If You Build It, They Will Walk?

LULAC Head Start won approval to convert an empty Fair Haven warehouse into a childcare center — on the condition that it build a new stretch of sidewalk to attract pedestrians to an industrial street near the Mill River.

The City Plan Commission granted that site plan approval during its latest regular monthly meeting, which was held online via Zoom.

The commissioners unanimously approved LULAC’s bid to convert an existing pre-engineered metal warehouse building at 106 Haven St. into a new Head Start childcare center with a capacity for roughly 112 children.

Architect Alexandra Sloan and engineer James DiMeo told the commissioners that a vast majority of the redevelopment work will be interior to the existing building. LULAC will also install a new outdoor playground, fencing, and striped parking spaces.

“The majority of the site is staying the same,” said DiMeo.

During a Community Development Committee hearing earlier this year , LULAC Head Start Executive Director Mikyle Byrd-Vaughn told the committee alders that LULAC wanted to move out of its current 375 James St. site — which it has been at since 1991 — and into a bigger space. She said that LULAC serves more than 500 children from low-income families every year out of its four childcare centers between New Haven and East Haven, and that it employs 125 teachers.

According to city land records, LULAC finalized its $800,000 purchase of the Haven Street site at the end of August as part of a land swap with the company New Haven Masonry. The latter in turn purchased LULAC’s current Fair Haven site at 375 James St. for $400,000. Byrd-Vaughn told the committee alders earlier this year that the childcare service had $1.7 million in federal money to complete the renovation and move.

“Sidewalk To Nowhere”?

Where LULAC’s architect and engineer butted heads with city staff at the meeting this past Wednesday night was over Condition #15 included in the City Plan Department’s staff report and recommended approval.

That condition required LULAC to ​“install a sidewalk (in conformance with City standards provided by the Engineering Department) along the portion of John Murphy Drive that abuts the property, prior to Engineering Department sign off on plans for building permit.”

The 106 Haven St. site is right in the middle of the block between Grand Avenue and Market Street, DiMeo said. The new childcare center’s front entrance will be on the Haven Street side, and there will be a back driveway into the site on John Murphy Drive.

That stretch of John Murphy Drive has no sidewalk at all between Grand Avenue and Market street on the east side of the road. It does have sidewalk on the west side.

“We would like to not be required to build sidewalk on John Murphy Drive,” DiMeo said.

City Engineer Giovanni Zinn (pictured) pushed back.

“Sidewalks are the city standard for roadways,” he said. ​“We attempt to put in sidewalks everywhere we can.”

And even though John Murphy Drive is currently a relatively industrial stretch with little foot traffic, it is near the Mill River and the nascent Mill River Trail.

​“I think that as the Mill River Trail increases in use and gets fully built out, there is a lot more pedestrian traffic we anticipate coming through here.”

Building out a new sidewalk on the side of the street that abuts the 106 Haven St. property line is a relatively ​“modest level of investment” for the developer, Zinn said. ​“And quite frankly, the best way to get better pedestrian infrastructure is by enforcing city standards.”

What exactly is on that side of the road right now? asked City Plan Commission Vice-Chair Leslie Radcliffe. Just grass?

Indeed, Sloan replied. ​“This entire thing is grass extended to the neighboring property. It’s all a grass strip.” And while there will be a driveway entrance and a pedestrian gate leading into the property off of John Murphy Drive, the main entrance way is on the other side of the building on Haven Street.

DiMeo said the playground will be on the John Murphy side, but it will be wholly fenced in.

“There’s nothing along John Murphy besides the driveway aprons,” he said. Plus, there’s already sidewalk across the street.

City Plan Director Aïcha Woods sided with Zinn in enforcing the sidewalk construction condition.

“This is a portion of the Mill River Trail that’s intended to be built out over time,” she said. ​“While it’s not paved currently, down the road, we would be looking to have sidewalk and have this whole stretch be accessible” by foot.

Zinn said that one of the top concerns he and other city officials here around redevelopment is making sure that the city is safe and accessible to walkers. ​“It is part of the Mill River Trail loop,” he said about this section of the street. ​“In areas where we don’t have sidewalk, really the only way to do that is as redevelopment happens, and to put in sidewalk.”

Radcliffe (pictured at left in pre-pandemic file photo) pushed back, asking Zinn if this is a hard regulation or a more flexible standard. If the latter, could this be up for negotiation with the applicant?

“It would seem to me that at this time it would be a sidewalk to nowhere,” she cautioned about the new stretch of sidewalk that would not connect all the way to Grand Avenue or all the way to Market Street. ​“What is the purpose of putting in something that’s not going to be used until some point in the future, and there’s an alternative across the street?” She said she wouldn’t be opposed to removing the condition, depending on how her colleagues felt.

But this is a regulation, Zinn insisted. He pointed to Sec. 27 – 110 of the city’s Code of Ordinances. That section states that the city engineer is empowered to adopt ​“such reasonable rules, regulations and specifications for the conduct of the work relating to sidewalks and curbs as he/she may deem appropriate and in the best interests of the city. Rules and regulations are to be made consistent with the City’s Complete Streets Policy and the Complete Streets Design Manual of March, 2010.” His city engineer-promulgated rules call for the construction of sidewalks where there are none, he said.

Westville Alder and City Plan Commissioner Adam Marchand sided with city staff.

“We have been incrementally building out public rights of way along waterways that currently, in many cases, somewhat functions as ​‘pathways to nowhere,’” he said. ​“But the idea is that the incremental building out of rights of way will enable the actual construction of real paths that people can use to access waterways in our city.”

The commissioners ultimately all agreed, and voted unanimously in support of requiring the sidewalk construction.