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Plan for 78 Olive.
Thomas Breen file photo
The site's current surface parking lot.
A planned new 14-story apartment tower won its final needed city approval — clearing the way for 136 one-bedroom apartments to be built atop a surface parking lot right next door to the State Street train station.
Local land-use commissioners took that vote Wednesday night during the latest regular monthly meeting of the City Plan Commission. The virtual meeting took place online via Zoom.
The commissioners unanimously approved the site plan for a new 14-story, 136-unit residential building with 37 on-site parking spaces to be built atop the current surface parking lot at 78 Olive St.
The builder of the now-approved proposed new tower is an affiliate of the Philadelphia-based PMC Property Group, which also owns the adjacent Strouse Adler “Smoothie” apartment building.
Wednesday’s City Plan Commission sign off came roughly a month and a half after the Board of Alders approved rezoning the vacant 2.487-acre parcel of land to allow for a much denser residential development than would otherwise have been allowed. (Click here, here, here, here, here and here for previous Independent stories about this project.)
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Wednesday's City Plan Commission meeting.
Developer-hired attorney Chris McKeon pitched the new apartment tower on Wednesday night as a “great project for this site, which is currently an asphalt parking lot” — and which is bordered to the west by the State Street train station.
This project is the latest in an ongoing explosion of new residential construction on Olive Street, turning the downtown edge of Wooster Square from a stretch of parking lots and vacant commercial buildings into mostly market-rate and luxury new apartments.
During his presentation to the commissioners Wednesday night, McKeon and architect Andrew Rogerson ticked through the various components of the 78 Olive St. project:
• All 136 residential units will be one-bedroom apartments.
• The building will consist of a ground floor with parking for cars and bicycles, a lobby, and a building office, as well as an artist mural on the outside facing Chapel Street; 11 levels of apartments with 12 units each; a 13th level with four apartments and a common amenity space; and “a roof that will contain common amenity space.”
• 10 percent of the apartments will be set aside for 25 years at below market rents. That includes 5 percent of units for tenants making no more than than 80 percent of the area median income (AMI), and 5 percent for tenants making no more than 60 percent AMI. McKeon said that the city will enforce this affordability provision in the same way that it plans to enforce the recently passed “inclusionary zoning” law.
• New crosswalks will be constructed at the intersection of Chapel and Union Streets and Court and Artizan Streets, and sidewalk repairs on the north side of Chapel Street near Union.
• The developer has agreed to contribute $150,000 towards “future infrastructure improvements” on Chapel Street between State and Olive Streets.
Close-up view of the lower floors of the proposed new building.
What are the building materials that the developer will be using for the structure of this building? Commissioner Ernest Pagan asked.
It will be a “concrete frame,” Rogerson replied.
“All the way to the top?” Pagan asked.
That’s right, Rogerson said. The penthouse at the top could be steel. “But the material would be concrete.”
“That’s smart, with construction supplies being scarce,” Pagan said.
Has the developer considered adding a rooftop dining option to the top of the building? he asked.
“Not at this time,” Rogerson said. He said he’s not sure if there would be enough demand for rooftop dining in this area.
Is the building cooling internal, or is the developer going to rely on tenant window air-conditioning units? asked newly confirmed City Plan Commissioner Joshua Van Hoesen.
There won’t be window AC units, Rogerson replied. “It would be a central HVAC system.”
Are you considering putting solar panels on the top of the building? Or have you looked into any other “green energy” options? Van Hoesen asked.
“We have not explored solar panels,” Rogerson said.
78 Olive St. (circled in red)
Would you consider subsidizing public transit as part of rental agreements for the building, given how close the property is to a train hub? Van Hoesen asked.
“We have not considered that,” McKeon replied. But, he pointed out, the developer is in a “very preliminary” discussion with the city about potentially incorporating this site into the State Street train station, which is immediately to the west of the site. The station is now “only accessible from the side of the tracks,” McKeon said.
Following up on Van Hoesen’s question about solar panels, Commission Chair Leslie Radcliffe urged the developer to seriously consider installing that green-energy option.
“Why not?” she asked. “The height of the building lends itself to that. As a resident who has solar panels, I know what the benefits are. … The cost benefits I’m quite sure would be a plus, if not for the residents, then for the maintenance costs of the building itself.”
“I think it would be a great thing and a great green thing to do,” she said.
Before the commissioners took a final vote in support of the project, City Plan Director Laura Brown urged the developer to stay in touch with Wooster Square and downtown neighbors as this project progresses towards construction.
“This application drew quite a bit of community input,” she said. She asked the developer to “consider engaging the neighborhood in a community meeting going forward, and thinking carefully about ways in which the neighborhood might be engaged in the future development of the site.”
Another unique design to add to New Haven's legacy of quality architecture. Not.
Another innovative use of quality materials and use of green energy principles. Not
A welcome addition to the historic neighborhood nearby. Not.