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Shelter, City Strike Deal On Army Base
by Thomas MacMillan & Melissa Bailey | Apr 12, 2011 5:08 pm
(8) Comments | Commenting has been closed | E-mail the Author
Posted to: City Hall, Legal Writes
The city’s police academy will relocate to West Rock without the outdoor firing range, and Columbus House will use another location to shelter the homeless, according to a deal struck between two parties vying to take over an abandoned Army Reserve base.
The deal settles a competition between the city and a coalition of homeless service providers over who will take over the George D. Libby Army Reserve Center at 200 Wintergreen Ave. The base was one of a number of armories scheduled for closing in 2005 by the federal Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC). The Army is expected to vacate the building later this year.
West Rock Alderman Darnell Goldson (pictured at the base) said he’s supporting the deal, which includes an amendment that there be no outdoor firing range at the base.
The accord paves the way for the city to move its police academy out of its current site at Sherman Parkway and into the Army base. The police academy firing range, where the sound of gunshots has bothered Beaver Hills neighbors for years, could be moved to Wintergreen Avenue, too, but only if the city can raise grant money to build an indoor facility there.
In exchange, the city brokered a deal with the housing authority to give a coalition of homeless service providers a different facility: The Housing Authority of New Haven has agreed to turn over a property on Frank Street in the Hill for housing for the homeless.
Rob Smuts, the city Chief Administrative Officer, is presenting the terms of the deal at a meeting tonight at the Katherine Brennan school at 6 p.m.
Smuts is in charge of the Local Redevelopment Authority (LRA), which was formed to determine what will become of the base. For the past two years, the LRA has been weighing two proposals, one from the city and one from the homelessness coalition.
The coalition, led by Columbus House, sought to turn the building into 52 apartments for the homeless and for veterans. Federal law gives homeless service providers an edge in the process: under the Base Closure Community Redevelopment and Homeless Assistance Act of 1984, the surplus land must be offered for free to anyone who has a viable plan to house the homeless there.
Columbus House is now moving ahead with a plan to convert a 17-unit public housing complex on Frank Street into housing for the clients at its homeless shelter. The agency is also in talks with the housing authority about taking an empty lot on Division Street for a second project, said Alison Cunningham, executive director of Columbus House.
Satisfied with the plan, Columbus House plans to withdraw its proposal for the base, Cunningham said.
“We’re really grateful to the city for not just throwing out our application, but really paying attention to it, and helping us come up with a viable alternative,” Cunningham said Tuesday.
“We’ll end up with some decent affordable housing,” Cunningham said, “which was our goal to begin with. So that’s good.”
On Tuesday evening, the LRA will take public comment on the deal; Smuts said he does not expect a vote.
West Rock Alderman Goldson, who successfully lobbied to add a neighborhood voice in the LRA process, has put forward two conditions to the deal. One requires that any shooting range at the site will be indoors only. The other states that any industrial use—including any kind of auto repair—at the site will require aldermanic permission.
Smuts said the LRA is amenable to both those conditions. He said the existing building does not allow for an indoor shooting range. The city is applying for $5 million to $6 million in federal funds to build an indoor shooting range. U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, who toured the shooting range in 2009, secured $225,000 for the campaign to bring it inside. Smuts said if the city gets enough money to fund the indoor range, the army base might make a good spot.
Goldson said he is trying to ensure that his ward doesn’t suffer the same problems of noise and environmental pollution that face neighbors at the existing—outdoor—shooting range at the police academy on Sherman Avenue. Neighbors there have for years complained about the sound of gunshots. Others are concerned about lead leaching into a creek behind the Army base.
Overall, Goldson said he’s pleased with the pact.
“For me, it’s a good solution,” Goldson said. He said a police academy could be a “stabilizing force” in the area and draw more resources. “It’s never bad to have a police facility in your district.”
Smuts said the police department could take the base over with minimal renovations. A second locker room would have to be installed, he said.
After the LRA approves the redevelopment plan, it will need approval by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Justice, according to Smuts. If all three departments sign off, the Army base would be transferred to the city sometime after September, he said.
