Tweaked, Lot Sale For Housing Advances

The city’s anti-blight agency voted to sell two vacant Munson Street lots to a faith-based nonprofit housing developer to bolster the affordable rental market in a stretch of Dixwell-Newhallville that is on the cusp of overflowing with market-rate apartments.

That was the result of the most recent meeting of the Board of Directors for the city’s Livable City Initiative (LCI), which voted to sell vacant lots at 232 Munson St. and 245 Munson St. to Beulah Land Development Corporation for redevelopment as deed-restricted affordable housing rental apartments. Beulah is also in the process of putting together a far larger affordable project down the street at Dixwell and Shelton.

The city agency board agreed to sell the 5,300 square-foot lot at 232 Munson St. to Beulah for $2,000 with Beulah’s commitment to build a two-family home on the site that will be rented out to low and moderate-income dwellers. The city also agreed to sell the 3,500 square-foot lot at 245 Munson St. to Beulah for $1,000 with the nonprofit’s commitment to build a one-family home on the site to be rented as affordable housing.

Now the proposed sale goes to the full Board of Alders for final approval.

Beulah’s nonprofit development organization has already transformed former crack houses on its own block into stable homes, and has plans to build 70 mostly lower-income apartments on the vacant lot at 340 Dixwell Ave. that used to house Joe Grate’s automotive and ribs business.

The board approved the sale of the 232 Munson St. site on the condition that Beulah receives necessary zoning relief from the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) before it begins construction. The plot’s 35-foot width is below the 50-foot average lot width allowed for a two-family dwelling in a High Middle Density (RM‑2) zone as of right. A City Plan Commission report nevertheless recommended approval of the sale of the property to the nonprofit developer despite the required zoning relief with the rationale that the two-family home will be consistent with the size and density of other homes in the neighborhood.

Earlier this year, the LCI board voted to delay the sale of the lots to Beulah out of a concern that giving the thumbs up to development proposals that it knew were not in compliance with zoning regulations would set a bad precedent. Beulah subsequently reduced the occupancy of its proposal for 232 Munson from three-family to two-family, and for 245 Munson from two-family to one-family

LCI’s Acquisitions and Dispositions Coordinator Evan Trachten said that Beulah’s proposals to build add three affordable rental units to Munson Street will be a welcome addition to a block that will soon have a nearly 400-unit, privately developed, primarily market-rate apartment complex at 201 Munson St.

“These are going to be affordable units,” Trachten said about the two-family home and one-family planned for 232 Munson and 245 Munson respectively. ​“Beulah is trying to provide some affordable housing, which is one of the thing we hear about all the time: that there’s not enough affordable housing.”

Trachten estimated that, if the board approved the sale to Beulah, the developer would likely bring the two-family home plan for 232 Munson before the BZA during its June meeting. If they receive the necessary zoning relief, he estimated that they would be able to put foundations in as early as Fall 2018.

Hill Alder Dolores Colon asked if either of these proposed rental developments would give the renter the option to buy the home sometime in the future.

“I don’t believe they will,” Trachten said, ​“because they’re going to have a Land Disposition Agreement (LDA) with the city that will state it’s got to be an affordable rental.”

He said that LDAs are typically 20 years, and suspected that, once the LDA expires a few decades from now, Beulah may look to sell the properties. ​“But not anytime in the near future,” he said.

Board chair Tim Yolen asked if the rental rates would be low at the three new units.

“Yes,” Trachten said, ​“because they’re going to be renting to someone low to moderate income. I’m going to speculate it will be 60 percent AMI [Area Median Income] at the most.”

Colon said that these types of affordable housing projects in the city’s neighborhoods are exactly what she was calling for in her recent keynote address before the Board of Alders Black and Hispanic Caucus.

“It’s going to be new housing,” Colon said. ​“Somebody who has a good job but still has a big family can rent here and have decent accommodations for their family. That’s 100 percent on program.”

“It’s also going to be in a wonderful community that’s basically going to be completely renovated,” board member Patricia Brett added. ​“It’s a nice community.”