Conesus Lake

Long considered the "jewel" of Livingston County, Conesus Lake is the western-most Finger Lakes in Upstate New York. It is located south of Rochester along Route 390 and is known the world over as a year-round sporting and recreation center. There are fishing, water skiing, sailing, boating and swimming in the summer; duck hunting in the fall, and ice fishing, ice boating, ice skating and snowmobiling in the winter.
The Lake also serves as the public water supply for the Village of Avon and Village of Geneseo public water systems, which extended as far west as the Town of York, as far south as the Town of Groveland and as far north as the Village of Avon. As of 1999, Conesus Lake provided water to approximately 22 percent of the total population of Livingston County.
Conesus Lake is approximately eight miles long, barely a mile wide and overs an area of about five square miles. With a depth of only about 66 feet, the Lake is one of the more shallow Finger Lakes. The Lake is situated at approximately 818 feet above sea level.
Historically, the lake shore of Conesus Lake has served as a location of summer cottages. However, the number of cottages on the Lake has expanded dramatically over the century. In 1872, summer cottages numbered less than 100. With the advent of the automobile, the shortage of housing following World War II, and the improvement of roads, the number of dwellings on the Lake increased over tenfold to 1,100 structures in 1950. In 1969, 1,600 dwellings were counted on the Lake shore. According to the 1998 Livingston County Real Property Tax Roll database information, there are currently 1,750 residential dwelling units within 1,000 feet of the shoreline, representing an 8.5 percent increase over the past three decades. While there is still a large seasonal cottage community, the past few decades have seen a shift from a summer recreation orientation to year-round residential use.
Conesus Lake is unique in that it was one of the first lakes of its size in New York State to have a sanitary sewer system servicing the entire periphery of the Lake. The Conesus Lake County Sewer District serves the four towns of Conesus, Geneseo, Groveland and Livonia, along with the Village of Livonia.