A team of community members and local government representatives met this week with a consultant on Rochester's first proposed EcoDistrict.
Greentopia co-founder Michael Philipson, one of the leaders of the effort to create a city district devoted to sustainability, said a Portland, Oregon consultant on the project took a tour of the city this week.
"He was just astounded; astounded by the natural assets that Rochester has, especially right at High Falls,” Philipson said. “He said we are already far ahead of many other cities that don't have near the natural assets and, of course, the business personal and capital assets that we have here in Rochester.”
"Some of the tenets of the EcoDistrict are really about habitat conservation, water management, waste water management, healthy living and recreation areas," Philipson said. "The gorge really offers us that in spades. Many of the trails from the north and south and even from the east and west all are converging on the gorge area, which is right where our EcoDistrict will be basically centered."
The exact boundaries of Rochester's EcoDistrict haven't been defined yet, but it will center around High Falls. The goal is to have it up and running in another two years.
Philipson said community meetings will likely be scheduled this fall.
