A rendering of the upcoming Townshend Estate redevelopment.
A plan to turn the historic Townshend Estate into an event destination is one step closer to breaking ground … and growing grass.
Chuck and Marcella Mascola and Salvatore Marottoli, collectively operating as a limited liability corporation called East Shores, won final and unanimous site plan approval from the City Plan Commission to host weddings, corporate luncheons, and full community celebrations along a portion of the expansive property surrounding Morris Cove’s 1804 Townshend mansion.
That mainly means paving the way for a 75-car parking lot on site — one that will be made of grass, rather than asphalt.
A sketch of the proposed parking lot, blades of grass not pictured.
That new surface lot, as well as the addition of two curb cuts along Townsend Avenue and Raynham Hill Drive and the demolition of a small accessory building behind the mansion, will allow part of the property to accommodate dozens of guests for private and public events. (Read about all of that here.) The developers are expected to return for site plan approval for a secondary plan to build up to 50 houses on the remainder of the estate.
The discussion before the vote at last Wednesday night’s City Plan Commission meeting centered primarily around one component of the Mascola’s application: The grass parking lot.
“I’m familiar with people parking on grass, because I live in Westville, and there’s this thing called the Westville Bowl,” said Commissioner Adam Marchand, who is also the Ward 25 alder. “People park cars on that grass all the time. But then there’s all sorts of junk all over the fields all the time. So I’m curious to know what this is. What is this turf parking they’re describing? Is it a thing? What is it?”
Site Engineer Todd Ritchie described the grass as an aesthetic match for the “winery feel, winery vibe” of the estate. It would absorb and filter excess water with the help of grass covered bioswales funneling runoff into an underground storm filtration system.
“We did design this overall conservatively in case in the long-term this doesn’t work out,” he said, noting that seasonal hot-spells could “stress” out the greenery.
“Do we have some sort of standards for this type of project, or is this just pioneer land where we’re gonna learn as we go?” Marchand pressed.
Anne Hartjen, the city’s assistant director of comprehensive planning, said that grass parking “has been in the industry for years and years … though you don’t see too many of them in New Haven.”
“When Ikea first came into New Haven, we tried to get to use this for their lot, but they weren’t gonna have it,” Commissioner Carl Goldfield recalled.
“Well, I suspect that’s a more heavily used parking lot,” Marchand qualified.
“That’s what they claimed, but people who used the system said it could be done,” Goldfield responded.
Attorney Marjorie Shanksy, representing East Shores LLC, pointed to Westfarms mall’s overflow parking. “They have pervious pavers through which grass grows so that off season all you see is a beautiful field of grass,” she said.
“Note to ourselves,” Marchand concluded, “that we should see how this goes and whether success at this site could lead us to encouraging it at more places.”
An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that turf, rather than grass, would be installed on the Townshend property.
Grasspave (permeable pavers through which grass grows) is a nice option but I've heard that they are difficult to snow plow. I imagine the same care must be taken with artificial turf.