Hill Sees Lots Of Possibilities

Neighbors gave thumbs down to a dog park. But a butterfly garden? That might work on vacant property near the intersection of Rosette and Cedar streets.

Neighbors met on the sun-splashed corner of those two intersecting streets in the Hill section of the city Monday evening to brainstorm ideas for two vacant parcels there — one city owned and one soon-to-be acquired from the state — that have remained neglected for years.

City officials went toe to toe with the state Department of Transportation during the regular legislative session to wrangle a concession to allow New Haven to continue to run Union Station and to gain control of 15 vacant, state-owned lots around the city including the Rosette Street lot.

Some neighbors shared ideas for what to do with the lots during a Hill South Community Management Team meeting in June. They had another chance at Monday’s meeting, as city officials gauge neighborhood opinion.

City Legislative Liasion Mike Harris and Livable City Initiative (LCI) Hill Neighborhood Specialist Arthur Natalino told the 15 neighbors assembled Monday that the city is working its way through the state’s process for officially relinquishing its control. When that happens the city will have the ability to go in and cut the grass that has grown to about waist high and to take down the fence.

In the meantime, the city is looking to neighbors to decide how the land could be transformed into something beautiful, something useful or both to enhance the neighborhood.

Harris shared with neighbors some of the preliminary results of a survey of people from the city at large, the Hill neighborhood and Rosette Street specifically. The early favorites showed people leaning toward a dog park or a park for kids. But the reality on the ground was a little different.

Angela Hatley, who lives in the Hill but not on Rosette Street, said on its face a park for kids sounds like a good idea. But she questioned whether she would want such a park across from her own house, with the noise, trash, and loitering it might attract.

Rosette Street neighbor Ruth Cordero said she and neighbors would be more inclined to see a park for children, or a garden, before a dog park. She said already people use the city lot, which is unfenced, for their dogs, and they don’t clean up.

“We’re the ones who have to deal with the smell now,” she said.

Cordero said neighbors also have problems with people dumping old mattresses and tires. There have also been some problems with people doing drugs and engaging in sex on the unfenced vacant property. Rosette neighbors also said they worry about the ability to maintain a community garden and about who might hang out there.

John Carlson, who lives on Greenwich Avenue and is the Republican candidate for the Ward 6 alder seat, offered a simple solution: Create a green space with some trees and easy to maintain flowers such as perennials. Like former Hill Alder Johnny Dye, he said he would prefer to see at least a single-family house on the parcel that the city is getting back from the state.

Harris said the city would have to return to the state legislature for permission to build a structure on the vacant lot under the terms of the conveyance bill that passed during the last suggestion.

Carlson’s idea sparked a thought from Cordero and two of her other neighbors: Why not make it into a butterfly garden?

“Would you help maintain it?” Cordero asked Carlson. He said he would.

Hill Alder Dave Reyes said that he will work with the city to get a temporary fence around the city-owned parcel to address the immediate dog-poop problems. Meanwhile, he and city officials will continue meeting with and surveying neighbors.

Click here to learn more about the parcel of land and vote on how you think the city should use this space.