Riverton, New York

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Riverton, New York was a small community created in 1973 in the village of West Henrietta, New York, in the town of Henrietta, along the Genesee River. $1 million of Federal HUD dollars went into the building of Riverton New Community. Created as part of the community were Riverton Knolls, a moderately priced townhouse subdivision, the Riverton Golf Club, a small 9-hole golf course, and the Riverton Park, which included a playground, baseball diamond, river front benches, walking trail, and a volleyball court. Also nestled in a bend in the Genesee was a 28 acre forested nature park.[1]

Riverton was intended to connect to downtown Rochester via a rapid transit system running on nearby Erie Lackawanna Railroad tracks, which at the time was hosting passenger excursions via the fledgling Livonia, Avon and Lakeville Railroad to Genesee Junction.[2] Language mandating such a rapid transit system was even written into the act creating the Rochester-Genesee Regional Transportation Authority as a "Charlotte-Henrietta Corridor."[3] However, these plans never materialized. Also, New York State Route 253 was re-routed onto a new extended Erie Station Road from its original Scottsville-West Henrietta Road routing, which bisected the community.[4]

Riverton never got far off the ground, in part because of its relatively remote location in far southern Monroe County. In 1979, Joseph C. DeMino Inc. began leasing the golf course from the town of Henrietta. In 1983, real estate investment trust Home Properties acquired Riverton Knolls.[5] Also, all the Riverton Park improvements were suspiciously destroyed by heavy construction equipment.[1]

In 1999, the town of Henrietta agreed to sell Riverton Golf Club and Park to Joseph DeMino for $509,000.[6] This touched off controversy over the future of the nature park, as the DeMinos wanted to expand the Golf Club to a full 18 holes using the undeveloped land. Nevertheless, in 2002 the sale was finalized by the New York State Legislature.[1]

Today, Riverton is all but gone as a separate community; most current residents identify with West Henrietta. The Riverton Golf Club continues to operate. Riverton Knolls is now a rental property with many renters tending to be students from the nearby Rochester Institute of Technology. In addition to the rented apartments and townhouses, there are over 500 single family homes and townhouses in the community.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c http://newyork.sierraclub.org/rochester/riverton_fiasco.htm
  2. ^ http://www.lalrr.com/history.html
  3. ^ http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/nycodes/c89/a57.html
  4. ^ http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?T=2&S=12&Z=18&X=349&Y=5960&W=2
  5. ^ http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/NYS/HME/reports/hme1998.pdf
  6. ^ http://rochesterenvironment.com/river_bend_park.htm

[edit] External links


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