Thomas Breen File Photo
PMC's McKeon: "We can get a copy of the report out to folks."
Building rendering, behind 360 State tower.
What rents will you charge?
“We’re still crunching numbers.”
How will zoning affect the ground floor?
“The report does not address that.”
Will construction interfere with the Farmington Canal Trail?
“I don’t know the details.”
Skeptical neighbors posed those and lots more questions Monday night to the developer of a proposed new 14-story building at 78 Olive St. They received a variety of iterations of “don’t know” in response.
Ward 7 Alder Eli Sabin hosted the meeting, which took place via Zoom on Monday night and featured representatives and collaborators of the building’s developer, PMC Property Group.
The proposed building would share a lot with another building owned by PMC, the Strouse-Adler apartment complex (or the “Smoothie building”). According to current plans, it would comprise 136 one-bedroom apartments.
Plans for the building hinge on an application before the Board of Alders to rezone the lot from a BA (General Business) district to a BD‑1 (Central Business/Residential) district. The City Plan Commission recently granted a favorable recommendation to that application, which now heads to an aldermanic committee for further review.
Several other buildings along Olive Street have been reclassified as BD‑1 zones over the past few years. In 2016, PMC filed a lawsuit over one such zone change in an effort to prevent a new apartment complex at 630 Chapel St. (The lawsuit was unsuccessful, and the Chapel Street development is currently under construction.) But now PMC wants the zoning change to build another apartment tower itself.
PMC
Planned tower.
At Monday night’s meeting, PMC affiliates shared a brief presentation on design and landscaping plans for the proposed building. Tom Daly, a civil engineer with SLR Consulting who is working on designs for the project, shared possible plans to put low-maintenance plants and benches along Chapel Street. He noted that the plant and sidewalk designs by the 78 Olive Street building would echo those by the rising 630 Chapel Street one: “It’ll be a seamless streetscape as you’re walking down Chapel.”
Wooster Square resident Ian Dunn asked the presenters about current plans for affordable housing.
Chris McKeon, an attorney for PMC, replied, “We are currently working with Alder Sabin on an affordable housing component to this project, and are committed to having an affordable component in this project. We don’t have specific details on what that will be.”
“Do you have any ideas yet about what percent AMI [Area Median Income], or how many units will be affordable?” Dunn pressed.
“We are still crunching numbers on how that works,” McKeon answered.
Thomas Breen Photo
Alder Eli Sabin, who organized the meeting.
Alex Kolokotronis, another Wooster Square neighbor, asked whether PMC plans to measure affordability by neighborhood, city-wide, or regional median incomes. The latter metric factors in wealthier suburbanites’ incomes, allowing higher rents to be classified as “affordable.”
“I’m not sure which one would be used,” McKeon said. “We are looking for input on that.”
Jaime Myers-McPhail expressed frustration with PMC’s lack of specificity. “The answers that we’ve gotten have been incredibly evasive and not helpful,” he said.
Myers-McPhail recalled that as a former tenant at the Strouse-Adler building, he moved out due to rent increases. “Many people that I know in the area are being pushed out. We don’t necessarily need a bunch of more luxury buildings.”
“We’re not trying to be evasive,” McKeon stressed. “We’re trying to listen.” He said that PMC reached out to community members in order to gather ideas for the development — not necessarily to present finished plans.
“Then hold off going to get approvals until you can give more substantial answers,” wrote Frank Rizzo in the Zoom room chat.
Sabin pointed out that the city’s new inclusionary zoning law requires new developments to make 15 percent of units affordable to renters at 50 percent of the region’s Area Median Income. Sabin said he would like to see an affordability rate along those lines at 78 Olive, although he noted that a lower percentage may be more feasible in order to reduce tax breaks. It is unclear whether Inclusionary Zoning would apply to this development, since PMC submitted a zoning change request before the law was ratified.
“We’ve seen a lot of luxury housing go up” in the area, Sabin said. “We need to make sure everyone’s included in that growth.”
(Sabin clarified Tuesday that the new law does not appear to affect this project.)
Lot in question.
As the dialogue moved on from the topic of affordable housing, neighbors continued to pepper McKeon with questions.
Aaron Goode asked about how the building would interact with phase 4 of the Farmington Canal Trail, which is slated to run adjacent to the lot.
“I don’t know the details of the construction plan,” responded SLR’s Holly Parker.
“We will take a hard look at that and we will make sure there’s no negative impact,” promised Daly.
Doug Hausladen, executive director of the New Haven Parking Authority, asked PMC to explain the granular differences between the BA and BD‑1 zoning classifications. In response, McKeon referenced a report on the zone change before him, stating that the new zone change would allow for more floor area and fewer parking requirements.
“I’m asking mostly for my neighbors and community members on Olive Street,” Hausladen said. “I’m trying to ask you to share the report, because this is a public meeting to share information.”
McKeon hesitated. He only had a draft copy of the report, he said, and he didn’t want to share incomplete or unedited information.
“We can make sure to get a copy of the report out to folks,” Sabin interjected.
By the end of the meeting, PMC did receive a handful of suggestions for future iterations of the building plans. Several attendees took the opportunity to share visions of what their neighborhood could look like with the developer.
Lior Trestman encouraged PMC to include bike storage — and even a protected bike lane. He added that if the building’s entrance, like at the Strouse-Adler building, doesn’t face the street, PMC could add “more greenery or a mural, some way to make the building interesting on that side so you’re not just seeing the butt end of a building.”
Arthur Nacht asked the developer to use “authentic materials” — not a “brick-like exterior surface that’s not actually brick,” which he’s noticed in many nearby luxury buildings.
In the Zoom room chat, Kolokotronis urged PMC to use “metrics and frameworks that do NOT include suburban incomes & valuations” when determining rent affordability. “This significantly alters what is defined as ‘affordable,’” he wrote.
The Strouse-Adler building at 78 Olive, next to the potential new development.
Several neighbors observed that many high-end apartment buildings in the Downtown-Wooster Square area look similar to one another, and offer similar kinds of apartments.
“Almost everything is the same kind of unit: studios and one-bedrooms,” said Anstress Farwell.
Aesthetically, “I would love a lot of variety,” said Lisa Sawin, who lives in the Smoothie building. “I’d like the sidewalk to feel human and crowded.”
Daly, of SLR Consulting, told neighbors that “we’ll take your comments very strongly when we go back to the drawing board.”
After the meeting, Sabin told the Independent that he plans to follow up with other nearby alders to set up an additional meeting with PMC. “There were definitely outstanding questions and I think we’re gonna have to hold PMC accountable,” he said. “People made a lot of really good points about what we need to do to make sure the development at 78 Olive St. improves the neighborhood.”
This project is the poster child for a city wide design review board.