Thomas Breen file photo
City Plan Director Brown: One year needed to rezone Long Wharf.
The City Plan Department has proposed putting a one-year pause on new developments on Long Wharf — in a bid to attract more shops and apartments, and fewer gas stations and truck repair facilities, to the city’s industrial waterfront.
That proposal is included in an ordinance that the Elicker Administration submitted to the Board of Alders as a communication for Monday night’s full Board of Alders meeting.
The proposed ordinance asks the alders to sign off on a 12-month moratorium on the submission and acceptance of applications for site plans, variances, special exceptions, special permits, and rezoning amendments within the Long Wharf Responsible Growth Plan area.
That’s the waterfront area bounded by Water Street to the north, the New Haven Harbor to the east, Union Avenue to the west, and Hallock Avenue to the south.
The proposal now heads to the City Plan Commission and an aldermanic committee for review before going to the full Board of Alders for a potential debate and final vote.
Click here to read the city’s Long Wharf development moratorium proposal in full.
Perkins Eastman images
The 2019 Long Wharf plan, including a stormwater ribbon park ...
... five new proposed Long Wharf districts ...
... and a map of a proposed new Long Wharf.
Why does the city want to push the pause button on a changing Long Wharf?
According to a May 25 letter written by City Plan Director Laura Brown to Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers, the district’s current industrial zoning is standing in the way of the “diverse and vibrant mixed-use communities with residential, commercial and recreational opportunities” that the city would like to see sprout forth on Long Wharf.
Brown wrote that those goals are detailed in the Long Wharf Responsible Growth Plan, which the city adopted in 2019 as part of its Comprehensive Plan of Development.
“While the City’s Comprehensive Plan of Development suggests such transformation for economic, environmental, and social sustainability, the current zoning in the Long Wharf area was prescribed in the 1960’s,” Brown continued. “This 1960’s model supported greater industrial use along the waterfront. As a result, the area is currently under an industrial zoning designation.
“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. The City’s zoning ordinance is an important tool to guide private investment towards the City’s goals for Long Wharf.”
That’s why the City Plan Department is now proposing a 12-month “moratorium on development in the Long Wharf district,” Brown wrote, “to afford ample time to review existing planning studies, evaluate current market trends, as well as create and adopt appropriate zoning for the area.”
The city makes clear in the proposed ordinance language itself that one of the impetuses for this development moratorium is industrial businesses looking to set up shop on Long Wharf in line with the area’s current zoning. One such “whereas” clause in the proposed ordinance reads: “WHEREAS, the Board of Alders recognizes that planning for such an economically important and complex undertaking such as this requires time and resources to develop a comprehensive and harmonious set of uses and zoning regulations for the Long Wharf Responsible Growth Plan Area without the undue influence of development pressure.”
Does that mean that the city has already received applications from gas stations and truck repair facilities that want to move to Long Wharf?
“City Plan staff received and began technical review of an incomplete application for a proposed truck maintenance facility with trailer parking,” Brown told the Independent in an email comment. “Staff reviewed this application and referred to the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection for concerns about significant modifications in the Coastal Management Area. The moratorium isn’t intended to address particular applications but to continue the process of aligning the area’s zoning with the long-term vision of resilience and vibrancy defined in the Long Wharf Responsible Growth Plan.”
What exactly does the city plan to do over the next year if the alders agree to the 12-month development moratorium on Long Wharf?
To quote directly from Brown’s letter to Walker-Myers, the moratorium should give the city enough time to achieve the following goals:
• Create a framework for the redevelopment of the Long Wharf District into a more mixed, denser urban commercial and coastal district;
• Enact zoning recommendations based on the Long Wharf Responsible Growth Plan;
• Ensure that future development is focused on the key principles outlined in the plan including: emphasizing the public realm, integrating existing buildings and industries, staged redevelopment, equitable development, creating a new “front door”, transit orientation, climate resilience, creating jobs, reconnecting the city to the waterfront, and serving as a new major area for new development;
• Prioritize cultural and environmental enhancements to the Vietnam Veterans’ Long Wharf Park;
• Consider land constraints including flood and coastal resilience as well as remediation of brownfields and propose interim uses for such sites.
“The Board of Alders has from time to time issued moratoriums on land use types or zoning elements when it was determined that such a moratorium was in the public interest,” Brown concluded her letter. “We hope you will consider this request and we would be happy to address any concerns you may have.”
The city’s 12-month Long Wharf development moratorium proposal comes roughly half a year after the Board of Alders approved the rezoning of a 4.3‑acre waterfront site where the Long Wharf-based Fusco Corporation plans on building up to 500 new apartments spread across two new 13-story and 15-story residential towers. Fusco has not yet submitted a site plan application for that project. A construction start date for those apartment towers likely won’t be any time soon, given that a new waterfront restaurant called Il Gabbiano recently opened up in the exact same location.
The proposed development pause also comes a few weeks after the Hotel Marcel first opened its doors at the former Pirelli building next to Ikea.
The Independent asked Brown how such a moratorium might affect Fusco’s waterfront apartment plans. Has Fusco already submitted a site plan application for that rezoned project?
“To my knowledge, City Plan is not in receipt of any application for these parcels since the zoning modifications approved in 2021,” Brown said.
She also pointed to proposed text in the development moratorium ordinance that would exempt various changes from the moratorium. The relevant section of the proposed law reads: “Notwithstanding the foregoing, the repair, renovation or repurposing, including change of use, of existing buildings and the spaces therein shall be exempt from this moratorium, provided that the proposed use is allowed in the underlying zone as of right, by Special Permit or by Special Exception.”
Rezoning sounds like a wise idea but I hope they can actually get it done in 12 months. I also hope that the usual "community activists" don't significantly derail this important effort with the same old bellowing about the imaginary displaced and/or underserved residents who may be negatively impacted by the transformation of gas stations and barren industrial brownfields into livable spaces.