Planet Venus Meets Planet Community

An adult ​“Las Vegas-style” ​“cabaret” with exotic dancers and late-night night drinking will bring economic revival and safety to a forlorn industrial zone.

So said the people looking to open said strip joint.

To which neighbors responded: In case you haven’t noticed, people live here. People from New Haven, not Las Vegas.

That was the heart of an impassioned, sometimes charged, hour-and-a-half debate Tuesday night at the regular Zoom-assisted meeting of the Board of Zoning Appeals.

On hand to seek approval for permission to open his ​“Planet Venus” strip club at 203 Wallace St. in the Jocelyn Square portion of the Mill River District was Peter Forchetti, the former owner of Scores strip club on Hamilton Street. 

No formal vote was held by the BZA commissioners, who referred the item to the City Plan Commission for a parking review. The BZA plans to vote on the matter next month.

On hand to oppose the plan were dozens of opponents led by Wooster Square Alder Ellen Cupo; the mother of a young woman killed in a late night hail of gunfire in 2013 at Scores; and anxious neighbors. 

Their message was that the Mill River District, yes, is struggling. But they have a beautiful park at Jocelyn Square and a beloved river being rescued and adorned by trails through years of volunteer efforts, along with a long-range mixed use redevelopment plan. A strip club will do nothing to advance that vision and in fact may do considerable harm, they argued.

As Walnut Street neighbor Joan Cavanaugh put it: ​“This would be a disaster for our neighborhood. We’re talking about 11 p.m. to 4 a.m., they will be pouring out just when we are getting up to go to school and work.

“People who have been drinking all night, spilling over into the park — they would not put up with this in Westville or Woodbridge. We have as much right to live peacefully and quietly as any other residents of the city. I don’t choose to live in Las Vegas, I choose to live in New Haven.”

Celeste Fulcher also spoke up against the proposal. Her daughter Erika was killed in 2013 at the former Key Club. ​“I really oppose the opening of another night club from this key individual due to the magnitude of prior incidents and lack of security and responsibility of the owner,” she said. Forchetti replied that he didn’t take over the club until 2015, two years after the incident that resulted in her daughter’s death.

Technically, the IL zone in which 203 Wallace sits, does permit this use. The question before the zoners Tuesday night was whether to allow Forchetti’s club to be established only 1,100 feet from a similar establishment, the Catwalk Club on East Street, when the zoning ordinance calls for a 1,500 feet minimum distance.

In 2019 Forchetti had been successful in getting a variance request to open the club based on a hardship. (It was a proceeding that was attended by no community residents because, they said Tuesday night, there had been no outreach and no one knew about it to attend and protest.) But Forchetti’s approval was overturned in an appeal in court in May last year on a technicality -– the hardship had not been adequately demonstrated. So Forchetti reapplied to the BZA for the same approval, but on a different legal basis: he now seeks a special exception for running an​“adult cabaret” at the Wallace Street location, for parking relief, and for operating within 1,500 feet of another strip club (the Catwalk at 325 East St.).

Cupo and others began to mobilize through a petition drive, engaging local non profits such as the New Haven Urban Design League, and convening local meetings to oppose Forchetti’s new approach. 

Click here for a story about that organizing effort and here for a formal and technical opposition document submitted by the Urban Design League President Anstress Farwell. And here for Alder Cupo’s formal opposition letter signed on behalf of all the neighboring alders as well

Tuesday night’s virtual zoning hearing was the first time the sides faced off. 

“It’s not in the public interest to grant a waiver,” said Wooster Square resident Alex Werrell, ​“if nothing is given in return to the city.”

Werrell predicted increased police demand. He spoke of how exotic dancers are 1099 contractors without benefits, thus minimizing paying employment taxes.

“It’s not just a question of breaking even, but if the city actively is losing resources. At stake here is a definition of ​‘public interest.’ I think the neighborhood stands in strong opposition. No waiver should be granted without benefit to the city.”

Forchetti attorney Ken Rozich responded that the project ​“has adequate lighting, surveillance inside and out that will revitalize the area. This is a vacant lot. It could hopefully lead to a revitalization of the whole area; it would certainly be an improvement. It’s not going to contribute to illegal activity due to the security, including on and off-duty police officers. It will cut down illegal activity.

“Here you have vacant building after vacant building and here you have a person ready to invest a certain amount of money. It’ll not prevent urban renewal but hopefully will attract it.”

In addition to dozens of email submissions, the zoning board heard testimony by nine neighborhood opponents.

It heard from one public supporter, as well: local land use attorney Ben Trachten.

While underlining that he was not a fan of strip clubs, he said by rights and on the technical issues, Forchetti’s plan should be approved.

In that he echoed Attorney Rozich’s rebuttal at the end of the evening: ​“This is an IL zone. It’s a permitted use, it can happen, it should happen, it is in vacant buildings, and these NIMBY arguments do not pertain… The board [in 2019] has already made findings regarding the special exceptions, and the city had no problem with the traffic issues.”

The parking aspect of the application — 37 spaces on site and 25 to be leased from a lot at 225 Wallace — is what goes before City Plan Commission in the coming weeks.

“See you next month,” said BZA chair Mildred Melendez, ​“for a decision.”