The developers promised the neighborhood that their new apartment complex would be upscale adult housing, not a rowdy ersatz student dorm. Surprise! Neighbors already know the Wintergreen apartments as “Animal House.”
Students have been moving in by the dozen, and 17 shuttles a day are taking them to and from the University of New Haven.
Concerns about noise and rowdiness at the new 293-unit Wintergreen apartment complex have been a focus for neighbors for months now — and were a focus of discussion at the Westville Community Management Team’s Wednesday night meeting.
The owners — who got city permission to build the complex on the grave of an abandoned Blake Street factory — ended up failing to find enough adults willing to rent the upscale apartments. So they’ve filled apartments with many college students after all.
Westville Alderman Tom Lehtonen was one of several community leaders who said that they have been fielding complaints from other Wintergreen tenants about the behavior of college students living in the facility.
When the apartment buildings were built two years ago, neighbors received a promise from the builder, Metropolitan Developers, that they would not be marketed primarily to college students.
Last spring, after management failed to find enough intended adult renters, Metropolitan and University of New Haven officials returned to neighbors with a plan to use part of the complex as a UNH dorm. The neighbors shot them down. (See previous Independent story here.)
Since then, Wintergreen has begun leasing individual apartments to students. The apartment buildings are not official student housing. But so many UNH students are there that the university has instituted the 17 daily shuttle runs. Some of the other tenants say the student behavior has gotten out of control.
“Please Help”
“It’s an unsupervised dorm,” said Livable City Initiative neighborhood specialist Elaine Braffman (pictured), who has received a number of complaints about the quality of life in the complex.
Braffman told the management team that she had spoken with a schoolteacher living at Wintergreen who has had to send her 3 year-old to stay with the child’s grandmother. The child couldn’t sleep amid all the noise in the building. The tenant too has been disturbed by the behavior of the students in the development.
“One night she went out and there were students fighting in the hallway,” Braffman said.
The tenant reportedly approached the property managers and asked to be moved to a quieter floor. “They said they would do it, but that it would take five hundred dollars,” Braffman said.
After the meeting, Braffman said that she had about six calls from people complaining about Wintergreen. Braffman said the messages said things like, “Please help… It’s getting horrible here… We can’t sleep… It’s out of control.”
“Some people there are very, very unhappy,” said Lehtonen (pictured) at Thursday’s meeting.
Lehtonen said that he spoke with a Wintergreen manager after fielding complaints from his constituents.
“I told her I had received four complaints. She didn’t think that was a very large number,” Lehtonen said after the meeting. “Management is in denial.”
Mary Faulkner (at right in picture), head of the Westville management team, said that she has gotten several complaints as well. “They’re saying it’s Animal House,” she said.
“We’ve been getting increasing complaints at night,” reported Westville’s top cop, Lt. Bernie Somers. He said calls are coming in about Wintergreen parties and bottles in the parking lot.
Lehtonen said that he has contacted the administration at UNH and was told that there were fewer than 50 students living in Wintergreen. Faulkner noted the 17 daily shuttles between the apartment complex and the university.
Lehtonen said that the apartments are rented out to the students directly, not through the college.
“We’re kind of powerless,” he said. “Because the lease is cosigned by the students’ parents.”
The Westville management team plans to organize a meeting in January for all parties to talk about the issue and work toward a solution. Braffman was one of several at the meeting to point out that, given the size and location of the large apartment complex, Wintergreen’s success or failure will have a large impact on Westville.
“This could be a wonderful thing for Westville,” Braffman said. She went on to say that if the problems aren’t dealt with, Wintergreen could become a liability.
Wednesday Night At Wintergreen
Just before 9 p.m. on Wednesday, a UNH van was parked at the entrance to Wintergreen, ready to shuttle students to campus. Two UNH students were standing nearby, waiting to meet their friend.
Minutes later, the gate went up and a black sports car pulled out. The two students got in, one of them loading a case of Bud Light into the back seat. Rolling down his tinted window, the driver (who declined to give his name), said he is also a UNH student. He offered his perspective on life in Wintergreen.
“It’s nice,” he said of his two-bedroom place.
Asked about the perception that students are acting rowdy, he said, “It’s a little bit of an overreaction, to be honest.” He said that his building is occupied by a “younger crowd” but that it isn’t out of control.
The driver cut the conversation short. “I hate to rush you, but I’ve got to get to the package store before nine,” he said, before rolling up the window and driving off.
Later, Chris Woodhouse (pictured) emerged from the building. Woodhouse, a Southern Connecticut senior studying finance, has been living at Wintergreen since September. He said that Southern had helped him to find a place to live after he was dropped from on-campus housing for a late payment.
Woodhouse said that Southern set up a meeting the week before classes began. He showed up at Wintergreen to find three other Southern students looking for housing. The group of four moved into a two-bedroom apartment. Woodhouse said that they’re paying $2,700 per month, utilities included.
“It’s a nice place. I can’t complain,” said Woodhouse, who also mentioned that it was the most expensive housing option he had considered.
He said that he has gotten some notes from his neighbors about noise. “I’ve gotten those complaints on my door,” he said, explaining that notes were put on all the doors in his hallway. “They said ‘This is not a dormitory blah blah blah.’”
Woodhouse said he didn’t think the notes were targeted at his apartment specifically, since he and his roommates are rarely home and don’t make a lot of noise. He suggested that some of the neighbors were exaggerating.
“I have a friend, a girl, who had five girlfriends over one night,” Woodhouse said, “and the neighbor kept coming over and telling her he was going to call the cops.”
Woodhouse said it’s not an “Animal House.”
“It’s pretty calm, to be honest.”
Thursday Morning
Thursday morning in the leasing office at Wintergreen apartments, soft music was playing. Leasing agent Georgette Turnbull offered a visitor a hot beverage and explained that Wintergreen has a “zero tolerance policy for noise.” She explained that they send out a notice to tenants who violate the policy. Beyond that, “I can’t give any information.”
She declined to comment further. Other Wintergreen officials couldn’t be reached for comment.
Wintergreen pricing lists show that regular rents range from $1,500 per month for a one bedroom to $2,130 for a three bedroom. Student rates are for furnished apartments and range from $1954 for a one bedroom to $3336 per month for a three bedroom.
There is still another, lower, rate for University of New Haven students: $1,854 per month for a furnished one bedroom, and $3,270 per month for a furnished-three bedroom.
A glut of high-priced housing in New Haven leads to poor choices on the part of the companies renting them out: what a surprise.
Maybe we need to be more careful about blanket approving "up-scale" living & shopping. These companies rarely succeed & tend to not create the density we need for a real community. They tend to attract only those who can scrape by while over-paying, and bust the neighborhoods they are built in. They largely depend on the credit history (and cheque books) of out of state parents.