Mayor declares Parcel 5 a 'permanent greenspace.' But there's no guarantee

Mayor Malik Evans announced Tuesday that Parcel 5 will remain a permanent green space. But just how such a designation would be enforced remains unclear.

“Parcel 5 will, right now, remain green space, where people will continue to come together in the heart of our city,” the mayor said.

He made the announcement standing alongside a cohort of City Council members, Department of Environmental Services Commissioner Rich Perrin, and CGI Rochester International Jazz Festival executive director Marc Iacona.

It was arguably the jazz festival — and its first Parcel 5 concert back in 2016, a packed closing night show by Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews & Orleans Avenue — that helped galvanize support for making Parcel 5 a permanent public space.

The festival since has made heavy use of Parcel 5 as the site for its free “headliner” performances. This year’s festival kicks off Friday. Its first performance at Parcel 5 this year is Sheila E and the E Train next Wednesday.

Formerly the site of Midtown Plaza, the 1.2-acre site on East Main Street has been a subject of debate among city activists and developers, with an array of proposals including housing, office and retail and performing arts center.

The latter received support from billionaire Tom Golisano and was poised to be named the Golisano Center for the Performing Arts. That idea went belly-up in 2018.

Throughout, community advocates had called for the space to remain an open-use communal space, under the banner of “Free Parcel 5.” In 2021, former-Mayor Lovely Warren announced that Parcel 5 would remain a green space, on the contingency that the city was still seeking developers for the site.

“This is one of the most prime pieces of real estate in downtown Rochester, and we look forward to the day when we get it on the tax rolls in a different capacity,” Chris Hill, the then-executive committee chair of the Rochester Downtown Development Corp., said at the time.

While Evans said the city will not be actively seeking a developer for Parcel 5, that doesn’t mean that the site is shielded from development.

Unlike parks, which enjoy some level of protections on the state and local level, no such designation exists for “green spaces.” There’s nothing currently on record stopping development on the site, barring approval from the mayor and the Rochester City Council.

Patrick Beath, the city’s top lawyer, said the Law Department currently is exploring means of protecting Parcel 5 from future development. Among those are filing an easement that restricts development, adding restrictive language to the deed, or filing a restrictive covenant on the land. Those measures have yet to be implemented.

Evans, meanwhile, said City Council and the public hearings required for any sale or lease of city-owned land could serve as a preventative measure from another administration coming in and developing the site.

“There’s checks and balances,” Evans said. “So, let’s say I wanted to put a building here right now, I just couldn’t do that. I would have to go through, one, two, three, four people, and they would have to say, ‘Mayor, we want to make sure that you do that.’”

Since being declared a green space, Parcel 5 has been a popular site for city events, including the Lucky Flea market, the Fringe Festival’s free events, and the upcoming Puerto Rican Festival.

Councilmember Mary Lupien was a leading proponent of preserving Parcel 5 as a communal space. She referred to the designation as a “dream come true.”

“Today marks a significant victory for our community’s resilience and vision,” Lupien said. “For nearly a decade, we ‘ve rallied for a central green space in downtown Rochester, reclaiming what was once neglected gravel. Parcel 5 is a testament to the power of community.”

The city plans to make improvements to the site, including electrical, water, and Wi-Fi access, as well as maintenance of the adjacent public restrooms on Andrew Langston Way. The city also intends to perform a study on the needs of downtown’s communal spaces.

“A big part of that study is look at it, not so much for Parcel 5, but just heading east of here, you’ll have Washington Square, you’ll have MLK (Park),” Perrin said. “So, our special events team works very diligently to make sure we’re putting the right things in the right place. We don’t want to cannibalize from our own spaces.”