City of New Haven rendering
A sketch of the proposed new Long Wharf Drive park.
An aldermanic committee endorsed the Elicker Administration’s plan to build a new community marina and expanded waterfront park on Long Wharf — as well as a cafe kiosk and bathroom on the Green and a family-friendly playground downtown — if the city manages to secure $32.1 million in infrastructure-boosting state aid.
Local legislators took that vote Wednesday night during the latest meeting of the Board of Alders Community Development Committee, which took place in the Aldermanic Chamber on the second floor of City Hall.
The committee alders voted unanimously in support of a resolution authorizing the city to apply for $32.1 million in grant money as part of Round 2 of the state’s $800 million Community Investment Fund (CIF).
As city Economic Development Administrator Michael Piscitelli told the committee alders Wednesday night, it’s unlikely that the city would be awarded all $32 million at once.
“Part of this conversation is ideas, thoughts,” getting a plan and funding application in place for what infrastructure upgrades the city would like to make to downtown and Long Wharf and how much those improvements are expected to cost, Piscitelli said. That way, “when we go for future rounds, everything is tightly aligned” with one broader economic-development vision.
In that vein, Piscitelli, City Engineer Giovanni Zinn, and economic development staffer Courtney Henderson laid out in detail how the Elicker Administration would like to spend this requested $32.1 million if the state were to grant it. The proposed resolution now heads to the full Board of Alders for further review and a final vote before the city can officially submit the application to the state.
Piscitelli explained that the city is seeking $25 million in state aid for a suite of improvements to Long Wharf, including knocking down the former Gateway Community College building on Sargent Drive to help make way for the relocation of Gateway’s automotive trade school; redesigning and elevating Long Wharf Drive to protect the roadway from floods; creating a new community marina that would allow sailboats to access the area around the Canal Dock Boathouse; and developing a larger Long Wharf park complete with a 20-foot-wide waterfront promenade, fewer lanes for driving, more space for parking, and a dedicated tent-covered area for picnicking and enjoying food from the nearby taco trucks.
Wednesday night’s proposal, which can be read in full here and here, comes roughly a month after top city officials and Mayor Elicker first unveiled a detailed Long Wharf redevelopment plan to over 100 Hill community members and other interested residents. Read here for more about that plan, which overlapped extensively with Wednesday’s presentation, and which would see a park and pedestrian-friendly walkway where cars now travel on Long Wharf Drive, an automotive trade school where the former Gateway building is on Sargent, and a new home base for all of the APT Foundation’s New Haven substance-use treatment programs.
This is really “the opportunity to take a park that has become very popular with the food trucks,” Zinn said, but that is “really lacking some of the amenities” that would make the area all the more enjoyable to spend a full day at.
The move to lift Long Wharf Drive, Piscitelli said, stems in part from Fusco Corporation’s planned development of 500 new apartments along the water nearby.
“In a scenario where we had a big flood or storm surge,” Fusco’s planned new buildings would hold up fine, but the roads around it would not, he said. “This really creates that second layer of safety that the state has prioritized.”
As for downtown, Piscitelli and Henderson said, the city is applying for $7.1 million to fund the creation of a new cafe kiosk and permanent public bathroom on the Green, various public art projects in the Ninth Square and street improvements to Temple, and a new family playground at a still-to-be-determined site somewhere downtown.
Would any of this money be used to make sure the public restrooms and playgrounds are kept clean? asked Downtown/Yale Alder Alex Guzhnay.
“Certainly, public restrooms are challenging to keep clean,” Zinn said. He said tying such a restroom to a new cafe kiosk where customers can buy pastries and coffee would create a revenue stream to help cover the costs of cleaning the bathroom.
Has the city talked about this plan with the Proprietors of the Green, who legally own the property? Guznhay asked.
“We’ve had discussions with the Proprietors about the activation of the Green,” Zinn said. This proposal, he said, would further that goal.
“Supposing we don’t get what we’re looking for,” Dwight Alder Frank Douglass said about the $32.1 million grant application, “what’s the plan?” Which of these projects are priorities?
Piscitelli said the city would get feedback from the state on which projects were most competitive. And he said that, if one project is turned down for this funding source, another funding source for another initiative might emerge that the city could latch one of these projects onto.
The committee alders praised the plan before taking their unanimous vote of support.
“Here we are today with plans on the table with a beautiful vision” for making Long Wharf a place “where families can truly come” from all over the city to enjoy, Hill Alder Carmen Rodriguez said. This is “something that can be revamped to the now.”
Some of these plans seem worthwhile- preventing flooding and building an automotive trade school. The rest seem like unnecessary “wants” instead of “needs” given that our schools are failing, teachers are quitting, police jobs can’t be filled, thousands are rent- burdened due to lack of affordable housing, and homeless encampments are popping up and then being demolished. But hey, if some pretty trees and a place to picnic is your thing, then go for it.