BZA Chair Runs For Alder

When Mildred Melendez was a teenager, she would bike around Fair Haven Heights — just across the river from where she lived in Fair Haven — and would think to herself: I want to live here one day.

Now, having lived in the Heights for the past 13 years, Melendez is working to realize her next dream: representing the neighborhood on the Board of Alders.

Melendez is currently the chair of the city’s Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA), as well as a Democratic Party co-chair representing the ward. On Friday, she filed paperwork to run for the Ward 13 seat as a Democrat in the City Clerk’s office, accompanied by her father, husband, and daughter, as well as by her fellow Ward 13 co-chair, Chris Ozyck.

The incumbent alder, Rosa Ferraro-Santana, has not yet announced whether she plans to run again and has not responded to requests for comment for this article. Ferraro-Santana, a Democrat, has served on the board since 2001 (with a six-year break from 2009 to 2015). She is currently the chair of the Aldermanic Affairs Committee, the committee in charge of interviewing appointees to city leadership positions. 

Melendez and Ozyck said they have not heard from Ferraro-Santana whether she plans to run again. ​“We’ve told her that Mildred is running,” Ozyck said.

Paul Garlinghouse, a Green Party candidate, is also running for the seat in the general election.

Melendez was born in New York and moved to New Haven with her family around the age of 13. She’s lived in her ward for 13 years.

She said she doesn’t have a particular list of policy priorities in mind at the moment. ​“I’m a researcher at heart,” she said. She likes to look at the granular specifics of a situation before making a decision.

Her main goal, if elected, would be to serve as a ​“liaison” between her constituents and City Hall — to convene community meetings, increase communication, and build up a stronger culture of civic engagement in the ward.

If elected alder, Melendez said she will likely have to step down from the BZA, a prospect she called ​“bittersweet.”

She said her time on the BZA so far has given her insight into how ​“our laws for zoning are pretty old.” She believes it’s time for a new analysis of the code, though she believes in caution when it comes to increasing density: ​“It all depends where in the city.” 

Though some housing advocates would call for more density across the city in light of a supply shortage, Melendez said she would prioritize respecting the current feel of a neighborhood. In her ward, for instance, ​“I don’t think [more density] would go with the neighborhood,” she said. ​“I think we try to preserve the area as quiet, quaint.”

The zoning board has also provided Melendez a window into the world of illegal construction in the city. She said she and her colleagues are often tasked with reviewing applications from builders who have already begun construction without receiving the proper permits, or from people who have bought illegally constructed homes. These scenarios are frustrating, Melendez said, because the applicants most often can’t un-build what has already been constructed, leaving the board with little room to weigh in. The Building Department needs the resources to be more ​“proactive” about enforcing the zoning code and permit process, Melendez said.

By day, Melendez works as a paralegal for the state Department of Labor, specifically focusing on representing state government in disputes with staff in the Department of Correction. 

She has also previously chaired the Wilbur Cross High School parent-teacher association from 2012 to 2015, back when her daughter was a student there.

Those experiences and her time chairing the BZA have each led her to the heart of high-stakes conflicts in different ways. 

“You have to know policy and what the wiggle room is within that policy,” she described. 

She added that she prides herself in ​“being fair and being able to go home with a clear conscience.”

“She’s an honest broker. When she knows what’s right, she can bring down the hammer,” Ozyck echoed.

Melendez reflected that she has plenty of experience with ​“having to make hard decisions at times — making people not happy with you, but knowing you did the right thing.” 

She anticipates that skill coming in handy on the Board of Alders.

Click here to read more about other alder candidates from across the city. Ward 30 Alder Honda Smith also filed on Friday to run for re-election.