27 Apts OK’d For Ex-Firehouse

A local developer and a group of East Rock neighbors faced off once again over the fate of the old Edwards Street firehouse.

This time, the developer succeeded and received City Plan Commission approval to build 27 apartments both within and atop the firehouse — despite protests that denser housing would unleash the ​“gradual demise” of the neighborhood.

This past winter, the developer — New Haven local Albert Annunziata — had sought variances from the Board of Zoning Appeals to build a five-story, 23-unit apartment complex around the two-story former Firehouse 19 at 15 Edwards St. 

A small group of neighbors fiercely pushed back, organizing meetings and spreading leaflets in opposition to the proposed development. They argued that the five-story proposal would be out of scale with the neighborhood, cast shade that would negatively impact adjacent gardens and solar panels, and contribute density without providing sufficient parking. In January, the zoning board voted to deny the variances.

So Annunziata is moving forward with another plan, one that doesn’t require zoning relief. 

His lawyer, Ben Trachten, presented the new plans at a virtual Zoom meeting of the City Plan Commission on Wednesday night. The new building proposal would be shorter yet more sprawling: four stories tall instead of five, but large enough to accommodate four additional apartments. That means the new building will have a total of 27 apartments, as opposed to the former plan’s 23.

While Annunziata’s former plan had space for five wheelchair-accessible parking spaces in a small back lot, his new plan would not have room for that lot — though it would create three new street parking spots along Nash Street.

The new plan would create 23 studios, two one-bedrooms, and two two-bedrooms. One of the first-floor studios, an A.D.A.-accessible unit, would be designated for a tenant making 50 percent of the area median income — or $39,800 for a household of one, as of 2025. The other apartments would rent at market rates. 

“We were denied relief that would have provided a smaller building,” Trachten said. He noted that, under the city’s Inclusionary Zoning ordinance, Annunziata is not required to provide any parking. 

“We retain the majority of the historic facade both along Nash Street and along Edwards Street,” Trachten said. 

Trachten and Annunziata were in part seeking routine coastal and site plan approvals from the commission, a compliance-focused process that leaves little up to the commissioners’ discretion. They had also applied for a special permit to replace the building’s ground-floor commercial space with housing in a BA zoning district — an application that commissioners had more leeway to debate, and that neighbors had an opportunity to discuss in a public hearing.

Seven East Rock residents joined the virtual meeting to offer their perspectives. Five of those testifiers were vehemently opposed to the proposal.

The proposal ​“does not fit the scale of Goatville,” said Nash Street resident Augustine Philomena, referring to the mini-neighborhood within East Rock. He said that the four-story proposal ​“would dwarf the surrounding properties,” which include many three-story houses.

“History, character, scale, and beauty means so much more than we know,” Philomena added.

A former owner of the building, Fred Giampietro, recalled that he and other building affiliates used to park 10 to 12 cars in the back lot. Trachten, meanwhile, argued that the back parking lot can currently fit three to four parking spaces if legal requirements are met. Trachten also disputed neighbors’ claims that there is currently insufficient parking in the neighborhood, citing traffic studies indicating that in fact there are more parking spots than needed.

Since the public hearing was focused solely on the request to transform the ground-floor commercial unit into housing, the testifiers spent most of their allotted three-to-six minutes lamenting the prospective loss of business space. The building, now vacant, had most recently housed the Post Traumatic Stress Center in its ground floor.

The proposal to convert the commercial space into residential units ​“could lead to the gradual demise of the Upper State Street developing zone,” Philomena said, ​“by encouraging other developers to eliminate their businesses.”

The building would be ​“the beginning of the end of Upper State Street as we know it,” echoed Giampietro. ​“It will become like Upper Chapel Street.”

Westville resident Tory Sansing, who owns a house on Edwards Street, made the argument that the development would contribute to gentrification, suggesting that it would primarily be home to Yale students.

Yes, it’s good to build more housing in the city, she said — ​“I am not anti other parts of New Haven” — but the developer should ​“look elsewhere,” not in East Rock.

East Rock resident James Cormie, meanwhile, made the case that gentrification is a lost cause in East Rock — perhaps more so than in the rest of New Haven. He made the case that building more housing would be a small effort to ameliorate a severe housing shortage across the city. 

“People are being priced out. We need more housing,” he said. ​“If you’re following the Zillow prices for houses in East Rock, it’s unlivable right now.” 

“We don’t want to rip up these neighborhoods with gentrification when we can just build in a neighborhood that’s basically already gentrified,” Cormie added.

Ultimately, the commissioners unanimously voted to approve the special permit request.

“I don’t think that converting that commercial use from commercial to residential is the beginning of the end” of the business corridor, said commissioner and Westville Alder Adam Marchand. He noted that many commercial spaces across the city are currently empty. ​“Occupancy rates for commercial are not what we would want them to be, whereas residential occupancy rates are really, really high.”

“We definitely need more units” of housing, Marchand added. ​“It’s a crisis across the entire state and the nation.”

Still, the need for more housing hasn’t translated into universal desire for it. 

“We’ve been in the neighborhood for 50 years,” said Giampietro. ​“We don’t like to see it change.”