Valley St. Tenants Ready For $17M Redo

An isolated, flood-prone public housing complex in West Hills, which can look like a holding pen if you notice it at all, is set to be torn down and replaced with gleaming white, street-facing homes.

The development, Valley Townhouses, a 40-unit project built in West Rock’s shadow in 1974, is set to be demolished next year. Nine new townhouses, along with a community center, will be rebuilt on the site by early 2020, according to the Housing Authority of New Haven application that the City Plan Commission approved last week.

Construction of the new development, designed by Paul B. Baily Architects, is expected to cost approximately $17 million.

Tenants said the rebuild can’t come soon enough. ​“It’s definitely about time,” said Tiffinni Zidbeck, an eight-year resident. ​“I personally welcome the change.”

The most noticeable design change will be opening up the development to Valley Street. Currently, all the two-story townhouses face inward, their front doors opening onto a meandering central walkway. That means half the backyards extend out to Valley Street; fenced-in by chain link, they give passersby the impression of a holding pen.

By flipping the orientation and placing the buildings closer to the street, the project will resemble any other residential streetscape, rather than a choked-off project.

“One of the things that’s great about this configuration is really that it gives a better street-front to the development,” Mark Fisher, the site plan designer from TO Design, LLC, explained to commissioners at last week’s City Plan meeting. Currently, ​“the development is very difficult to see. Even when you drive by, you don’t really notice it. This improves the whole neighborhood by aligning the buildings with the street and having porches.”

Inside the units, though, an even bigger problem will be fixed by overhauling the stormwater management system. Due to the slope of the site, the project currently has poor drainage that often backs up into residents’ houses during rainfall.

“Our units flood a lot,” Zidbeck said.

Her next-door neighbor, Bahogany Smith, said the four drains on the first floor of her townhouse back up regularly with sewage. ​“You can smell it coming up: It smells like nothing but feces,” she said. After, a maintenance team snakes the pipes and sucks up water, but they don’t ensure that walls or floorboards are dry. ​“One time, it was so bad in my house, I had mushrooms growing inside my closet,” she said, adding that a more persistent problem is mold. Some wooden bathroom floors are in danger of falling in, Smith added.

Recently, the floods have been less common, but ​“we’ve been holding our breath,” Zidbeck said.

Emily Jones of Civil 1 Engineers said the existing storm drainage on the site can handle ​“a minimal amount of stormwater.” She added, ​“There’s no retention, no infiltration, no water quality.” The entire system will be replaced in the new development. The city has agreed to redirect stormwater away from Valley Street to alleviate burdens on the project’s system, she said.

Disability accommodations, also currently absent because of the slope, will also be added to the new units: nine will be fully handicapped-accessible, and another four will be handicapped-visitable. Tenants said they are pleased that the plans feature a playground — an amenity that residents there didn’t get until 2011 through a grant — as well as a community center.

With those improvements, many tenants said they’d like to return after the demolition and rebuild. ​“This is an excellent area, for one, to raise kids, [and] for two, the community is not so big,” said Smith, a seven-year resident. Others said they appreciate the protected open space forest right behind the project.

HANH had contemplated renovating Valley Townhouses for some time. In 2012, the authority estimated that an $8 million injection could double the project’s lifespan, extending its use for another 40 to 50 years. A later capital needs assessment, however, revealed that the price tag would be far higher.

“It was proven that rehabilitation wasn’t the most cost effective because of the extensive capital improvements on what is termed an obsolete development,” explained Shenae Draughn, a senior vice president at the Glendower Group, a not-for-profit development arm within HANH.

While many look forward to a revamped complex, residents still have many questions: when they’ll be moving out, where they’ll be placed for two years and what conditions they must meet to return.

Sporadic communication from HANH encouraged rumor and speculation, Zidbeck said. ​“They had one meeting months and months ago, so they started a brushfire and walked away. Nobody really knows what’s going on,” she explained.

Gloria Washington, a 43-year-resident of the townhouses, said she felt too much was ​“up in the air, not knowing when it’s going to be finalized. They obviously don’t care what the residents feel. It’s an ultimatum.”

Draughn said the relocation process is expected to begin this month, with counseling and needs assessments. Actual moves are planned for July 2018, three months before construction begins, she said. ​“Families will be provided an opportunity to relocate temporarily or permanently in the private market with a Housing Choice Voucher or within the housing authority’s portfolio.”

Tenants who return will pay no more than 30 percent of their income in rent, Draughn said.