Studios-To-Storage Conversion Scrapped

Is there a 're-population' plan for the artist spaces, since so many have already moved on?

Housing is needed here much more than storage units.

It's actually easy to find storage places around town or outside of town, but the need for more housing in this city proves to be rather critical and vitally important.

quinnchionn, as the article notes, the building is subject to an Environmental Land Use Restriction. The site is contaminated and you cant building housing there.

Was Leslie Radcliffe able to say the plan didn't fit into the neighborhood with a straight face? Drive down shelton Ave and tell me what fits in. Don't forget to duck.
And van hoesen is a commish now! Good way to neutralize any potential political candidates outside the machine.

I dont know if Id wanna have my working life in that building because of fear of contamination, he said with a laugh.

This legacy of environmental destruction caused by certain companies in certain industries is quite humorous, I agree. And all we can do is laugh. They're not going to fix the mess they made. Better to inform people which places to avoid.

Its OK for Artists to stay in a building that clearly has consequences for ones health? Or a community center for a consequential neighborhood ? Really? The building should be rehabed environmentally, but this city does nothing for its artists unlike Massachusetts or New York that has created fair housing and livable/studios for its artists. What is the intention of where the artists will go? The city seems to have no respect or concern for its culture producers. Businesses want to be near artist communities. In New Haven, it seems to be just the opposite. Lets see what the company comes back with.

Plenty of parking solid construction, looks like it could be turned into both low to high end apartments. "???environmental land use restriction that prohibits residential development on the premises because of the old Winchester Arms factorys toxic imprint." Are there pollutants there? You wouldn't have all the people working there if so. Sewer line cand handle the load? So what do they mean by "toxic imprint"? I'm sure someone knows the real story that's even better than this one.

There is lots of contaminated former industrial or commercial properties that should be thoroughly remediated because otherwise theyre just going to be continuing to deteriorate to the point where the city will have to tear them down and get the land remediated.
They are a huge drag on the communitys perceived value and quality of life.
Meanwhile they are being rented to humans who are spending lots of time being exposed to hazards in them.
The state and federal government should be funding having these types of properties fully remediated to the point where they can be rezoned for all uses and used safely by humans. If developers know that the remediation costs will be subsidized by the government, they will be more interested in making it happen.
The artists and the landlords should be lobbying and applying for state and federal government funding with the citys help to remediate this property, because a mixed office, community space, gym and creative spaces for artists at reasonable rent rates would be very popular and would generate more rent than storage units anyways. It also would be much better for the community than self storage dead space.

BhuShu and Rich C., I strongly suspect that the artists are there in violation of the zoning ordinance. Art stores are allowed in this zone with a special permit, and I would not surprised if the artists sometimes sell their work there. But my understanding is that they primarily use the space to make, rather than sell, art. And commercial/professional offices are not allowed without a variance.

I dont know what specific contaminants lead to the Environmental Land Use Restriction. Given the buildings age, it certainly has lead paint. Lead is a huge issue for kids, and in itself makes the building problematic for housing. It is much less of an issue for adults, including the artists. The building very likely also has asbestosis. The major issue there is whether it is friable.

BhuShu, I have artist friends. They and their colleagues add a lot to New Haven. But I do not know why they should receive housing assistance preference over non-artist tenants who have even lower incomes.

CY2, Josh (who I really respect) has been a commissioner for several years now. He adds a lot to the commission.

Daniel, the building definitely needs a paint job, But if my two-bedroom home is any indication, that would cost tens of thousands of dollars. The building could be used for several things I am sure the neighbors would not want, including a shooting range or a strip club. Few, if any, of the uses that neighbors would support are allowed.

A moment of silence for what was once part of the Manufacturing and Industrial complex that was part of the growth and development of the city of New haven and the other major cities of Connecticut. Neighborhoods formed around such factories and offered jobs for residents numbering in the hundreds and thousands. Sadly, this has all but vanished. Now the factories are reconditioned into Art Space, Condos, Apartments, Mixed Use and Restaurants offer minimum wage jobs and through the roof rents. Thank you NAFTA.

Heather, all of those would be fun uses of the building. I dont think any of them are allowed under the zoning ordinance. And I would be pleasantly surprised if any of them pencil out.i.e., pay enough rent to cover the cost of redeveloping the building.

CY2, the contamination on the property does not stay there. In particular, lead and other heavy metals fall into the ground around the property and get blown onto neighboring properties. And there are all sorts of other ways contaminants get transported into the neighborhood.

Urban Cowboy, this building was functionally obsolete long before NAFTA. Contemporary factories and warehouses are one story, not five. This is true in Mexico as well as in the U.S., and has been true for decades. An example of contemporary design is the warehouse that was recently built on Hamilton Street in Fair Haven. It has about half the area of the Shelton Street building and takes up a city block.

I do think the city should rezone this property. While the city should promote manufacturing and other industrial uses, they are not going to happen at this site. While I think Heathers ideas are infeasible, almost any use would be better than having an empty hulk in a residential neighborhood.

The propertys prospects are limited, due to an environmental land use restriction that prohibits residential development on the premises because of the old Winchester Arms factorys toxic imprint. Meanwhile, the article above this is about apartments going in on Winchester Avenue part of the same Former complex and less than 100 yards from this building theres a gigantic housing complex being built on the same Former Winchester property. Whats up with that?

This is such a SILLY decision. Nothing else can work there. It's a scary building. No one dare to say it but it's a terrible location. A storage facility is the perfect fit for this WHITE ELEPHANT. At least it will look nice and it WILL PAY LOTS OF TAXES. Another misguided decision by the city that just spends and brings no revenue, breaking the back of its citizens. We're all paying for these arbitrary decisions.

