Like many of the people quoted in your September 27 article, “Nonprofit forms to rehab old Brandon High,” I once fantasized about the 1916 building’s potential, climbing through the sun-filled, high-ceilinged rooms to the spectacular view out its third-floor windows. And I would like to think that most of the people quoted in your article have a similar regard for the building and wish to preserve it.
The article quotes some lofty aspirations by Mr. Briscoe, the owner, and his recent business partner, Jeff Dardozzi, a Pittsford resident whose LLC owns 6 West Seminary. When I compare their public statements to the language of their Application for Land Use coming before the Development Review Board on October 11, I read very different intentions for the old High School.
To understand the scope of their proposed change, it’s important to know that their appeal applies to the entire land parcel owned by Mr. Briscoe. This parcel includes not only the land along the Neshobe River bank around the old High School, but also the land across the street, the greenspace that is the entire western half of what we think of as Seminary Hill Park, up to the playground itself. Mr. Briscoe’s land is currently loaned to the Town for use as the Dog Park, bounded by West and East Seminary Streets. This is the land where the historic Brandon Seminary was sited—- and what is decided for the High School land will also apply to this greenspace.
Mr. Briscoe’s application is for the “substantial change in nature or intensity of the current use of any parcel of land” included in his parcel, and asks permission for “construction, reconstruction, conversion, structural alteration, relocation, enlargement of any building or other structure…,” and among the proposed new uses is “…F-1 Medium Hazard-Production.” While Mr. Dardozzi is quoted in your article stating their aspiration is “affordable housing for middle-income people,” the project drawings actually show a few individual rooms with a common kitchen— the model for a boarding house or commune, not middle-income housing.
Unlike every single person interviewed by The Reporter, moreover, I actually live on Seminary Hill. I look across to the High School windows every day and have watched it decay a little more each year for almost two decades, primarily under the ownership of Mr. Briscoe, a Texas native and Texas resident, whose annual summertime visits, except for this summer, last from a few days to a few weeks. Mr. Briscoe has a genuine love for the building but for the entire length of his ownership has been unable to secure the means to undertake even the bare essentials of maintenance, let alone restoration, of the building he loves.
His partner Mr. Dardozzi states that the group of volunteers he has gathered together “will roll up their sleeves” to restore the old High School. But this historic building cannot be preserved with sweat equity. It needs at least five dozen commercial-sized, double-pane windows to replace the shattered historic ones. It needs a new roofing system, a complete HVAC system, plumbing and wiring. It will require an elevator to obtain a certificate of occupancy. It will need to meet the requirements of an insurance company and be insured to cover a broad range of new manufacturing and public gathering hazards. It needs a lot of money.
And it will need parking spaces.
This is a need that money will not solve. The land surrounding the high school has a shared driveway on its western boundary, and the riverbank on its eastern end. The application’s proposed-use drawing shows five parking spaces on its eastern edge, which would pull out into the already narrow junction of River and East Seminary Streets, just a few feet before they spill to the three-way junction with West Seminary, and blinded by the park’s hill to the downhill traffic proceeding down West Seminary to Route 7. One glance at the street map tells you that this narrow passage is in frequent use by families wheeling their children to the Seminary Street playground or walking their dogs to the dog park. The dog park, of course, would probably not be around for long, as this too is part of the parcel owned by Mr. Briscoe and would almost certainly be necessary to provide the number of parking spaces required for his proposed new use.
Moreover, Mr. Briscoe’s application shows the expansion of public parking not only along north side of West Seminary Street, but adds at least 4 new spaces on the southern side of West Seminary. Anyone who has watched the volume of U-turning traffic on West Seminary, or watched the mobility-impaired neighbors of Neshobe House, who lack any ADA crosswalk or curb cuts, wheeling their chairs down the middle of the road in order to be seen by cars swooping downhill and blinded by the curve at #4 West Seminary, will understand that the proposed dual-side parking takes the road from its present hazardous conditions into a recipe for disaster.
The application before the DRB on October 11, if granted, will be forever. Whatever Mr. Briscoe’s intentions may be, the right to alter the historic building, to construct new commercial buildings in its place or on the greenspace across the street, the right to manufacture, and to choose who shall live there and under what terms will belong to him, and to the next owner, and to the next.
The Brandon High School building and its significant land holding has been looking for a savior for decades. It has never been properly marketed. Its prospective buyers have never been vetted for their ability to pay for or finance its stabilization or restoration. This historic building deserved better treatment and, in its present condition, can’t last much longer in the hands of underfunded enthusiasts. I hope this West Seminary Street landmark will not fulfill the old saying about a road paved with good intentions.
Janie Young
Brandon
