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by Thomas MacMillan | Jun 25, 2010 6:41 am

(17) Comments | Commenting has been closed | E-mail the Author

Posted to: Business/Labor/ Economic Development, Transportation, Downtown

THomas MacMillan Photo As neighbors and city planners gathered to discuss a plan to fill in part of the Route 34 corridor with new construction, some questioned the notion that the project could “stitch” together long-separated neighborhoods. There are no longer neighborhoods there to reconnect, they said.

Planners offered a slightly different twist: They see a move to undo the “scars” of urban renewal and reinvigorate an asphalt dead zone.

Those observations surfaced during a Thursday evening “community workshop” in the downtown public library, where the discussion topic was the Downtown Crossing project. City officials, consultants, and neighbors gathered in the Elm Street library basement to talk about the city’s plans to overhaul the downtown section of the Route 34 mini-highway between State and York Streets.

The plan is to fill in the area between North and South Frontage Roads—where the Route 34 Connector now sits—with new construction, and connect Temple Street to Congress Avenue and Orange Street to South Orange Street.

One of the goals of the project is to “stitch neighborhoods back together,” said Kelly Murphy (at left in top photo), the city’s head of economic development.

That’s not going to happen, said a couple of New Haveners, including Tokunbo Anifalaje (at center in photo). The areas around that part of the Rt. 34 connector ceased being “neighborhoods” long ago, they said. There are no neighborhoods there to stitch.

A project is already in the works for a portion of the area, which will be known as Downtown Crossing. Developer Carter Winstanley, of 300 George St. and Science Park fame, is planning 240,000 square feet of retail and laboratory space between the Air Rights garage and College Street. That project will cost between $140 and $160 million, said Murphy.

The rest of downtown crossing comprises three more parcels on Rt. 34 between College and Temple, Temple and Church, and Church and Orange. Thursday’s workshop was intended to gather ideas about what should happen in those remaining three parcels.

From Cut-Through To Destination

Gene Festa (pictured in yellow), an architect and board member of the New Haven Urban Design League, offered an articulation of the project that he said was lacking. The objective of Downtown Crossing should be to transform a pass-through into a destination, he said. The Rt. 34 extender was orginally designed as a way to get people from the highway to the Boulevard. That notion needs to be eradicated, Festa said. The area should be designed to attract people to the area, not encourage them to zoom through it, he said.

City planners said Festa’s vision is part of the point of the Downtown Crossing. Festa said he hadn’t heard that stated explicitly enough.

Thursday’s workshop began with an overview of Downtown Crossing presented by Murphy and Bob Brooks, a project manager with the Parsons Brinckerhoff, the consulting company the city has hired to study and plan the project.

The Route 34 Connector is a natural place for the city to grow, Murphy said. It will build on the city’s “core strengths,” like higher education and medical research.

Among the goals of the project, Murphy listed “breaking down physical and psychological barriers” to “stitch neighborhoods back together.” Downtown crossing will emphasize ease of access by pedestrians and cyclists.

Murphy showed pictures of the area before and after the Rt. 34 Connector was built in 1960 as part of New Haven’s urban renewal effort, which leveled swaths of the Hill and Dixwell. The goal is to go back to the before, to create a mix of uses and “make this a 24-hour place again,” she said.

Brooks offered a timeline: The preliminary design should be complete by 2011, the final design by 2013. Construction will begin in 2013 and be finished by 2016. Winstanley’s development should be built by 2013.

Brooks said the project will have two levels of roads, with North and South Frontage operating as multi-lane “boulevards” while lower level driveways will connect the different parcels of Downtown Crossing. In place of bridges connecting the halves of College, Temple, Church, and Orange, “fill structures” are being contemplated, Brooks said. “Like a causeway,” he said. The road would be supported by filled-in dirt between retaining walls, eliminating the need for costly bridge maintenance.

One of the main challenges of the project is striking a balance between how much can be built and how much traffic the area can accommodate, Brooks said.

Later, after snacking on cookies and sliced fruit, workshop participants gathered in small groups around tables with aerial photographs of the Rt. 34 Connector.

Festa spoke up. The goal of the Downtown Crossing development should be to reverse the original intent of the construction of the Rt. 34 Connector, he said. The project “should diminish the role of 34 as a high-speed through road,” he said. It should not be seen as a way to get quickly from the highway to the Boulevard.

Drivers will need to be trained to take I-95 down to the Boulevard exit, he said. The perception of 34 will have to change. “It will become a different animal.”

City Plan department staffer Donna Hall agreed that is a point of the project. “You’ll no longer be able to hit York Street at 70 miles an hour,” she said. “This isn’t going to be this speedway in.” The character of the area will no longer encourage high speeds, she said.

“That should be a stated objective,” Festa said.