Frank St. Fixup
Meanwhile, Columbus House is already moving forward with a new partnership with the housing authority to “co-develop” 109 Frank St. in the Hill, according to HANH Executive Director Karen DuBois-Walton.
The 1970s public housing complex (pictured) is known as Valentina Macri Court. It’s home to 17 “garden-style” apartments facing an inner courtyard. The apartments are all efficiencies or studios housing one or two people, she said.
“It’s a pleasant, cute development,” DuBois-Walton said. “People love it that live there.”
However, the complex has fallen into disrepair. Six of the apartments are boarded up because they need maintenance—maintenance that the housing authority cannot afford to pay for, she said.
DuBois-Walton said the complex needs roof repairs and some improvements to make it wheelchair accessible. She said federal guidelines now require all complexes to be self-sufficient, but Valentina Macri is not. The income from the renters just wasn’t enough to pay for the needed repairs, she said.
“Had it stayed in our ownership indefinitely, the maintenance would have been deferred,” she said. HANH approached Columbus House about taking over the site. The housing authority board last month approved a deal by which HANH would lease the building to Columbus House for a dollar and take it over as a project-based Section 8 housing. Columbus House would take out a loan to pay for capital improvements to the building, DuBois-Walton said.
She said HANH has already met with the residents there to let them know their rights: They can transfer to a new HANH property, such as the Sylvan Avenue complex that’s replacing 904 Howard, transfer to an existing housing project, or take a Section 8 voucher to a privately owned building. Or if they choose, they could use the relocation money to “move to Tennessee.”
The project needs HUD approval. DuBois-Walton said she expects the approval to go through and the property to change hands in about six months.
“It’s a wonderful way to be able to preserve affordable housing,” DuBois-Walton said of the deal. “It’s always a shame when units have to be taken off-line.”
The housing authority is also in talks with Columbus House about redeveloping an empty lot on Division Street, according to Cunningham. She said Columbus House intends to develop both.
“Our greatest need right now is to be able to find affordable housing,” she said.
Post a Comment
Comments
posted by: anon on April 12, 2011 5:44pm
Whose greatest “need” is it to provide affordable housing? Last time I checked, New Haven had a vastly disproportionate share of subsidized housing units. These units produce little in the way of tax revenue to support city activities, such as schools. Some towns have virtually none of these units. If the suburbs helped share this burden, there would be much more funding available to make the units that we do have more hospitable to our residents.
Units should be decommissioned in New Haven, and sold for tax revenue, until our suburban towns pick up far more of their fair share of them.
posted by: Jonathan Hopkins on April 12, 2011 7:03pm
Well, can’t say I’ll miss being woken up on Saturday mornings to the sound of gun shots from the firing range, so thumbs up for that move.
I agree with anon - I’d like to see better transit service extended out to the suburbs and see mixed-use development along those lines with affordable housing above shops and offices.
posted by: click click on April 12, 2011 9:33pm
New Haven receives a ton of money from the government for having homeless shelters and projects. NH also receives a ton of government money, VIA tax paying suburban residents, to pay for all those fancy new NH school, so stop crying Elm City residents. Who did you think paid for all of those buildings?
posted by: Limited Life on April 12, 2011 10:24pm
Looks like Darnell is getting more done than Johnny Boy. Certainly getting more air time. Will he be our next Mayor? This will be interesting. He seems to want so much more without having to pay for it.
posted by: C.O.P on April 13, 2011 5:18am
To J. Hopkins:
Last I checked there is no shooting allowed on the police range during the weekends, mainly because the Academy is closed on the weekends.
posted by: Jonathan Hopkins on April 13, 2011 11:22am
C.O.P.
I only leave my bedroom window open in the summer, so I must have confused a weekday (before I started working in the summer) with Saturday. So my mistake, although everyday of the summer does feel like a Saturday.
posted by: S. Poole on April 17, 2011 3:21pm
I must commend the members of the Whalley/Edgewood/ Beaver Hill Community Management Team for their diligence and persistence regarding the relocation of the Police Training Facility. Our work is not done until the Police receive their indoor firing range. We must write our State Representatives and Senators to sustain our momentum. It is so much more important to stop the gunfire while our young people are attending schools within an earshot of the current facility.
