Hill Flexes Housing Muscles

A gap-toothed section of Howard Avenue near Rosette Street may soon be filled in by a new multi-family house — in keeping both with neighborhood architecture and the desires of longtime homeowners to become players, not pawns, in the area’s development.

That’s thanks to a pioneering partnership being developed between the Hill South Community Management Team (HSCMT) and the city’s anti-blight agency, Livable City Initiative (LCI).

The potential partnership was outlined Wednesday night at the Betsy Ross Parish Hall on Kimberly Avenue, where 40 area residents responded to a call for a special meeting of the management team in order to discuss a ​“partnership between the Hill South Community Management Team and LCI to build and rehab houses for resale to owner occupants.”

In the spring the HSCMT formed a housing subcommittee responding to what many long-time homeowners like Angela Hatley described as concerns about developers, real estate management companies, and even non-profits swooping in and aggressively buying up individual and groups of the area’s homes.

The result: increasing density, creating parking issues, and transforming a residential neighborhood without enough local input.

Input followed, with the subcommittee members, police, and others looking over potential properties and empty lots owned by the city in the Hill that might be a site for the a first pilot development where the HSCMT’s designated representatives might be at the table with LCI from conception of a building project, to choice of contractor, to design, and through to selection of future tenant, and ribbon cutting.

Wednesday night’s meeting was the result.

6 Bedrooms, 4 1/2 Bath

LCI Project Manager Mark Wilson presented stock drawings of his preliminary thinking of the kind of house that could be built on the empty lot at 455 Howard: a three-level structure, with the basement or garden level potentially a rental unit, the second floor a master ​“suite,” suitable, for example for in-laws; and the third floor consisting of a traditional three-bedroom lay-out.

In all, he added, six bedrooms and four and half baths.

Part of stabilizing the neighborhood, reducing flight, and encouraging home ownership is having housing that people need, Wilson added. And that, increasingly, is no longer just the home for the traditional nuclear family.

In New Haven people are always seeking variances to convert garages and basements into ​“in-law” suites, which zoning doesn’t allow, he added.

That’s why the multi-family structure was being suggested as the type of effort to be mounted on the 455 lot, which the city owns.

Wilson cited the five two-family homes at the end of Judith Terrace in Fair Haven — a $2.5 million project that LCI developed replacing empty lots with desirable properties that immediately rented — as a model or template for what might grow around the 455 Howard project.

Longtime Hill resident Paul Larrivee pressed Wilson about who would control the project, including after completion. ​“What’s to keep this from being split into a five-family house” and causing problems of precisely the kind it was trying to prevent? he asked.

“Because of the funding source,” Wilson replied, ​“the owner must live there.”

Depending on how much money the city, as developer, puts into the project, the city would have control over such decisions for 15 or 20 years, he added.

“What if we don’t like a design or something?” Hatley asked.

“We want you to be part of it,” Wilson replied.

Conceptual Stage

Other questioners pressed Wilson about setbacks and driveway. His answer: Preliminarily, there would be eight feet and ten feet at the sides of the house. Ad, yes, a driveway.

Was this the final design?

“No,” Wilson responded. ​“You’ll be part of all that. There’s been discussion about houses that Yale has built, but here the idea is continuity” with neighborhood architecture.

“This is just conceptual,” Wilson added: HSCMT will be at the table for all the decisions from conception to design to choosing local contractors.

“Who would be qualified to live there?” asked homeowner Carmen Rodriguez.

‘The city vets a real estate agent,” replied Wilson, and ​“it’s usually the agent who finds the clients. It’s pretty rigorous.”

Would any preference be given to local residents seeking to move or upgrade?

“We’d do our best to find a local family,” Wilson responded, although the process is open.

And another longtime resident, Joe Fekieta, expressed skepticism that a single house on what he described as a sketchy part of Howard Avenue would be enough to make a difference.

“I subscribe to the broken windows idea,” Wilson replied, meaning that one improved property can inspire owners of nearby properties to begin to make upgrades on their own. He said that is happening, for example at 384 Blatchley Ave. in Fair Haven, where he recently completed another LCI rehab, and the neighbors have noticed. ​“You have to start somewhere.”

Details Sought

“I am fully behind the project,” said HSCMT Chair Sarah McIver.

Reyes said he too is an enthusiastic supporter of the pilot project, in principle. He said he’ll seek clarification from LCI about the funding. Some $80,000 of the planned financing would come from a pot of money the city reaped as one of the benefits of the deal with developer Randy Salvatore’ s four-story, 110-apartment building he is erecting on Gold Street, the former site of the Prince Street School. Reyes and Hatley said more money from that pot should go toward this project.

“I’m very pleased with the pilot project,” said Hatley. ​“If it goes well, it portends well for the future. I’m optimistic.”