Building Downtown Brighton - A Follow Up
What Brighton’s restaurant owners taught me about how our code shapes community life on Monroe Ave.
What Happens When We Listen
Since publishing my last post, Let’s Build the Downtown Brighton, I’ve heard from so many of you: residents, shop owners, and neighbors — who care deeply about what happens along Monroe Avenue. The messages, phone calls, and coffee conversations have all shared a common theme: people want to see a more vibrant, walkable, and locally owned Monroe Ave. They want a place that feels like a true “downtown Brighton.”
A Lunch Lost to Parking Minimums
One story that stood out came from Janine, the owner of local favorite Avvino on Monroe Avenue. She told me something that perfectly captures how our current zoning code can unintentionally hold small businesses back.
Even though Janine would love to open for lunch, she can’t. Not because of staffing or demand but because of parking minimums.
Under our existing code, every business in that plaza is required to have a certain number of parking spaces based on its size and type of operation. During the day, Avvino shares a parking lot with one other business, Premium Mortgage. Premium Mortgage is not a high traffic business but due to the size of the building it shares with Avvino, when they are open the plaza doesn’t meet the total number of spaces the Town requires. So Avvino has to stay closed, and the parking lot along Monroe Avenue stays empty until dinner service each day.
(Photo taken at lunch hour)
Building a Better Public Square
Is our community better because Avvino can’t open for lunch? I don’t believe so.
When I talk about reimagining Monroe Avenue, I’m not just talking about zoning or traffic flow — I’m talking about community.
A stronger, healthier Brighton depends on more places where we can meet face-to-face, not just online. Neighborhood restaurants, cafés, and small gathering spots are the building blocks of a real public square. Businesses like Don and Bob’s where my mom and dad still remember ordering ground rounds with Abbott’s custard after high school football games.
Imagine more places to visit for a date night, to grab lunch with colleagues, or to catch up with a neighbor over coffee. A town where you can live and own a thriving small business. That’s what a thriving Monroe Avenue could offer, a place that brings people together, right here in our own town.
We can build that kind of community, one positive change on Monroe Avenue at a time. It’s how we create a better “downtown Brighton” not through another consultant-led report, but through thoughtful, incremental code improvements that make connection easier and bring our neighbors closer together.
What Comes Next
In the coming months, I’ll continue meeting with local business owners, residents, and planners to better understand how our zoning code, including parking minimums, impacts small business growth and everyday life here in Brighton.
Soon, I’ll be bringing forward a proposal to the Town’s Public Works Committee to begin the process of updating this part of our zoning code. Any proposed change will require a public hearing, and I look forward to that conversation — it’s exactly the kind of open, thoughtful discussion we need to build a true downtown Brighton together.
If you’re a business owner or resident with firsthand experience navigating these rules, I want to hear from you. You can reply directly to this post or email me at nate.salzman@townofbrighton.org.
I’ll continue sharing updates here as this proposal moves forward and as we take the next steps toward a more vibrant, connected Monroe Avenue.
Remember when I first moved to Rochester the Howard Johnson's Restaurant at 12 corners--gone but symbolic of what we once enjoyed at the center of our town. Now we have a jumble of places, but no restaurant bustling with patrons like the Charbroil. Admittedly the movement towards ordering delivery of meals instead of eating in has made maintaining a restaurant far more difficult. Parking is a hidden factor behind the strangling of small business in our town and could bring surprising changes. We are lucky to have communal institutions that bring the town together like the farmers' market on a large scale and the community garden on a smaller more intimate one. Having the Sandra Frankel pathway use gravel instead of asphalt brings people in contact with nature and each other in a much more comfortable way. Please also look into possible ways to best utilize recently purchased land at Westfall and Winton.
This is so wonderful to see in my town thank you for this!