It is, Hall replied.

A little later, Parsons Brinkherhoff staffer Joanne Crowe Frascella asked what people thought about the idea that Downtown Crossing will connect neighborhoods.

“I don’t think it’s going to do that,” said Festa. “That’s a false objective.”

“It’s not going to create a neighborhood,” said Anifalaje (photo), a West River neighborhood resident who studies urban planning at the Pratt Institute.

“It’s already not a neighborhood,” Anifalaje said, after her discussion group broke up. The area is surrounded by commercial property, she said.

There may be an opportunity to stitch neighborhoods further west on the 34 connector, Anifalaje said. But not east of the Air Rights garage. “This is about economic development. This is not about communities,” she said.

Festa later expressed similar sentiments. “Neighborhoods will knit together westward,” he said. But along the area that will be Downtown Crossing, “there are no neighborhoods.”

Murphy had a slightly different perspective. Downtown Crossing will be like an extension of downtown, which includes residential properties, she said. “You’ll see changes over time,” she said. As the area is developed, it will fill up with commercial and residential property. “There’ll be everything,” she said.

Alex Krieger, a Boston-based architect, Harvard professor, and urban design guru, is working on the project. As he walked out of the library, he reframed the situation. Maybe “knit” or “stitch” are not the right terms for what Downtown Crossing will do to adjoining areas, he said. What it will do is create “continuity,” like the continuity “that exists here,” he said gesturing to nearby Temple Street, Elm Street, Yale University, and the Green, where cars and pedestrians moved and buildings coexisted without the interference of a highway.

As it is now, Rt. 34 is like a “scar” in the city, he said. “Things recede from a scar.” When the scar is healed, he predicted people will move towards the area. “It will be the center of things,” he said.

Comments

posted by: Westville Mom on June 25, 2010 7:32am

One of the problems with New Haven is that the Green is historically the “center” of the city, yet does not actually function well in that regard because of its large size and its being surrounded by Yale and other civic and institutional buildings. What New Haven needs is another “center.” When you drive through German towns, for instance, you always know where the market and retail “center” is by following signs to the “Stadtmitte.” And you know it when you see it.

Stitching two parts of town together is great and far superior to the Connector, but there is an opportunity here that I hope isn’t missed. The opportunity is to create a retail “center” for New Haven—- adjacent to or including this corridor. If you want to attract people, there has to be a “there” there, in addition to the actual retail, residential, etc. functions. Whether that “there” takes the form of an outdoor pedestrian mall-type thing, an intelligently designed plaza-type or square-type thing, or whatever, it’s got to create an identity—a destination. That was the golden opportunity that was totally lost in the design of the ill-fated Long Wharf Mall, which could have been a multi-use waterfront development, rather than a “mall.”

There are retailers who I think would choose New Haven if the “Stadtmitte” could be created (think Blue Back Square.) I recently contacted Eddie Bauer regarding the closing of their Trumbull Mall store and complained that I had to drive all the way to Danbury to shop in their store. They responded that they are LOOKING at south central CT. Apartments are not enough. You need retail—REAL retail—- not high-priced boutiques.

Along with “stitching”, I hope the planners are also considering “creating.”

posted by: Pedro Soto on June 25, 2010 8:18am

Hear hear, Westville Mom. Downtown retail is a really, really tough proposition, but an attempt needs to be made.

On paper, New Haven tends to not look good because our median income is so far off the scale, compared to places like West Hartford ($61K in WH vs $29K in NH for households), and national retailers are generally sheepy followers when it comes to placement. They want to be where everyone else is, but no one wants to be the first.

But that being said, we have many strong points, and central location is one of them. There’s a reason IKEA is here and not in Milford.

I hope that long term, Church Street South serves as perhaps that retail corridor. It has the advantage of being steps from the train, steps from downtown, steps from the medical district and right off the highway.

Northland (the company that was going to develop the Coliseum site) now owns the property, and while they are not in the best financial shape at the moment, they are a far far better landlord than the slumlords that owned the development for years, and I hope that they have long term designs for this property.

New Haven, and most cities used to be dotted with hundreds of small businesses that people would frequent. While I have some hope that a scale of that might be able to return to the city, it’s clearly not the way things are right now, so any revitalization would have to be a combination of local and national retailers….maybe a “Blue Back for the Rest of us?”

