Zoners Approve More Beds, Less Blight

A contaminated ex-dry cleaners and an abandoned ex-school are steps closer to transforming from neighborhood eyesores into over 60 new apartments.

That’s after the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) voted unanimously during its latest special meeting Tuesday night to grant zoning relief to two different projects aimed at developing housing in place of vacant buildings in Westville and Fair Haven.

The relief pertained to developer Alan Tuchmann’s plan to tear down Doyle’s Cleaners at 203 Alden Ave. in order to construct four new townhouses with an attached neighborhood convenience store, as well as affordable housing developer Pennrose’s proposal to convert the former Strong School building at 69 Grand Ave. into a 58-apartment complex and community space.

Read in detail about the proposed dry cleaners conversion, and about some neighbors’ concerns around too dense development and too many convenience stores, here.

On Tuesday, commissioners approved variances to allow for greater lot coverage and building wall heights than the required maximum as well as a shorter side yard setback than the standard at 203 Alden. They also signed off on a special exception to allow for a neighborhood convenience use in a residential zone, permitting the sale of baked goods and specialty food items on scene.

Though the City Plan Commission had requested a public hearing on the matter, expressing concern about ​“ambiguous wording” in the proposed use, as Westville Alder and City Plan Commissioner Adam Marchand put it, city counsel determined that the BZA lacked authorization to reopen the hearing. 

The BZA instead amended the developer’s request to sell ​“specialty items” at the convenience store to ​“specialty food items,” in a moment of confusion about how many and what kind of goods a potential owner could sell under that original wording.

The project will ultimately go before the City Plan Commission for full site plan review.

The Strong School development, meanwhile, got a special exception from the BZA to permit parking for 19 off-street parking spaces where 59 are required, as well as variances to allow their building facades on Perkins Street and Clinton Avenue to sit further back from their property line (20 feet) than is typically required (10 feet). 

Read more about the Strong School overhaul here.

“I am very much in favor of this,” BZA Chair Mildred Melendez stated on Tuesday. ​“This property has been blighted for a very long time.”

With even less discussion than the Doyle’s Cleaners conversion, the commission unanimously approved the change.