Census data: Henrietta sees most growth of Rochester-area towns

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — 2020 Census data shows Henrietta saw the biggest increase in population over the past 10 years of all the other Rochester-area towns. In comparison, Sweden lost the greatest amount of people.

So News10NBC Investigative Reporter Berkeley Brean went to Henrietta to figure out why so many people moved there.

Brean: "Why do you think that is?"

Henrietta Town Supervisor Steve Schultz: "I think there are a lot of factors."

Schultz says it helps to be the crossroads of the county, but money is a big reason.

Schultz: "I think a large factor is we have the lowest town tax rate and one of the lowest school tax rates in the county."

Brean dug into the details of the census released Thursday. Between 2010 and 2020, 4,515 people moved to henrietta, an increase of almost 10%.

Over the same period of time, Sweden, the home of Brockport, lost almost a thousand.

Hundreds of new housing tracts are under construction in Henrietta and plans for 300 new homes are in front of the Town Planning Board now.

There is so much building, the town had to adjust its land use plan.

"As an example, one of the developments that just went in, we preserved 55 acres of farmland, created a 30-acre town park," Schultz said. "And created preserve buffers around the development to separate it from the existing houses in the area."

As much growth as it got, Henrietta didn’t grow enough. It’s still below 50,000.

Brean: "What difference would that make if you could pass 50,000?"

Schultz: "So you move into a different class of towns."

That means more funding from the federal government.

"For example, for the American Rescue Act, or ARPA funding, we received about $4.5 million," Schultz said. "Greece and Irondequoit received like 10 and $20 million."

Irondequoit and Greece are both over 50,000 in population.