Transforming Church Street south into an actual gateway to the city would be a titanic achievement and help make that area into a destination for both people who live here and people who don’t.

posted by: streever on June 25, 2010 8:25am

Westville Mom is right on about the lack of retail. It is virtually impossible to buy nice men’s clothing after 5 pm downtown. When I am in a city like San Francisco or New York, opportunities abound on every corner. Even Madison, WI has better retail options.

posted by: Doyens on June 25, 2010 8:46am

It is very true that this is not about stitching any neighborhoods back together. It’s about creating develop-able and taxable space. Let’s just be honest about it and call it what it is instead of a euphamism to act like we’re reclaiming something or doing something altruistic. Funding this expensive project will be a huge challenge. What are the projections and who is going to be asked to pay?

posted by: Sweaty Muscus on June 25, 2010 8:53am

I think the idea of neighborhoods coming back is a lost cause. They should have proceeded with the connector if you ask me. After they tore down everything, the best option was to follow through with the highway plans. Route 34 wasn’t meant to be an urban renewal idea, it was meant to provide safe fast transportation between two points. Nothing more, nothing less.

posted by: Westville Mom on June 25, 2010 8:54am

How about an international architectural/urban design competition?

posted by: pat on June 25, 2010 8:55am

As a participant in last night’s discussion of the plans for Rte 34 East, as well as previous ones, I felt substantial progress has been made in re-shaping the vision for the Plan.
While City officials and planners mentioned all the priorities the neighborhood representatives had asked for - :traffic and pollution abatement, the addition of green spaces (parks, trees, plants), mixed use building (residential as well as commercial) and jobs both in construction and in ongoing small business opportunities, plus the restoration of neighborhood ties between the West River and the Hill - the test will be the design for the West part of the Plan.
Alex Krieger led my discussion group and he understood the human scale and need for thoughtful design that would prevent massive buildings from occupying a whole block in future development.
While the initial focus was on diverting much of the traffic off I-95 to the downtown and future buildings, what actually gets built over the existing road will be critical to whether we end up with buildings that empty out at 5 PM or whether we have a thoughtful mix in an expanded downtown that includes the amenities critical to urban living. 2 Howe St is not what we want the future to look like.
The dead land sitting in the middle of 2 Frontage roads is New Haven’s own Fort Trumbull, that devastated wasteland in New London that is a reminder of the failure of an expanded and heartless eminent domain law that destroyed an entire neighborhood. And then the developer left.
The City and the State have an obligation to restore what was taken. Homes were destroyed, relationships broken, memories interrupted by a design that put moving cars over human connections. And then the road wasn’t built.
How many times will government and developers be allowed to repeat these mistakes?
Karen Gilvarg and her team have not had an easy time in getting to this point, but the process of listening to the people who will live with the design decisions has started to produce a positive dialogue and a better vision than the original one.
We know the City is overburdened with non-profits who pay no taxes, thus burdening home and business owners with high tax rates, but unless the City is an attractive and affordable place to live, people will choose to live elsewhere.
I look forward to the next meeting in the Fall when the 2nd part of the Plan will be presented.

posted by: Cedarhillresident on June 25, 2010 8:58am

Well said WV-mom

Who that lives in New Haven really shops in those boutiques? Yes they are still in Buss because someone is, but in general it is a small part of our community. And not a real deal to be had so most will go to find a place that has them. Economy is changing and we need to stop having the city thing with the $100,000 dollar a year salary minds and cut that in half. Those are the stores that will succeed. Even with that yale students who may come from cash….not all do and they need options to!

posted by: anon on June 25, 2010 3:04pm

This project totally stitches together neighborhoods. It sounds like not everyone has read HUD’s guidelines on what creates a livable neighborhood. There are more than ten thousand people who walk, bike or take transit every day, or even multiple times a day, between Downtown, Dixwell, Church Street South, the Hill, and/or the Yale Medical campus, myself included.

Turning the Route 34 area into something other than a dangerous, noisy wasteland would help connect these important neighborhoods, and make it more attractive for these residents to walk around their city.

Every time I cross Route 34, I wish these neighborhoods were knit together.

Westville Mom and Festa are on the money that the quality of place and walkability should be the absolute priority here, not moving traffic, and that walkability has to do with much more than just how many sidewalks you have.

posted by: Threefifths on June 25, 2010 8:16pm

This sounds like the gentrificationVampires are coming.Becareful for what you ask for.Look at what Columbia University did.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/25/nyregion/25columbia.html?ref=charles_v_bagli

posted by: Bill B on June 25, 2010 9:51pm

Filling in Rt. 34 seems like it would cause many unintended results. Let’s make sure that these issues get included in the discussion to ensure that we don’t make a bad problem worse.
Just a few of the problems that come to mind are:
1. It will put thousands of cars onto the downtown streets just when there is a major effort to make the city more friendly to bikes and walkers.

2.The thousands of daily commuters that work at Yale University, Yale-New Haven and St R’s hospitals will need to wind through the city to get to and from work twice daily.

3. Travelers who want to continue through the city on Rt. 34 will be delayed and add to the problem.

4. Traffic will back up onto I91 & I95 creating more daily traffic nightmares if exit one is the only way into the city. This will only get worse after Gateway College opens their new campus.

