Strong School Redev Plans Advance

A plan to redevelop Fair Haven’s long-vacant former Strong School is two steps closer to fruition after the City Plan Commission favorably recommended requests by the city to rezone and sell the land to a national affordable housing developer.

That was the upshot of the local land-use body’s latest Zoom meeting Wednesday night. The Board of Alders will still have to sign off on both the rezoning and the land disposition proposals before they win final approval.

On Wednesday, the commission heard a pitch from the upcoming developers of the half acre’s worth of properties spread across 69 Grand Ave., 19 Clinton Ave., and an unnumbered address on Perkins Street to re-label all of that land as ​“BA‑1,” also known as neighborhood center mixed use business, rather than ​“RM‑1,” which refers to low-middle density residence. 

The commission voted in support of that idea while also expressing support for the developers themselves by further recommending the Board of Alders move forward with selling the land to Pennrose LLC, a national affordable housing developer whom the city and Fair Haven neighbors selected to oversee the Strong School’s redesign back in November. 

Those two actions suggest positive movement for the upcoming plan to convert the former school, which has sat abandoned since 2010, into 58 income-restricted apartments, an artists’ community, and public gathering space. Read about the concept in more detail here and here.

In order to accomplish that, attorney Meaghan Miles, who represented Pennrose Wednesday night, said the city would need to rezone the property to ​“support neighborhood-scale, pedestrian-oriented development.” 

The Strong School campus itself is zoned BA‑1 while the two adjacent properties are limited to residential use. The residential zoning, Miles said, ​“significantly restricts development capabilities and the highest, best use of the site” by imposing limitations on the percentage of land that can be developed and the density of any such development.

“A map change like this is really in accordance with the comprehensive plan,” she argued, ​“because it facilitates the preservation and restoration of historic architecture and the urban pattern of the city.”

City Plan Commission Chair Leslie Radcliffe questioned the implications of changing the zoning map down the line should new ownership swoop in to alter the use of the site.

Miles noted that the BA‑1 zone is subjected to strict permit reviews, such that any new use involving at least 5,000 square feet requires permission from the City Plan Commission before building can occur. 

Pennrose Senior Developer Karmen Cheung, meanwhile, pointed to the disposition agreement as a marker of how operations will be regulated on site in the coming years.

For example, that proposed development and land disposition agreement (DLDA) specifies that the former Strong School building can’t be used for certain retail uses, such as discount stores or ammunition establishments. Read more here.

Per the agreement, Pennrose would buy the three properties from the city for $500,000 and the city would reduce taxes on the building to $450 per affordable unit in the year after the project is completed. That per-unit tax rate will increase by 3 percent annually until the tax agreement expires after 20 years.

All of the apartments will be priced between 30 and 80 percent of the Area Median Income, which should be accessible for individuals making roughly between $23,000 and $63,000 per year. Read about those terms in more detail here.

Cheung said the development will include primarily one- and two-bedroom apartments because of the boundary limitations of the historic building, which Pennrose is seeking to preserve. In order to maintain the integrity of the ex-school, which was built in 1916, the developers are working around the current classroom, window and hallway configurations, which means apartment sizes will be restricted.

City Deputy Economic Development Administrator Carlos Eyzaguirre said on Wednesday the empty Strong School is ​“an asset that’s been really difficult for the city to manage.” The city has struggled to keep the public from unsafely entering the space, he said, while the building itself has been the target of graffiti and water damage.

So, he said, ​“we’re really excited to have this opportunity” to put the structure to new use with the help of Pennrose.

Commissioner Edwin Martinez, who lives in Fair Haven, said the project ​“is much needed for the neighborhood, for Grand Avenue as a whole and for Fair Haven.”

Radcliffe, who noted the board received nearly 20 letters of support for the development prior to Wednesday’s meeting, said that ​“the way the developer is working with the community is just amazing. I think it should actually be a standard.”

“The work that’s been done, the number of meetings that have been had, and that continue to be had, speaks volumes as to how the community will be positively impacted by this development,” she said.