Denser Zoning OK’d For Olive St. Tower Site

Alders overwhelmingly approved rezoning an Olive Street lot to make way for a proposed 13-story apartment tower to be built on the downtown edge of Wooster Square.

Local legislators took that vote Monday night during the latest regular bimonthly meeting of the full Board of Alders. The in-person meeting took place in the Aldermanic Chamber on the second floor of City Hall.

In a 24 – 1 vote of support, with East Rock Alder Anna Festa casting the sole dissenting vote, alders approved a zoning ordinance map amendment that changes the designation of roughly 2.487 acres of land located at 78 Olive St. from the General Business (BA) to the Central Business/Residence (BD‑1) zoning district classification.

That now-approved zoning change tees up a plan by the Philadelphia-based developer PMC Property Group to build a new 13-story, 136-unit apartment building atop an existing surface parking lot closer to that sits adjacent to the PMC-owned Strouse Adler ​“Smoothie” apartment near Olive and Chapel Streets. The proposed development site is closer to the intersection of Chapel and Union Streets, even though the parcel of land has an Olive Street address. (PMC has already submitted a site plan application to the City Plan Commission for such a project, and was waiting for the zoning change before moving ahead.)

Monday’s vote also marks a victory for city residents, policy makers, and housing boosters advocating for dense transit-oriented developments — and a setback for neighbors and other critics who decried the encroachment of downtown-style apartment towers on towards smaller-scale residential neighborhoods. Click here, here, here, here and here for other stories about this zoning change.

“Our zoning policies shape who gets to live in our city and where, whether rent and property taxes rise and how high, whether small businesses have the customers they need to survive, whether our neighborhoods are safe, and whether we can build a sustainable city with less pollution and lower carbon emissions,” Downtown Alder Eli Sabin said Monday night, both during the Board of Alders meeting itself and in an email sent out before the meeting to his Ward 7 constituents. (Sabin’s ward includes 78 Olive St.)

He said he’s supporting the zoning change at 78 Olive St. — and, by implication, the proposed 13-story apartment tower that the zoning change enables — because ​“a bit more dense development on the vacant parking lot at this site will move us a little closer to addressing the many challenges we face,” by contributing more property tax revenue to the city, creating more ​“good-paying construction jobs,” and increasing the supply of market-rate and below-market-rate housing alike. 

East Rock Alder and Legislation Committee Chair Charles Decker agreed. ​“This zoning change aligns the zone of this property with the city’s Comprehensive Plan of Development for properties near public transit. By changing the zoning of the properties near State Street station like this one, it encourages connectivity among residential, office and transportation uses, and the further development of residential properties near public transit.”

“As the City of New Haven continues to grow and the population of young people continues to grow, we need this type of housing,” Dixwell Alder Jeanette Morrison added in her own support of the zoning change. ​“The kind of apartment building this is going to be, it’s going to be able to house a lot of young people.”

Festa spoke up in opposition to the zoning change, and ultimately cast the only ​“nay” vote against the zoning map amendment, because of the ​“towering” nature of the proposed residential development.

“I also oppose this plan because the Wooster Square area is not considered downtown,” she said. ​“It is a quaint area of the city where residents purchased their historic homes to enjoy without towering buildings taking away from the beauty of the neighborhood.”

She also criticized the developer’s proposed set aside of 14 apartments at below-market rents — seven at 60 percent of the area median income (AMI) and seven at 80 percent AMI for 25 years — as still too high for the city’s housing-affordability needs. And she lambasted PMC for the years of lawsuits it filed against the city and an adjacent landlord in a bid to stymie development right next door to the site it’s now looking to build up.

“This developer has no consideration of the city or the neighborhood,” Festa said. ​“Only the profit margin.”

Site Plan Details

The zoning change now allows PMC to move forward with trying to win site plan approval from the City Plan Commission for the 136-unit apartment building proposed for the 78 Olive St. site.

On Feb. 17, PMC-hired attorney Christopher McKeon submitted a site plan application for the project to the City Plan Department, asking the department and the commission to hold off on reviewing the proposal until the Board of Alders took a final vote on the zoning change. (By submitting their site plan application on Feb. 17, PMC dodged the affordable housing-set aside requirements of the city’s recently adopted ​“inclusionary zoning” ordinance, which went into effect on Feb. 18.)

“The Applicant proposes to construct a 14-story apartment building containing 136 units,” McKeon wrote in the site plan application’s project narrative. ​“The proposed building consists of 11 levels of apartments with 12 units each and a 13th level with 4 units and common amenity space. The 14th level roof will contain common amenity space. These levels will be built above a ground floor containing parking for automobiles and bicycles as well as a lobby, building office, mail and package rooms and mechanical space. The site has been designed to comply with the standards of the BD‑1 zone. Per the zoning data table on the title sheet of the Plan submitted herewith, the project complies with the zoning ordinance in all respects.”

McKeon added that the developer will set aside 14 apartments at ​“affordable rents”: seven at 60 percent AMI, and seven at 80 percent AMI. ​“The affordable set aside will be for 25 years. The implementation and enforcement of the affordable component of the development would be enforced in the same manner as the Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance.”

McKeon also wrote that the developer ​“is not seeking any incentives such as tax abatements or density bonuses,” even though the applicant does ​“reserve the right to apply for and obtain a tax assessment deferral under the City Wide Assessment Deferral Program.”

And the developer’s attorney wrote that PMC will contribute $150,000 towards several ​“infrastructure improvements,” including pedestrian signal heads at the Union Street and Chapel Street intersection, possible expansion of the sidewalk on the north side of Chapel, and the installation of bike lanes on both sides of Chapel between State Street and Olive Street.

“This project will provide significant economic benefits to New Haven and Connecticut,” McKeon concluded. ​“Should this project go forward and based on 2022 figures, the annual real estate taxes to be paid to New Haven are estimated to be $920,000 annually and the one-time construction permit fees paid to the City will be approximately $1.785M. For the State of Connecticut, it is estimated that the one-time construction sales tax will generate $3.2M and the annual CT income taxes paid by residents in the building and the applicant employees will be $640,000/yr.”

The application also states that the project will have 39 on-site parking spaces, with the remainder of the city-required parking provided at the New Haven parking authority-owned garage at 270 State St.

And the application estimates that the construction start date for the project will be the summer of 2023, and that the project will take roughly a year and a half to complete.