New Haven Independent

City Plan approved the permit at a meeting Wednesday night. It was the first time the new ordinance, requiring a special permit for lots or garages for 200 or more vehicles, was utilized.

The approved permit includes a commitment by the developer to install a new traffic light at a cut-through of the median across from the Pitkin Tunnel to allow for left turners out of the new garage; and to upgrade the lights on State at Chapel and Court. Oh, and a left-turn lane would also be created eastbound on Chapel.

Developers Becker and Becker previously received relief from the Board of Zoning Appeals to minimize the number of parking spots the 456-unit complex and its garage will provide — to about 600 (333 for the residents, 175 for Connecticut Financial Center, and another 100 for retail customers and employees). The special permit approval at Wednesday night’s City Plan Commissioner’s meeting turned on the project’s impact on both vehicular and pedestrian traffic.

Acknowledging that the State and Chapel streets intersection was not working too well already, Bruce Becker, his attorney Sara Bronin, and main project architect Michael LoSasso (left to right in photo above) presented a traffic study and a plan with several main features.

Under their plan, access to and from the parking structure will be from the Pitkin Tunnel on State Street. The median will be cut across from the tunnel and a traffic light installed to allow a left turn for cars leaving the tunnel. And the tunnel’s 30 foot width will be re-laned to allow two lanes to exit and one to enter.

To accommodate traffic traveling eastward to the building from Chapel, a left turn lane will be created from Chapel onto State. The developers also volunteered to upgrade the lights on Court and State and Chapel and State, to the tune of several hundred thousand dollars.

In addition to the re-laning of the tunnel, the commissioners, and specifically City Engineer Richard Miller (pictured at right with commissioner Roy Smith), had questions about another feature of the traffic plan, a semi-circular drive or drop off, just south of the tunnel, in front of the entrance to the building, with two curb cut-outs to State Street for cars to enter and to exit.

The Becker team said the drop-off was necessary both because the distance from street to building entrance was 45 feet and also because without it cars would be stopping on State Street, causing back-up.

Miller’s primary concern was turning the two lanes of the Pitkin Tunnel into three, each ten feet wide. “An eight-foot truck is going to have an extremely tight fit getting in there.” He expressed concern that he hadn’t seen the three-lane configuration before. And with two lanes going out, he said, say at rush hour, “I’m really concerned about a new left turn across from the tunnel. I have to wonder about all your assumptions.”

The Becker team was not dismayed. They agreed to provide some new detailed “geometric” studies to satisfy Miller and others on the commission that the tunnel would work either with the current configuration of two lanes or with three. As to drop off area and its impact on pedestrians who would have to cross two cut-outs with cars arriving and departing, Becker was quick to point out that pedestrians are already used to dealing with that at the Pro-park lot. Bronin said, “Our circulation will be able interact without serious issues with the new median cut.”

With a promise to satisfy the commissioners’ concerns with new drawings presented to City Plan staff, the commission voted unanimously to grant the special parking permit, which had not been in existence when Becker and Becker won the bid for the Shartenberg site. Bronin described it as a victory. Becker, with a smile, noted, “We were guinea pigs, having received the first special permit. But it has worked out very well. And other developers concerned that for large projects like ours, the city would be slow in processing permits and moving through procedures, well, they can be confident now. I feel very good.”

With this permit in hand, Becker will be able to proceed with the foundation and excavation work, for which it has already applied for permits. That would keep the developer close to the original projected schedule.

“The only serious outstanding issue for us is to close on the financing from the state,” Becker said. He was referring to $9.9 million in financing through the Urban Action Grant, which has previously been approved by the Bond Commission. “Still it must be released.” Once that is tied up, he said, the project is good to go, as early as December.

Because the project is “transit-oriented” development, the parking garage, the Becker team said, will also be fitted with secure bike storage, bike racks on the nearby streets (with the City’s consent), plus a Zipcar car-sharing arrangement, if possible.

In addition to traffic impact, the garage’s special permit’s criteria included at least a half-dozen other requirements including design and architectural compatibility and historic preservation, all of which seemed to have satisfied the commissioners, and the public. During the public participation part of the hearing, no one, apart from the principals, stepped forward in support or opposition. The design team, said Bronin, had heard much of the previous input about the garage from the public. Part of the redesign, she said, is that those levels “facing the Chapel Street”neighbors will not have headlights glaring out at them.”