Five development projects moved through the Rochester City Council at a Monday evening meeting and the contrast between those with neighborhood support and those without it was clear.
Council members took time to recognize the importance of citizen engagement with developers early in the process of designing and proposing projects that will eventually be vetted by the city council.
“If anything we saw a great contrast of early neighborhood involvement versus late neighborhood involvement,” Council Member Mark Bilderback said.
Those projects with early neighborhood involvement moved smoothly through public hearings and evoked little or no disagreement between council members. One project that involved citizens later in the development process faced harsher comments and split council votes.