Newman Architects
Rendering of project’s riverine bike path and pedestrian plaza.
Building new apartments on the grave of the old 500 Blake Street Cafe is a great idea. But what about the traffic? And what kinds of stores will go on the first floor?
Westville neighbors offered that support and unleashed those questions Wednesday night in a virtual gathering with a prominent developer about his plan to build on the lot that used to house the storied restaurant-bar-banquet hall.
An aerial view.
The exchange took place at a monthly meeting of the Westville-West Hills Community Management Team, convened over Zoom. Ocean Management, one of New Haven’s largest landlords, plans to build 123 market-rate rental apartments on the vacant lot, with space on the ground floor for two commercial businesses on Blake Street as well.
Over 55 people attended the online meeting. While many expressed enthusiasm for the project, attendees raised a steady stream of questions and concerns about the businesses that could potentially move into the neighborhood; about traffic congestion and speeding; and about the affordability of the apartments.
The apartments, designed by Newman Architects, are set to be studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom units. The building would be located along the West River and would feature a pedestrian walkway, a bike path, and a public plaza along the side facing the water. The development includes a parking lot with room for approximately 120 cars.
Melissa Saint of Saint Project Management presented these details to the management team as a representative of Ocean, which bought the property in April 2019. She was joined by local attorney Jim Segaloff and civil engineer David Sacco, who are also involved in planning the development.
Zoom
Melissa Saint.
Saint emphasized that the project was designed to contribute to the Westville neighborhood’s community and economic life.
“What we’re trying to do here is offer some living space where someone can live and really be a part of the community,” she said. “A tenant of the building could come out and go grocery shopping. They could go and visit one of the many cafes for breakfast around the corner. They can go to the Dunkin Donuts or the cat cafe. We’re trying to bring foot traffic to add more life to the community.”
Saint added that Ocean responded to feedback from the City Plan Commission, which asked for more space for the benefit of the neighborhood, such as the walking and biking pathway and the plaza. “We’re trying not to be selfish,” she said. The developer comes before City Plan next week to seek needed approval for a site plan, inland wetlands plan, and special permit application.
Rendering of the building from Blake Street, as shown from the presenter’s screen.
A floor plan.
At the start of the presentation, Segaloff conveyed his enthusiasm for the project.
“This is the most meaningful project that I’ve been involved in in my 52 years of practicing law in New Haven,” he said. “I know Westville. I lived here for my entire life, and I have a pretty darn good sense of what’s happening here.”
One participant in the meeting, Tara Zalatimo, noted that Covid-19 has put many small businesses in jeopardy. Zalatimo asked the presenters whether they expect to face challenges in filling the commercial space of the project as a result.
Tara Zalatimo.
Saint answered that she doesn’t anticipate difficulty in finding businesses to rent out the space. While commercial tenants have not been determined, she said that Ocean hopes to bring in “essential businesses” such as markets or pharmacies, echoing the Covid-19-era language used to describe businesses permitted to stay open under shelter-in-place orders.
“Those are still experiencing a loss in revenue,” Zalatimo interjected.
“A market in that area would do very well,” Saint replied, noting that grocery stores in the neighborhood are scarce.
Small businesses are particularly facing financial difficulty during the pandemic, Zalatimo said. Would the new storefronts host “larger,” more “generic” businesses?
Westville resident Natalie Judd piped in using the Zoom meeting’s chat feature, asking, “When you say market are you thinking a nice market like some of those in East Rock” — or more of a convenience store?
Saint reiterated she did not have concrete information about potential incoming stores. She later expressed enthusiasm about Judd’s comparison to the East Rock neighborhood’s characteristic family-owned marketplaces, saying that those were the kind of businesses she hoped would arrive.
Density Praised; Traffic Lamented
Throughout the Zoom call, as speakers unmuted themselves in turn, neighbors flooded the chat feature with more questions and comments than the developers could address by the end of the two-hour meeting.
Joshua Van Hoesen, the chair of the management team, promised to compile and send the remaining inquiries to the developers.
Many points touched on traffic and density that the 123 new apartments would bring to Westville.
Judd said that traffic on Blake Street is already “horrific.”
Patty O’Hanlon.
