Wanted: proposals from consultants interested in planning Wooster Square neighborhood’s transit-oriented development.
A group of Wooster Square neighbors met in a City Hall meeting room recently to finalize a request for qualifications (RFQ) document for the project and decide on next steps. City officials submitted the final draft of the RFQ Monday to hire a consultant by mid-September.
Click here to read the full RFQ. Click here to see the link on the city’s website.
The city recently received $125,000 from the state to figure out how to promote walking and biking, and redevelop “underused” properties, especially with the incoming of a projected 1,500 new apartments to the Wooster Square neighborhood.
Since then, a “steering committee” of community and city leaders has been brainstorming plans in the quest of what is known as “T.O.D.,” or transit-oriented development, which puts homes and workplaces and stores near public transportation.
Click here to read the application.
The consultant will be expected to “review existing conditions, conduct field visits, meet with the community and then build upon that knowledge to develop credible design concepts and other deliverables,” as well as “meet extensively” with local officials and “a community stakeholder group,” according to the RFQ.
Neighbors at the recent meeting disagreed on the priorities for the planning project. City economic development staffer Matt Smith and Wooster Square Alder Aaron Greenberg split the group into two in order to come up with last edits.
We need to “get the [RFQ] out to try and get consultants,” Smith said. He urged the group to fix the small details at the meeting and discuss in-depth development in the future.
“I disagree. The mindset in this town is that it’s just for developers,” said Tony Kosloski, who grew up in New Haven and now lives in the neighborhood. He said the committee should discuss the intricacies of the type of planning they hoped the consultant would carry out, before the hiring process.
The consultant will be expected to take on the following tasks:
1. Do background research, including consulting local officials and community stakeholders, as well as providing “context on the change in land use over time as well as the related changes to transportation, environment and retail character.”
2. Prepare “existing conditions study” on “land use, demographics, building conditions, zoning and environmental considerations,” using the new Comprehensive Plan of Development Update for reference.
3. Meet with community by going to six community meetings, including four small-group discussions with the committee, one community meeting and one presentation to the City Plan Commission and/or Board of Alders once the plan is adopted. The consultant and city will “jointly arrange for a filed tour to include walking, transit and bike activities.”
4. Prepare early design concepts for the neighborhood as well as “test fits” at four sites, including the site of former factory C. Cowles & Co., to show how they will “interact with the existing residential environment.”
5. Review the proposal to connect Fair Street from Union to Wooster Streets and then “furnish a preliminary design concept at the 10% level.”
6. Prepare a technical memo on a proposal to establish a second Farmington Canal Greenway route parallel to the Hartford/Springfield rail line between Grove and Water Streets.
7. Prepare three “overall concept development plans” and pull together the other tasks into a complete “cohesive community plan” for the TOD.
8. Prepare a “retail positioning memo,” to “identify niche opportunities associated with the neighborhood-scale retail space(s) available within the district or planned with new development.”
10. Prepare a housing memo to “keep Wooster Square diverse,” including plans to support housing for “families, older and young people, and for people at the various income levels typical of New Haven and its employment opportunities.”
