Victor wants young professionals to remain in town

• Young professionals and families are moving to Victor for lower taxes, more land and good schools.
• The Town of Victor is strategizing to attract and retain young professionals in the future.

While people of all ages are flocking to northwestern Ontario County, once-rural towns are increasingly drawing millennials looking for something other than city lights.

New families and young workers returning to their home turf or moving from other local cities are choosing Victor, Farmington and other surrounding towns for their low property taxes, good schools and countryside with easy city access.

Victor has been the leader in population growth — the town and village combined ballooned from 5,784 people to over 14,275 since 1980, a 147 percent increase — and Farmington and East Bloomfield also saw upward trends.

“It’s definitely booming,” said Laura Randall, 35, who lives in Victor’s Quail Ridge neighborhood with husband Erik and their three children. “At least in our development, only younger families are moving in.”

The Randalls moved back east from Chicago three years ago for Erik Randall’s job in Seneca Falls. They found Victor to be a central location close to extended family, job locations and schools, Laura Randall said.

“The more we looked at houses here, the more we seemed to be connected to it,” she said.

The town’s comprehensive plan, finalized in August, emphasized a long-term goal of attracting and keeping young professionals in the area.

People in that demographic may already be moving to Victor, but the goal is to give them reasons to stay, said Kathy Rayburn, Victor’s director of economic development.

“We want to look at all the things that we have as far as attributes … and how can we expand on those to appeal to that age group,” said Rayburn, citing the town’s trail system and unique businesses as points that could be promoted further in the future.

Here's why your friends are moving to Victor

Young families are looking for homes, but couples and singles may want apartments or townhouses, and Victor could have more of those, said Director of development Katie Evans.

“We’ve identified that we don’t necessarily have a full spectrum of product available for everyone,” she said. The plan identifies a desire to transfer additional housing density from places where open space is desired to more appropriate locations, she said.

One of the community's recent home runs has been the downtown wine walks, said Cameron Smith, 26, who rents a townhouse with his girlfriend, Danielle Munson, off of East Street in the village of Victor.

“Wine and craft beer are a big trend right now, and I see Victor capitalizing on that trend,” Smith said.

He chose to move to Victor after growing up in Honeoye Falls and spending a few years in Watertown. It’s close to work — both he and Munson work at Northwestern Mutual in Fairport — and is a prime area to consider settling down in eventually, he said.

“We’re still in the looking process, but we at least want to be able to plant our roots, and Victor’s got what we’re looking for,” he said.

The only downside is the drive to and from Rochester, he said. But when it comes to downtown destinations, Victor itself has a lot to offer in excellent restaurants and bars.

“One of the best things is that with every experience we’ve had at businesses, everyone’s really personable … it’s got that small-town feel,” said Smith.

For business owners, the area is an attractive mix of affordable spaces and proximity to large metropolitan areas, said Katie Wadhams of Phelps, who recently opened Lovely Bride bridal shop in the village of Victor.

“I wanted to be someplace that was accessible for people, that was also reasonably priced,” she said.

Local economic development officials were proactive and accommodating in helping her start a small business in the area, she said. The store brings in brides from Rochester, Buffalo and Syracuse.

While the Randalls weren’t looking to live in the sticks, they wanted a place with more space than many Rochester suburbs — “I don’t know if I would call it ‘country,’ but it’s a little less dense” than Monroe County, Laura Randall said.

It’s less dense and less expensive, said Pat Coleman, 30, who decided to move to the area from Brighton in 2012 after checking out other Monroe County suburbs.

Eastview Mall had big effect on Victor

“We wanted someplace that was easy to hop onto the thruway, but away from the busyness,” he said. The Colemans and their 10-month-old son, Evan, live on four acres in East Bloomfield just across the Victor town line.

He estimates he’s saving thousands of dollars in property taxes per year after his move to Ontario County. East Bloomfield town residents pay a combined town-county rate of $9.73 per $1,000 of assessed value, whereas a resident of Brighton would pay a rate of $14.12 per $1,000.

Victor town residents pay a town-county rate of $7.10 per $1,000. Village residents pay a combined village, town and county rate of $11.45 per $1,000.

The family does their shopping and workouts in Victor, and while Coleman gets annoyed with village traffic and the lack of a nearby Wegmans, he doesn’t have many other complaints. Their location on Strong Road allows easy access to local parks and Canandaigua Lake.

Victor didn’t used to be as congested as it is, but traffic hasn’t deterred Michael Condon, 29, from settling in his hometown — “I’ve always thought it was a great place to live,” he said.

He and his wife, Jamie, moved to a suburban neighborhood off Route 96 in Farmington about five years ago, and are now looking to move their family of four to a home in Victor with more land.

The town and village are still in the “infancy stages” of attracting young professionals to the downtown area with activities like the wine walks, but these efforts may be gaining some traction, Condon said.

“They’ve never had those things before,” he said. “There’s been a changeover in trying to get the young blood involved … and I think it’s picking up speed.”

Though the town plans to put some weight behind becoming a destination for young professionals, that task is already taking care of itself, said Randall.

“Honestly, they don’t need to do a lot of attraction,” she said. “It’s a hotspot and it has been for a while.”

STADDEO@Gannett.com