New Haven Independent

Members of the Ronan Edgehill Neighborhood Association met with Yale officials to discuss new building projects in the neighborhood, and to answer complaints about Divinity school students using up all the local parking spaces.

The Yale Center for the Study of Globalization is adding an auditorium and a dining hall for its international conferences, forums, and lectures, in Betts House, a historic mansion set back on a large property next to the Sustainable Food Co-op on Prospect Street. University Planner Laura Cruikshank (pictured with a map of the property), said the current building will be built partially underground, so the two new floors will not obscure the original facade.

The Yale School of Forestry is also planning renovations (pictured), to consolidate the classes into one central location. The landscape in the front of the building will be designed by Lauire Olin, Cruickshank said. All of the greenery in the front of the building will be local: including an outdoor, gray water cleansing system, which will recycle water for use in the building (pictured in the center of the artist rendering, between the two lawns).

Next on the list was a new addition to Luce Hall, for a social sciences building at the corner of Trumbull, Prospect, and Sachem “where we all were just stuck in traffic,” Cruickshank said.

Although a few people had concerns about traffic being stopped for construction on the Canal Street bridge, many more were concerned about Divinity School students skipping out on Yale’s parking fee, instead opting to snatch up all the spaces on Canner Street and Ronan, neighbors said.

According to Charles Pillsbury, a Ronan Edgehill Neighborhood Association activist, when the university kicked “freeloaders” out of its parking garage five years ago by adding a gate that requires an ID to enter, it pushed out a new load of freeloaders “down the hill.”

Neighbors discussed a variety of options, from changing the parking ordinance, to slapping orange violation stickers on what one neighbor called an “endless supply of cars from 9 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.” A small committee was formed to take up the issue.

Mike Morandof Yale’s Office of New Haven and State Affairs (pictured), said the university provides ample parking and transportation for its students. Morand said that the students parking on Ronan are within their legal rights, but that Yale would support neighbors who wanted to change the zoning to require decals to park on the street.

According to Don Relihan of Support Services, which oversees Yale parking and transportation, among other things, Yale Transit ridership has gone up 50 per cent in the past two years. According to Relihan, shuttles come every ten minutes. (Click here to see the route.)

East Rock activist Alex Marathas asked if Yale Transit would consider collaborating with CT Transit to expand bus service to the public, and therefore reduce the all around congestion of cars.

The idea was not well received.

“We work hard to shoulder our share of the burden to this city, and then some,” Morand said. “We’re not going to provide public transit to everybody in the city, and we’re not going to be the parking enforcement for the city.”

Morand did say he would send a letter to Divinity School students, reminding them to obey parking laws.