5. This plan will result in people spending more time in their cars and driving on the downtown streets trying to get to & from the major in-city employers.

6. Far more people who live and work in and around New Haven will be adversely effected by this project than the number of people who will benefit.
Perhaps, as an alternative, Rt. 34 could be covered over (not filled in), similar to sections of I95 in The Bronx, NY, or I91 in Hartford. Then buildings and open space could then connect the Yale medical community to the rest of downtown, while traffic flows along the existing path under the newly created space. Developer Carter Winstanley and the Mayor would still have their project and the traffic downtown would not be made worse.

posted by: Charlotte on June 25, 2010 10:22pm

As the Route 34 corridor has begun to be filled with medical-related facilities, there is an evident disregard for non-motorized transit. Why is a corridor not reserved for a two-way bike path from Ella Grasso Boulevard to Park Street? City government pays lip service to becoming a bicycle-friendly city, but the Route 34 cleared strip is an opportunity to create a bike boulevard more easily than on the congested existing streets like Elm and George. Connecting West River and Edgewood Parks with downtown would facilitate bicycle commuting and reduce auto traffic through downtown.

posted by: anon on June 26, 2010 11:31am

I agree, Charlotte.

There’s plenty of lip service to creating a healthy and walkable city, but the development of Route 34 so far has set our city behind by a generation.

The area that has been filled in so far is effectively a wall separating our neighborhoods from one another and the services they need.

ConnDOT shares much of the blame for this travesty.

To be fair, much of the infill that’s just gone up along Route 34 was planned before the city and state had complete streets legislation. Next time it will have to be different.

The horrific widening of Whalley Avenue currently taking place in Westville is a similar situation, the legacy of a plan from the 1980s.

posted by: pat on June 26, 2010 12:31pm

Threefifths posting about the use of eminent domain by Columbia University is truly scary. The most recent US Supreme Court decision expanding the uses of eminent domain have given a license for unlimited land grabs.
It was nice having a Constitution - while it lasted.

posted by: Threefifths on June 26, 2010 2:58pm

Did some one ask Kelly Murphy the city’s head of economic development is se going to have a forum Like this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKllrwuw9nY

posted by: Ned on June 26, 2010 8:04pm

Charlotte,
By coincidence I just read an article about light rail in Charlotte, North Carolina.

http://www.grist.org/article/2010-06-25-charlotte-does-light-rail-right/

I wonder how many parking spaces city plan is going to require for all of this proposed development? Maybe New Haven should just replace itself with a massive parking garage with direct access from I95, or something along the lines of the old Union Carbide Headquarters, in Danbury
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Corporate_Center
“it was set up so that each office was very close, sometimes only 10 feet (3 m), from its related parking spot and that employees would not need to exit the building to perform any functions.” Sounds perfect for New Haven.

posted by: Jonathan Hopkins on June 28, 2010 11:04am

Meetings like this are pretty discouraging because the state puts the city within a set of requirements in order to move ahead quickly with development and then the city puts the citizens in a box to talk about the plan within an already established context.
The highway right of ways must be maintained and unchanged in order for the city to quickly implement any sort of plan. With this requirement, all of the objectives desired by the city-calm streets, pedestrian friendly, connectivity, etc-are all nearly impossible to achieve.
The highways are so untouchable because the state (and the federal government) have to cater to the majority of the population, which is the suburban middle class in both the country and state. Unfortunately, suburbanites only care about commute time and want convenience above all else no matter what the cost is to other people. I suppose eventually the proposed roads could be modified with wider sidewalks, permanent parking lanes, bus-only lanes, and a continuous building frontage that creates a defined space within the street in which case this could be a pretty nice place. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t happen for decades and until then this would be an awful place to be.
Ideally, the highway bridge over Union Street would converge onto a single roadway that continued up to the boulevard, which would allow for the north frontage road to become much smaller and pleasant. The converged road would be pretty awful initially, but over the years it could get parking lanes, wider sidewalks, medians, bus lanes, etc and be a nice boulevard that could support very high density buildings in a way that would be much better than 2 parallel high speed roadways that essentially create an island between them.
Turning this:
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/hs274.ash1/20155_1226732103532_1085910074_30557687_1150909_n.jpg
into something like this:
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs174.snc3/20155_1226729503467_1085910074_30557684_4501674_n.jpg

As for a retail center, that has traditionally been Chapel Street, but it has been inadequate for several decades. Cass Gilbert, architect of Union Station, developed a master plan for the area between downtown and the train station that would have created a place that could have served as a retail center among other things.
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs231.snc1/7823_1137622715853_1085910074_30359218_6625241_n.jpg

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