Sam Gurwitt Photo
Quinnipiac Vice President of Facilities and Capital Planning Salvatore Filardi and Attorney Bernard Pellegrino.
Quinnipiac was preparing to get the go ahead to hold events on the property of its new president’s house, until the Hamden Planning and Zoning Commission put a stop to those plans, for now.
The university applied for special permit approval to use buildings and spaces on the new property that houses its president’s house for university events. The commission Tuesday night voted 3 – 2, with one abstention, to reject the application.
Quinnipiac bought a 30.5‑acre property that abuts its main Mt. Carmel campus in 2018. The property sits at the end of Spruce Bank Road and contains two houses, a barn, and a pavilion, along with tennis courts and a swimming pool. One of the two houses — a guest house — currently serves as the home of President Judy Olian, while the main house undergoes renovations to become the president’s house. (Click here for a story by the New Haven Register’s Claire Dignan about the cost of those renovations.)
The gate of the new president’s-house property.
The university has been using the property for university events, such as meetings, lectures, and trustee’s dinners. Some have taken place at the president’s house, others at the pavilion. In May, it held a dinner in the pavilion to celebrate Olian’s inauguration.
The parcel is in a residential R2 zone. Hamden’s zoning regulations allow normal university property uses, such as lectures, meetings, and receptions, in R2 zones, but the university must receive special permit approval from the Planning and Zoning Commission before doing so. Town Planner Dan Kops granted the university a one-time approval to hold an inauguration event on the property, but told the university that it would need special permit approval for all future university-related uses of the property.
Tuesday’s vote did not involve a zone change, and would not have approved any changes to the property. It would simply have allowed the university to use the property for “common university use.”
“This is just a use technicality,” said Quinnipiac Vice President of Facilities and Capital Planning Salvatore Filardi.
Though maybe just a technicality, after hearing the protests of seven neighboring property owners at Tuesday’s public hearing, commissioners decided that caution should still prevail while the town waits for the university’s full master plan, which it anticipates receiving in the spring.
Kops told the Independent that, since the commission did not approve the special permit, he will not be able to approve any one-time use requests for the property. The president can host events in her house, just like any resident can host events in their home. However, any university-related uses of the pavilion or the grounds will not be allowed until the university receives special permit approval. Kops said he had not been aware that the university had been using the pavilion for events other than the inauguration.
The “Bigger Picture?”
Town Planner Dan Kops.
After hearing comments from Quinnipiac’s neighbors, some commissioners echoed some the concerns they had heard from the public.
“There’s a bigger picture behind this that you’re not revealing,” said Commission Chair Brack Poitier. “I’m not certainly sure if you’re being transparent with all of this.” The university, he said, has not always been transparent about its plans in the past.
Hamden’s zoning regulations require that whenever a university submits a special permit application, it must submit a five-year institutional master plan with the application that includes details on the university’s plans for future facilities and programming.
The university submitted a master plan with its application on Tuesday. However, in the words of Commissioner Robert Roscow, it is “just so rudimentary… I would never call this a master plan.”
The plan contained enrollment projections and general statements about university housing and the use of the new president’s house property, but very little detail on future facility use because it is just a preliminary plan. The university has contracted Ayers Saint Gross to complete a comprehensive facilities master plan by May, 2020.
Residents urged the commission to reject the application before receiving the master plan in May. Quinnipiac, many said, has not been forthcoming with its plans in the past, and there’s no saying what it could be planning for this property.
“What would we do if they wanted to put an amphitheater on that property?” asked neighbor Peter Lindenfelser. Or a three-story parking garage.
“I’m getting a little tired of how Quinnipiac can just continue to do what they want to do,” said neighbor Michael Tardy. “It’s a bunch of smoke and mirrors. It’s a bunch of BS.”
Tuesday’s special permit would not have granted the university permission to make any changes to the property. If the university wanted to put in, say, an amphitheater or a parking garage, it would need to apply for a separate special permit for each project. (Moreover, parking garages are not allowed in R2 zones at all).
The applicants assured the commission that the university has no such plans. “There’s nothing we have talked about so far that would put something on that property,” Filardi told the Independent.
Attorney Brian Stone.
“There’s no hidden plan,” Lawyer Brian Stone, who represented the university on Tuesday, told the commission. “This is what they want this property for… All we’re asking for is what we’re asking for now.”
Nonetheless, commission members said that, in light of resident concerns, they needed more details about the future before they could approve the special permit.
“There just seems to be some distrust among the neighbors. Once you put something in place, you can’t undo it,” said Commissioner Michelle Mastropetre. “I think we really need to see where you’re going.”
Lux Et Vehicles
Michael Tardy: “A bunch of b.s.”
Though approval of the special permit likely would not have made much of a difference when it comes to traffic, residents also aired their grievances about living next to the expanding university.
Multiple residents said the roads around their houses, especially Ives Street, New Road, and Hogan Road, have become heavily trafficked in recent years because of students.
Phoebe Styron said that there are frequent accidents at the corner of Ives Street and New Road. Ives Street, where she lives, she called “a motor speedway for distracted students,” who throw their fast-food containers out the window.
The president’s house property, said Filardi, does not generate student traffic because students generally don’t use it. At the moment, it can only be reached from the main campus by taking a roundabout route down New Road or Hogan Road, along Ives Street, and then up Spruce Bank Road. At the inauguration, he explained, the university shuttled guests from the main property to the campus in busses. Shuttle busses from the main campus to the site for events of over 50 people would have been a condition of approval in the special permit.
Filardi said that the university hopes to build a road from the main campus directly to the property in the future, all on Quinnipiac-owned land.
The special permit may not have increased traffic, but that was not the only concern residents had about university’s use of the property.
Lindenfelser told the commission that he does not need a light in his bedroom at night because of the light that now comes from the president’s house property.
Tardy said he’s in a similar situation. “I have an immense amount of light coming into my home,” he said.
Lights on the property are not supposed to illuminate anywhere past the property line. Filardi said he did not know exactly what the new lights are, but that they are probably floodlights put in place for safety.
Kops told the Independent that he had not heard any complaints about light until Tuesday. He said he will look into the issue.
The commission will reconsider the special permit once the university submits its master plan in May.
Thru the years QU has been that great neighbor and it has been that neighbor from hell...currently they are somewhere in between. Sometimes their students are the subject of us tax payers and homeowners debates but the reality is it is the university and its directors president and trustees that continuously lays the ground work for the chaos. I have said it as have many others QU is a part of HAMDEN not the other way around. They are attempting a Coup much like YALE in NEW HAVEN. As they absorb more of the homes and land in Hamden they continue to use resources with out paying for them and at the cost of the tax payers . This is yet again what is happening. It starts small...if we allow this piece of property to be used as anything other than what it was originally sanctioned for( a residence) it will inevitable become something more as the university continues to grow. This will become an entertainment venue! It will host functions significantly larger than what the average homeowner does. Lets look at the party held in Hamden this year that grew beyond due to social media well guess what the tax payers of Hamden should have a say in what the school is doing to US. See elected officials come and go. They have hidden agendas , they benefit from their personal decisions and ideas that affect many more than themselves. Lets have a referendum of HAMDEN TAX PAYING CITIZENS vote on what should or shouldn't be allowed in this town . Let QU submit its proposals annually and at election time we the citizens will vote and then the elected officials will craft how to implement such decisions because as it stands personally they should be allowed to create this new opportunity that will eventually morph into something so much bigger. They are not willing to commit to giving more back to the very community they are bleeding dry.