If you watched the entire meeting you would've heard ALL the reasons the commissioners gave for not approving the proposal to permit a storage facility. There were considerations that a storage facility was not in alignment with the comprehensive plan contributing to the revitalization of the Newhallville neighborhood; that the primary use was neither an asset nor benefit to the neighborhood; that there were concerns that the contamination prohibiting residential use would also be harmful to children and adults to participate in community activities on that parcel; that the City give this parcel in this neighborhood the same consideration and seek state grants to remediate this environmentally toxic parcel as it has for other areas throughout the city, such as the $999k to support environmental remediation on S. Orange St; $995K to support abatement on Liberty St; $400K for cleanup funds for Rivert Street; $969k to support environmental remediation of River St; $4M in Brownfield Remediation & Development Program funds for cleanup & demo of Dixwell Plaza, prepare for West River Housing and to transform NE Linen Supply factory into apartments; $75k for environmental assessment on Humphrey St. And to CY2 ... are you insinuating that a storage facility would be better than housing because of shootings? Please explain how you think a building that is randomly and infrequently occupied by transient non-residents concerned only with their stored property would make a neighborhood safer than residential units occupied with people. And what other neighborhood would it be OK to put a 4 story self-storage facility? The one on State Street and the other on Water St has no residential units surrounding it. Would it have been OK on Olive Street in place of the apartments built? Or State Ston the other side of Mill River near the coffee shops & Modern Pizza? Those residents would not stand for it. Why should Newhallville/Shelton Av residents?

Another loss for the city. If the site was deemed too contaminated for residential, now with the plan rejection, what now?

Im with the people who believe that housing is the more needed solution here. But if someone offers to clean up the site for the neighborhood, why is self storage so bad for the city? I see self storage next to residential all the time in cities all over the US.

Goldfield is correct, that this is a gamble. A gamble taken alongside violating Mr Katzs property rights.

Heather. Thank you. You are extremely naive though. If your utopian community vision (first define community?) was even remotely feasible it would already been happening. Whats good for the community is an expansion of the grand list and a reduction in our mill rate to benefit owners across the board. Also its not so bad to have storage near where you live. This is the continuous degradation of professionalism under Mayor Erlicker. Whose running a photo op mayorship that is only propelled by prosperity generated forces of entrepreneurships that has nothing to do with him. New Haven is going well DESPITE his poorly run administration but as we have seen in NYC give progressives enough time theyll destroy it.

Heather, re. your 2/24 comment, the artists and gym occupy a small part of the buildings 150,000 square feet. This is almost three football fields, including end zones. (By way of comparison, the Stop and Shop on Whalley has less than 60,000 square feet.) If the owners could have filled more space, they would have.

You regularly come up with truly wonderful uses for vacant spaces. The reason these spaces remain vacant is that these uses cannot pay the rent. This goes beyond commercial landlords being greedy, although some of them undoubtedly are. There is a ton of vacant commercial space. The amount will increase as Dixwell Plaza, Winchester Green, Tenth Square, and other developments move forward.

Truman Street Resident, FWIW, there are large storage facilities in Wooster Square and East Rock. In the case of Wooster Square, neighbors wanted the building converted to housing, but the numbers did not work.

Heather, for the most part, no. There are many spaces that are zoned as of right for the uses you describe, meet the State Building Code, have no contamination issues, and that have been vacant for months if not years. (I think you know that as of right means the neighbors views are irrelevant with regard to such uses.) None of the thousands of square feet of commercial space at the Audubon is rented. The ground floor retail space at 100 College has been vacant for years. And it is not just new buildings. The bulk of the commercial space on Audubon Street has been vacant for most of the 30+ years I have lived nearby. As the Independent has reported, a number of long-standing businesses in and near downtown have shut down, leaving what are likely to be long-term vacancies. Criterion Cinema, Patagonia, L.L. Bean, and Artist and Craftsman are the most obvious examples. In none of these cases was the issue zoning, the building code, contamination, or neighborhood opposition.

If commercial rents were substantially lower, many of the uses you describe would thrive in New Haven, making it an even more interesting place. But there are hundreds of commercial landlords. Commercial real estate economics is wicked complicated; I only claim a nodding familiarity with it. But the commercial landlords are presumably doing what they think is economically rational.

The zoning ordinance should be substantially updated to permit greater flexibility. Effectively nothing can move into the Shelton Street building under current law. But this would play a modest role vis-a-vis fundamental changes in commercial real estate. While New Haven is likely to less affected than NYC or Hartford with the bottom falling out of the office space market, it will make it even harder for commercial building owners to find and rent out to retail/entertainment uses.

@ Kevin McCarthy ... I didn't say there weren't storage facilities in Wooster Square or East Rock. I said there were no residential units surrounding them. Wooster Sq - 83 Water St, has no surrounding residential units surrounding of bordering it. East Rock - 1175 State St, has no surrounding residential units surrounding of bordering it. Both Wooster & State St facilities are near industrial use sites and very close to the highway ... NOT in residential communities. 89-91 Shelton Avenue is located in a residential community ... a neighborhood bordered by Gibbs St, Shelton Ave and Argyle Street, which have a total of 17 multi-unit homes directly across the street from that location. That's the difference in the locations of these storage units. Residents of Wooster and East Rock don't have to look across the street from their homes and see 'giant dead storage'.

It could not have been converted to residential even if it was permitted because the conversion costs of such a masonry structure is close to $250 to $300 PSF and the resulting taxes would have made the building worthless to the investor. Whether it is storage, or whatever, it would not matter, because that structure will remain forever and has very limited uses. In fact a utopian use can have the adverse effect of excessive congestion due to the disproportionate size. Storage is best because while it improves the aesthetic of the building, it keeps the massive beast asleep and does not disrupt the area. Our zoning board has just deprived our city from a sound business decision and tax revenue we badly need. They made us no favors.