicles and other high-traffic locations. Members have also conducted tick dragging at local parks to better understand where ticks are present.
Health officials stressed that residents should remove attached ticks as quickly as possible using fine-tip tweezers and pulling straight upward rather than attempting remedies involving matches, petroleum jelly or other substances.
Different diseases can be transmitted at dramatically different speeds. Lyme disease generally requires longer attachment, while Hengi said Powassan virus can potentially be transmitted in as little as 15 minutes.
Rachel Agosta, a physician assistant in the F.F. Thompson Hospital emergency department, told officials that most tick bites can initially be handled at home. People should seek emergency treatment for severe symptoms such as extreme headaches, chest pain, shortness of breath, facial or tongue swelling, difficulty breathing or new neurological problems.
Symptoms of tick-borne illness can emerge three to 30 days after exposure and can include rash, headache, fatigue, joint swelling and body aches.
Agosta said clinicians are seeing increases not only in Lyme disease but also anaplasmosis, which can cause patients to become acutely ill and affect liver enzymes and platelet counts.
Dr. Dan Taramosko, an internal medicine physician and hospitalist, said most Lyme disease patients never require hospitalization. He estimated only about 1% to 5% do, but those who are admitted can have serious complications including meningitis, encephalitis and cardiac problems.
Taramosko described treating a patient whose unexplained fainting was ultimately traced to Lyme disease that had caused heart block.
He also discussed post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome, in which symptoms can persist even after the infection has been treated. Additional antibiotics do not necessarily resolve those symptoms, he said, leaving physicians to manage individual problems such as joint pain.
Another emerging concern is alpha-gal syndrome, an allergy associated with tick bites that can cause reactions to mammalian meat. Taramosko said reactions can be delayed for hours after eating, making the condition difficult to identify, and can range from hives and swelling to potentially fatal anaphylaxis.
Water treatment plant design moves forward
The final action of the night involved a much larger infrastructure issue: the future of Canandaigua’s water treatment plant.
City officials are planning a series of upgrades expected to include a $1.5 million carbon dioxide pH suppression system, approximately $7 million in dissolved air flotation improvements and about $5 million for complete filter rehabilitation.
Council has already authorized up to $15.5 million in bonding as the city pursues grant funding.
Goodwin said the immediate concern is that the plant’s filters are beginning to show signs of failure.
“We want to be able to fix those filters or rehab those filters as soon as possible, with or without the grant,” Goodwin told the committee, describing them as one of the plant’s most critical components. “Without them, we’re not providing clean water.”
The proposed $760,000 amendment would pay GHD Consulting Services to complete final design and bidding work.
Project documents show the design includes converting existing gravity sedimentation basins to dissolved air flotation clarifiers with a treatment capacity of 12 million gallons per day. The filter rehabilitation would include new filter media and underdrains, air scour equipment, piping and valve work, electrical improvements and upgrades to the plant’s control system.
The $760,000 amendment would increase GHD’s total budgeted work on the project from about $1.01 million to $1.77 million, with final design work extending into February 2027.
Goodwin said the city has sufficient money available but needs City Council to formally appropriate it. He estimated about $550,000 of the design expense would be incurred this year and the remaining roughly $210,000 in early 2027.
The Environmental Committee unanimously advanced the budget amendment to the full City Council for consideration.
One planned discussion did not happen. The committee had been scheduled to review possible composting and organics management options following a city survey that found 80% support for introducing composting or food-scrap collection and 70% support for curbside food-scrap collection.
With the meeting running well behind schedule, officials postponed that discussion until a future meeting.
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