Thomas MacMillan Photo
After years of abandonment, a “typical commercial block of the 1870s” at the base of the Ninth Square is set for revitalization as 65 new apartments.
The Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) Tuesday night approved a plan to rehab the buildings (pictured) at 26 – 36 and 44 Crown St. The approval was for a variety of zoning variances to allow for more building coverage, smaller side and rear yards, more square footage, less open space, and a greater number of units than otherwise allowed. After some deliberation, the board ruled that each apartment must have 50 square feet of space to store, for example bikes.
The Crown Street buildings, which have stood vacant for years, are listed on the Connecticut Historical Commission’s Historic Resources Inventory, which describes one of them as “an important part of what remains of this late 19th‑c. block of lower Crown St.” The earliest known tenants, according to the commission, include the Kahn, Wertheimer, and Smith Clothing Store and Tuttle Color Printing, both of which were in the building as of at least 1913.
Part of the building will return to commercial space as part of the revitalization, which is planned by PMC Property Management, a nationwide company based in Philadelphia. Doug Hitchner (at left in photo below), representing PMC, appeared before the BZA on Tuesday with local attorney Marjorie Shansky (at right). Local developer David Nyberg used to be associated with the team and the building, too.
That end of Crown Street has been reborn as a “new urbanist” jewel in recent years. Its landmarks, housed in preserved and retrofitted bulidings, include cafe nine, the Firehouse jazz club and studio and bar, Skappo Italian Wine Bar, Gray Organschi Architecture, and right across Orange Street, Artspace.
The Crown Street buildings are part of a second phase of the Ninth Square overhaul that began in the 1990s. Tuesday night’s zoning decision marks an apparent turnaround in what for years were delays in fixing some of the buildings, leading preservationists to warn of irreversible neglect. (Read about that here.)
Hitchner said the building should be available for occupancy by August 2011. Apartments will go for $1,100 to $1,200 per month for a one-bedroom, he said. There will be room for one commercial venture, a restaurant or a shop, he said.
“Hello Marjorie Shansky, it is so very good to see you again,” said BZA chair Cathy Weber, as Shansky took the mic to testify on Tuesday.
Shanksy said the proposed rehab will be conducted according to the standards of the Secretary of the Interior. The lot has no room for open space required by zoning, but other similar buildings have been granted relief because of their proximity to “the ultimate open space, the New Haven Green,” Shansky said.
Addressing a City Plan Department recommendation that more commercial space be included in the building, Shansky pointed out that a number of storefronts in the Ninth Square remain vacant.
Tom Talbot, city deputy director of zoning, said the City Plan Department recommends the building be approved for 62 units. That’s fewer than the 65 requested, but more than the 57 otherwise allowed, Talbot said.
Further, the building doesn’t have any storage space for tenants, Talbot said.
Later, during the board’s voting session, the issue of storage space resurfaced.
“If you have a bicycle in this building, where do you put it?” asked City Plan Director Karyn Gilvarg. There followed a brief discussion of how much storage space an apartment needs. Talbot suggested 150 square feet.
“That’s a lot,” said board member Regina Winters
“All right, 50 square feet?” Talbot said. A lot of towns have a storage space requirement, he said.
Does New Haven? asked Weber.
“No, but we ought to,” Gilvarg said.
The board agreed to impose a condition that 50 square feet of storage for each apartment be set aside somewhere in the building.
The board voted unanimously to approve the building with that and other conditions, but without limiting the number of units to fewer than 65.
Asked how the storage space condition will affect the building plans, Shansky said only, “We’ll have to go back to the drawing board.”
This is great news, but ...
We want downtown buildings to be rehabbed, so why does the city want to make it more expensive to rehab buildings? The 50 sq ft of storage will have to come out of the size of apartments -- maybe that's not want tenants want. Why should Karyn Gilvarg be making this decision instead of the building owners and the tenants? Why wouldn't it be OK to accommodate bikes in some other creative way -- a shared bike locker in the basement?
Should we have a City commission that votes to require that every burger sold downtown comes with a full-size pickle and free coke?
(I understand safety issues, etc., that's completely different.)