New Haven Independent

According to the compromise approved in a Board of Zoning Appeals voting session Tuesday night, Vieau will be permitted to build six condos in the historic building at the foot of the Grand Avenue Bridge. But he’ll have to comply with one major change that neighbors fought for: He must reserve the streetfront portion of the building for commercial, not residential, use.

As part of nine conditions attached to the approval, Vieau will also have to comply with the U.S. Secretary of the Interior’s standards for the renovation of historic buildings, as well as have a civil engineer conduct a study of the Quinnipiac River seawall at the edge of his property.

Fair Haven Heights Alderman Alex Rhodeen, reached by phone, said he was pleased with the conditions set by the BZA, especially the call for street-level retail, which “was really at the heart of the neighborhood’s request.”

While neighbors had shown up in force to ask for Vieau’s plans to be denied, Rhodeen said he recognized the situation the BZA was in, given that it has previously approved a similar proposal on the same property. (Click here for background on that.) Vieau “made it clear he would sue if they reversed their decision,” noted Rhodeen.

That prospect appeared to be a deciding factor at the voting table Tuesday.

At the start, some BZA members, in the wake of fervent neighborhood protest, were convinced Vieau’s plans should be outright denied.

“There were quite a few people out here against this, and I would recommend we deny,” said BZA Chair Cathy Weber in a brief discussion preceding a vote. In a 3-2 vote, the board first denied Vieau’s request — an act that would have stopped the developer from building condos in the commercial-zoned former hardware store. Weber, Chris Vigilante and Maritza Padilla-Gant voted to reject the variance request; Regina Winters and Gaylord Bourne voted to approve, with the conditions cited above.

The denial sent Felipe Pastore, the City Hall attorney assigned to advise the board, to his feet. “Can we please open for additional discussion?” he asked.

Board members agreed.

“I agree there was a lot of neighborhood discussion,” Pastore (pictured at right) told the board, but “we have a history on this address of [a similar proposal] being granted.”

“I think it would be arbitrary and capricious for us to deny this,” warned Pastore. “We are currently in litigation with this individual over fair housing” — the city’s battling in court over two of Vieau’s “sober houses” that the city had said were breaking the law. “It is my legal opinion that this application should be approved as long as the conditions” are met, said Pastore.

Asked for further elaboration, Pastore explained: “You don’t have the right to say what the building looks like. You have the right to say how the building is used.” Ordering the developer to use the streetside storefront on Grand Avenue for retail, while allowing residential use in the back of the first floor, was a reasonable compromise, he suggested. The developer can still build six units of housing, but he’ll have to be cut back a bit to fit a retail space of at least 25 feet deep on Grand Avenue.

Swayed by Pastore’s arguments, Weber and Padilla-Gant changed their votes. Nixing the first vote and holding a new one, the board granted Vieau the variance in a 4-1 vote.

Will Vieau continue with the condo plans, now that he’s been ordered to redraft plans to accommodate retail? Reached Wednesday, Vieau declined to comment, because he hadn’t read the conditions set by the board.

Rhodeen said he hopes the developer would reach out to the community to work together in the future. Meanwhile, he remained pleased with the BZA’s final vote: “Given the situation they were dealing with, [the BZA] made their best effort to accommodate the wishes of the community.”