City rendering of a new vision for Long Wharf.
City Plan Commissioners unanimously advanced a proposed one-year building moratorium on Long Wharf, as one developer accelerated a truck maintenance facility application before the deadline.
The proposed moratorium would temporarily restrict developers from submitting applications for site plans, variances, special exceptions, special permits, and rezoning amendments regarding lots in Long Wharf neighborhood.
The City Plan Commission voted Wednesday evening to recommend the moratorium to the Board of Alders, which will weigh the policy next.
During the one-year moratorium, city planners will set about codifying a new set of zoning rules that aims to make the area more walkable and favor apartments, stores, and green spaces over industrial uses and concrete buffers, based on the Long Wharf Responsible Growth Plan that the city spent years crafting. (Read more about the proposed moratorium here.)
The Long Wharf Plan also aims to improve sustainable and coastal resiliency infrastructure, including a stormwater park and a “closed loop” water system that would recycle the area’s water supply.
Thomas Breen file photo
City Plan's Laura Brown: A pause to chart responsible growth.
“We did get feedback that perhaps [the one-year timeline] could have been a shorter duration, but one year seems like it would be sufficient to achieve those goals,” said City Plan Director Laura Brown. She said the timeline was based on the city’s policymaking process, given that the City Plan Department has already conducted neighborhood outreach about the rezoning.
Brown previously wrote to the Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers that the moratorium was necessary due to some developers’ interest in moving forward with industrial-oriented plans. “Given the proximity of Interstate 95 and Interstate 91, there are a number of industrial land uses seeking to occupy the City’s waterfront space including but not limited to gas stations and truck repair facilities that are not aligned with the Long Wharf Responsible Growth Plan,” Brown wrote.
City Economic Development Director Mike Piscitelli stressed to the commission “how important it is to align our zoning with coastal resiliency goals” in Long Wharf, given rising sea levels and storm surges.
“I’m just so happy to see that the city is really committed to sticking with the vision that it had presented to the public, so that all those meetings and presentations have not been in vain,” testified Hill South resident Thomasine Shaw.
More from the Responsible Growth Plan.
Matt Ranelli, a representative of Fusco Corporation — which won approval last year to build 500 new apartments on Long Wharf Drive — also spoke up in support of the moratorium. “Fusco strongly supports and is very enthusiastic about the Long Wharf Responsible Growth Plan,” Ranelli said. “It is a critical plan in weaving together an area that has long been given over to industrial pipe uses.”
A new addition to the text of the moratorium by City Plan staff builds in a number of exceptions.
Some kinds of applications fall under “categorial exclusions” from the moratorium, meaning that they can automatically qualify for the usual approval process. Those categorial exclusions cover applications for:
- Projects that have already submitted complete materials by the time the moratorium goes into effect
- Lot mergers
- Building permits, including applications that are exempt from building permit review
- “Cannabis establishments” within existing structures
- Development agreements with the City of New Haven
- Interior and exterior work, such as reconfiguring a floor plan
Developers can also apply for individual exemptions to the Board of Alders. Alders can approve exemptions while considering certain qualities, such as whether the proposed project would improve the neighborhood, whether it would align with the city’s Long Wharf Responsible Growth Plan and the broader Comprehensive Plan of Development, and the project’s relationship to environmental concerns facing the shoreline.
Developers receiving exemptions can proceed with the typical review processes for their proposals.
Commissioner Adam Marchand raised concerns about language in the moratorium suggesting that developers would need to prove a “hardship” in order to receive an exemption.
City Plan staff said the moratorium itself could be interpreted as a “hardship.” Marchand and the commission’s legal counsel, Roderick Williams, suggested that the word might be confusing given its specific use in the zoning approval process.
The commission unanimously recommended that the alders either replace or remove the “hardship” language — but that they otherwise approve the moratorium.
“This is a strong signal that … the city’s very serious about” the Long Wharf rezoning plan, said Marchand. “We want to prevent developments from falling out of line.”
Trucker Races vs. The Clock
Wednesday's City Plan meeting.
After commissioners voted to approve the moratorium, one developer sought to waste no time in the approval process for an industrial development in Long Wharf, hoping to submit plans before the deadline.
Criterion Group is planning to build a truck maintenance operation at 600 Long Wharf Dr., where Long Wharf Drive turns into East Street on the border of Wooster Square.
While the developer had submitted a permit application, City Plan staff determined that it would also need to apply for a certificate of appropriate location and make edits to its existing materials.
A Criterion representative, Suz King, had initially planned to ask to withdraw the application so that the developer could resubmit the needed documents. But on Wednesday, King instead asked the commission to pursue a continuance on the application, a move that would accelerate the process so that Criterion could submit plans before the moratorium takes effect.
“I do recognize that it’s not exactly within the vision of that area, but the client … is working with potential tenants in order to get a better option than an empty lot” (the site’s current status), said King. “They want to be good neighbors, they want to work with the city, they’re not intending to come in here and bulldoze their way into the site plan approvals.”
The commission voted unanimously to grant the continuance, giving the developer until early July.
Wait--- city officials want to THINK about something?!?!? How is this possible?!?! Did some player forget to drop off a sack of money to somebody?!?!?
Could it be that the public , the taxpayers who will foot the bill and the tax gifts for developers actually matter to somebody?!? Please verify this story!! It is one of the few bits of good news I have heard!!!