Daycare, Housing OK’d; Convenience Rejected

An Orange-based Hebrew day school is one big step closer to opening a new childcare center at the vacant site of a former private school on Whitney Avenue, thanks to a unanimous vote of support by city zoners.

That was one of three projects to receive final votes on Tuesday during the latest monthly meeting of the city’s Board of Zoning Appeals. In three separate requests for zoning relief, the commissioners said ​‘yes’ for Whitney Avenue daycare, ​‘yes’ for denser housing on Whalley Avenue, and a resounding ​‘no’ for more convenience stores doling out junk food in the Hill.

Each of those projects were before the BZA Tuesday night in the form of special exception applications first heard by local zoners last month. All three were then referred by the BZA to the City Plan Commission, which provided advice to the board before they took their final votes Tuesday.

The zoners unanimously approved a request by the Orange-based New Haven Hebrew Day School, Inc. for a special exception to allow for a child daycare center for up to 24 children at 97 Whitney Ave. in a residential-office-zoned stretch on the downtown-East Rock border. They also approved that same daycare center’s application for a special exception to permit one off-street parking space where three are required at that same Whitney Avenue site, which was most recently home to FlexSchool.

In a separate vote Tuesday night, the BZA commissioners unanimously ok’d applications by the owner of the now-closed El Amigo Felix restaurant, Kadir Catalbasoglu, for a variance to permit a rear yard of five feet where 10 feet is required, and a special exception to permit 0 off-street parking spaces where three are required at 8 Whalley Ave. The shuttered restaurant owner had requested that zoning relief to help advance his plans to build six apartments across three new floors atop the groundfloor restaurant space.

While the prospect of more housing and childcare were applauded by board members on Tuesday, a third request to turn an empty Sylvan Avenue home into a convenience store failed to move forward following a controversial public hearing on the matter back in October and a negative referral from the City Plan Commission.

Read more here about concerns from Hill and Newhallville neighbors and community leaders that sugary and greasy foods in the form of convenience stores are crowding their communities.

“I don’t feel it was an asset to that neighborhood,” BZA Chair Mildred Melendez said Tuesday. She said cramming multiple small food marts within a given space ​“isn’t good business, good neighboring, and it’s not anything that’s gonna advance the city.”

And with that, the commissioners voted unanimously against property owner Jassim Uddin’s request for a special exception to permit a neighborhood convenience use at 114 Sylvan Ave.