“The thought of adding a hundred or so more cars … There are times when you can’t even move on Blake Street at all,” she said, listing 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. as the worst times. “I really hope that there’s some serious traffic-calming measures.”
Patty O’Hanlon, who also lives nearby, shared concerns about a two-way entrance and exit to the parking lot on the Tour Avenue side of the development, noting that children frequently cross that street. She asked if the Tour Avenue opening could be changed to a one-way entrance into the lot. Another neighbor, Susan McCaslin, suggested adding traffic-calming measures along the Tour Avenue side of the project.
Saint promised to look into whether O’Hanlon’s suggested adjustment would be permitted. She stressed that the traffic study suggested that most cars would enter the lot through the Blake Street entrance, and not through Tour Avenue.
Gabriel Da Silva, another neighbor and Westville Village gallery owner, expressed his support for the project, saying that he is not concerned about traffic. He prefers for the neighborhood to have slower traffic, he said, as opposed to speeding cars. “There’s traffic anywhere, and if you try to do a development, you’re going to encounter that.”
Saint said that Ocean did an “extensive” traffic study with the city’s Department of Transportation, Traffic, and Parking and are planning adjustments to the parking lot flow and nearby traffic lights and crosswalks as a result.
While many neighbors were uneasy about the traffic that would come with the development, others voiced optimism about the density of the building.
Elizabeth Donius praises density, while Dennis Serfilippi offers a typed interjection.
Elizabeth Donius, executive director of the Westville Village Renaissance Alliance, said that “adding density to the village is something that we’ve been actively trying to do in order to sustain the vitality of the village, to encourage more walking, to encourage more biking.”
“I know that traffic is a concern, but this is currently an empty parking lot collecting garbage — and it has been for a long time. We want something here,” she said. “It’s the best thing for the economic health of the village.”
A resident who was identified as Carolyn argued that increased density could help drive down the cost of housing in New Haven, ameliorating a shortage of affordable housing. “Anyone who is concerned about affordability in New Haven should support this project,” she said.
Jocelyn Antunes asked whether there would be any affordable units included in the complex.
Saint responded that all of the apartments would be rented out at market rates.
In the chat, Andrew Smyth disapproved. “There should be affordable housing at such a central site,” he stated.
Bikes? Buses? Taxes? River Views?
Anatomy of a Zoom management team meeting: Van Hoesen troubleshoots, attendees vote to extend the meeting an extra thirty minutes via a virtual poll, and comments stream through the chat.
Other questions and suggestions touched on environmental, fiscal, and aesthetic concerns.
“A big thing is getting people to use their cars less,” Carolyn said. She asked if there were plans to extend bus service to the apartment complex or to provide bicycle storage for residents.
Sacco said there would be designated storage space for fifty bicycles, in addition to bike racks.
Dennis Serfilippi shifted the conversation to property tax revenue: “How much will the project contribute in terms of tax payments to the grand list and when would that begin?”
Saint said that she did not have a specific number, but that payments “would begin immediately.”
“That’s great news!” Serfilippi exclaimed. “We never hear that.”
State Rep. Pat Dillon, who lives in Westville, asked whether the building would block current views of West Rock and the West River, which she called “part of the charm of the village and the value of the real estate surrounding it.”
Sacco responded that he has not evaluated how the view would be impacted. Dillon asked whether the developers could provide an additional rendering of the proposed building from an angle that would give a sense of how the building will interact with the scenery behind it.
Saint hesitated, saying that the building could be drawn from “any number of possible angles” and that architectural renderings are expensive to produce.
Van Hoesen suggested that an additional drawing could be helpful. “We want to see the project at its best, but we also want to see the worst,” he said.
If the idea is to encourage more pedestrians and have "traffic-calming" measures, let the developers not forget the horrific pedestrian/car accident from this past February. An impatient motorist did a quick left turn as soon as Blake St got the green light, knocking down a woman with a walker who was crossing Whalley in the crosswalk with the walk light (which unfortunately ended before she could finish crossing). Happily she was not seriously injured.
But if more pedestrian usage is anticipated, I would hope new signage would advise motorists to expect pedestrians, remind them that turning traffic must yield to pedestrians and that this will be strictly enforced, with more than a slap on the wrist. As you might assume, I am a pedestrian and even before this was terrified crossing streets, even in a crosswalk with the walk light,