Fair Haven Health's parking lot plans.
A Fair Haven community healthcare center has won a key city approval needed to expand its parking lot — and, eventually, its Grand Avenue headquarters.
Local legislators took that rezoning vote Monday night during the latest regular bimonthly meeting of the full Board of Alders. The meeting took place in person in the Aldermanic Chamber on the second floor of City Hall.
The alders unanimously agreed to reclassify 81, 83, 85, and 87 Woolsey St. from a residential RM2 zone to a BA1 business zone.
This decision paves the way for Fair Haven Community Health Care to build out its Grand Avenue headquarters and extend its existing parking lot.
While the clinic has already received approvals to knock down the three Woolsey Street houses (one of which is currently being used as apartments) with a parking lot, under the previous zone, the clinic would not have been able to build parking spaces right up to the curb.
Majority Leader Richard Furlow.
At a November Legislation Committee meeting, alders discussed the ramifications of transforming housing units into a parking lot. As Fair Haven Community Health Care CEO Suzanne Lagarde informed alders at that committee meeting, the clinic has sold a couple of buildings it owned on Grand Avenue to the city. The Livable City Initiative (LCI) plans to convert those now publicly owned properties into affordable housing. The committee alders ultimately decided that the health center’s expansion would fulfill a dire need in the city for affordable health care, even if it comes at the expense of the Woolsey Street houses.
Majority Leader and Westville/Amity Alder Richard Furlow spoke in favor of the proposed zone change on Monday, calling the parking lot a necessary intervention to “lessen congestion” in light of the clinic’s coming expansion.
Fair Haven Alder Jose Crespo praised the clinic’s work in his neighborhood. “They have been very transparent,” he said, alluding to the public meetings that the clinic has held to convey information about its expansion plans. Crespo added that “the services they provide are exceptional.”
Wooster St. Zoning "Error" Fixed
Jeshar Zeneli and Raymond Lemley Monday.
Alders also unanimously voted on Monday night to rezone the commercial building at 175 Wooster St. from an RM2 residential zone to a BA “general business” zone. The lot, located at the end of the city’s most pizza-packed block, was formerly home to a liquor store (an anomaly given the residential zone.)
Since mid-2021, the Wooster Street building has been owned by Aleko, Gazmir, and Jeshar Zeneli, who operate Zeneli’s pizza restaurant down the street.
At November’s Legislation Committee meeting, a lawyer representing the Zeneli brothers, Raymond Lemley, told alders that the Zeneli brothers simply wanted to align the property’s zoning with the rest of the neighborhood’s, given that all of Wooster Street is zoned as BA except for their lot.
Lemley told alders that his clients do not have specific plans for the building, and on Monday, Jeshar Zeneli reiterated that his family is still deciding what to do with the property.
City Plan staff wrote in a report on the proposal that “the proposed amendment essentially resolves an ‘error’ in the zoning of the Wooster Square neighborhood.”
I think both actions make sense. The zoning map, like the zoning ordinance, really needs updating.
The former liquor store was likely a legal non-conforming use (a term, like “attractive nuisance” that must have been developed by a lawyer 🤓). Much of the city’s building stock predates zoning. If a building and its use were legal when the zoning ordinance was adopted, they can continue in existence even though they do not conform to the ordinance. Similarly, zoning changes apply prospectively.