$1.5M Green Upgrade Green-Lighted

The Green will soon see some green for a facelift that has been three decades in the making.

The Board of Alders Monday night unanimously approved the application and acceptance of a $1 million state grant that would allow the city to make much needed improvements at the central two-block square. Officials said the improvements will not only make the Green better for daily use, but allow for more summer attractions.

The state Bond Commission authorized the grant from the state Department of Economic and Community Development back during its meeting at the end of September.

Morris Cove Alder Sal DeCola said the upgrades, which include improved lighting and electrical and sewer work will improve the health, safety and beauty of the Green. He said it will also ​“create a flexible first class event space for year round use that would attract bigger events.”

The grant requires that the city put up $500,000 in matching funds, which DeCola said are available in the parks department’s capital accounts. The first phase of the improvements will focus on the upper Green. A City Plan staff report said the planned improvements will be the first renovations of the Green in more than 30 years; in the 1980s a business community-led fundraising drive raised millions to upgrade the Green. A little-known private self-perpetuating quintet called The Committee of the Proprietors of Common and Undivided Lands at New Haven has owned the Green since the 17th century; the city maintains and polices the park on the proprietors’ behalf.

“The grant represents the first part of an extensive plan for the improvement of the Green,” DeCola said. ​“City staff expects more funding will be available from the state in the future.”

City Engineer Gionvanni Zinn said the idea to make improvements to the Green came from Mayor Toni Harp. ​“She identified that the Green is a wonderful place, but it needs a little more sprucing up of its infrastructure to really support the daily use, and the kind of large events that draw people from New Haven and all around Connecticut to enjoy the Green.”

Zinn said to that end, the city’s parks and engineering departments have worked with the proprietors group and the state to create an improvement plan that includes better lighting and ​“electrical distribution infrastructure,” sanitary sewer water service, irrigation and improved trash collection.

“A lot of the infrastructure improvements are so that we can really support a more intensive use of the Green,” he said. ​“A second piece is looking at a lot of the temporary structures for the Green, like a larger mobile stage and other ancillary structures. By having those, we’ll bring down the costs for people to have events on the Green.”

Having better temporary structures would allow the city to attract more and better performing acts and other cultural activities, Zinn said.

“The city would have this stuff and be able to rent it out and that’s really an attempt to program the Green for not only the big signature events that everyone’s seen, but also having a drumbeat of programming through the summer,” he said.