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Eco-logue is published bimonthly by the Rochester Regional Group of the Sierra Club * Join the Rochester Group by Printing out our Brochure & sending it to us.
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The Renaissance Square Project Environmentalists Should have a Role by Frank J. Regan Recently, I met with Mark Aesch, Executive Director of Renaissance Square Corporation (RS), the group responsible for Rochester’s largest developmental project in some forty years. The Rochester Regional Group is hoping for the opportunity to be a part of the secondary oversight committee of the Renaissance Square project. This significant capital development needs substantial input from all citizens of Rochester, especially the environmental community. We view the Renaissance Square project, and other large community development undertakings not as obstructionists, but as partners in the challenge to fight poorly planned runaway development and promote smart developments that increase transportation choices, reduce air and water pollution, and protect our natural places. The Renaissance Square project involves two of the Sierra Club’s most vital concerns: sprawl and air quality. Rochester is twelfth of America’s most sprawl-impacted regions. And, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “The Rochester region is failing to meet new health standards for ground level ozone pollution.” This means that the Renaissance Square project, partly funding through the Federal Transportation Act (TEA-21), should try to increase public transportation usage and help reduce air pollution from our public transportation system. Moreover, because the project involves an underground garage filled with people and idling buses, there should be close attention paid to how the proposed air filtering system attenuates the dangerous gases that will accumulate. The Sierra Club wants to be there to evaluate the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s (DEC) environmental impact study for this final project and to help assure that the public has an opportunity to be involved. We are awaiting the Renaissance Square Corporation’s decision on our participation in the secondary oversight committee and we will keep our group abreast of any updates on this project.
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