The owners of Unger’s Flooring have a plan.
The longtime, struggling Grand Avenue retailer is looking to add two floors of apartments to its buildings, add townhouses in the back of the rarely used parking lot, and rescue a long-blighted building adjacent to the lot. The plan would also include converting an old masonry building across the avenue into five more apartments
The result: “An adaptive reuse of three blighted structures in a corridor where there’s a mixture of homeless people, neighborhood people, and it could certainly use some life.”
The was the vision and language of attorney Ben Trachten Tuesday night as he and architect Ken Boroson presented the adaptive reuse plan for 873 – 897 and 880 Grand Ave. to the Downtown/Wooster Square Community Management Team (DWSCMT) at a Zoom meeting.
The site includes the Unger’s building and the two adjacent parcels to the east, along with 880 Grand, currently leased space for the storefront church Centro Missionario De Restauracion.
All together, the plan would create out of 873 – 897 Grand Avenue 34 living units, said Boroson. The plan calls a configuration of larger units of two and three bedrooms plus dens, including the proposed townhouses recessed to the rear of the parking area and backing into the properties along Lyon Street.
The other building, a masonry structure further east on the south side of the thoroughfare, would be a simpler conversion, said Boroson. It involves the adding of two stories, creating a retail space in front along with a living unit at street level, for a total of five new dwellings.
All the new units, said the presenters, would be rented at market rate.
Trachten said the plans are highly preliminary and designed to be respectful of the residents of Lyon Street. There was nothing preliminary or provisional about the reaction from neighbors at Tuesday’s meeting.
Mona Berman, a longtime Lyon Street resident, said she and her neighbors were armed with three pages of questions and concerns. Berman led a petition-driven charge in 2019 to reject the city’s Gateway District zoning changes for the Grand Avenue corridor.
Although the plans that Boroson and Trachten laid out on Tuesday were largely residential, the past came back to the present in neighbor Mona Berman’s take on the proposals.
“We’ve been through this before,” she said. “Grand Avenue had been designated a ‘gateway corridor,’ but the lots are small for commercial, and it’s completely enveloped by residential. There are a lot of serious issues here.
“I’ve reviewed this, and we have a list of questions, three pages long though tonight’s not the night to get them all answered.”
Still she aired a number of the concerns. For example, “If Unger’s stays in business, there are no loading areas shown” in the documents presented Tuesday night.
Neighbors also asked whether residential units on the first floor would have doors opening onto the avenue; and if future residents of the townhouses might be skipping across Lyon Street backyards to get into their future homes.
“These projects contradict what we’ve spent hours and hours studying,” Berman said.
“Whatever was in the past,” replied Trachten, “doesn’t affect the current owner’s ability to file an application for site plan and zoning relief.” That will be required for a range of issues with the project, including side yard and wall height variances and permission for first-floor residential units on Grand Avenue.
Another neighbor, Linda Reeder, said her read of the documents was that, “You have apartments opening their doors into people’s backyards. Are you planning on fencing to keep people from cutting through Lyon Street to get to their places?”
“That’s something I need to get clarification on,” Trachten replied.
Reeder added that for security reasons she would prefer offices to first-floor residences.
Another neighbor, Rahul Shah, expressed disappointment that the plan is for all market-rate units.
“This is adaptive reuse of three blighted structures. It could certainly use some life. Whether that’s market rate or affordable is beyond me. But some residential use with ground floor retail would be a good use rather than just being a corridor of travel to downtown,” Trachten answered.
“There’s been a long and difficult zoning history there,” Trachten acknowledged. “There’s been ornate doors on that dilapidated building for years. But there’s a new owner and we hope to advance a project to bring housing choice to the area rather than see Unger’s shut down.”
DWSCMT Chair Ian Dunn invited the presenters back to have a fuller discussion about the project.
Trachten and Boroson didn’t immediately accept the invitation.
Dunn reminded the attendees that a CMT only listens and advises, however passionately; the actual decisions and approvals are at the BZA and City Plan hearings. He urged people to attend those and air their concerns there, in September, when Trachten said he hopes to see the proposal on teh agenda.
“You’re undertaking projects in an area where the regulations don’t fit anything anymore,” said Anstress Farwell, president of the New Haven Urban Design League. “And that’s one reason it needs a lot of closer attention for basic street planning and making the pedestrian experience an enjoyable one.”
“Some of the issues , I wasn’t aware,” said Boroson. “And I thank you.”
That section of Grand Avenue is presently a vacant, unattractive wasteland. I'm really surprised by what appears to be mindless, knee jerk opposition from neighbors who can only benefit from a revived corridor. What are they thinking? Whenever I travel down Grand (which is somewhat frequently to pick up my subs at Grand Apizza-the best in town) I find my self wondering when this end of Grand, close to downtown, will be rejuvenated as is happening along State and Water etc. So here it is and the only thing these neighbors can come up with is "no".