Arsalan Altaf rendering
The proposed new Avis Car Rental service on Olive Street.
Thomas Breen photo
Avis developer Arsalan Altaf, local attorney Carolyn Kone, and local engineer Tim Onderko at last week’s City Plan meeting.
For the second time in three months, the City Plan Commission has approved the site plan for an Olive Street rental car and truck facility.
This time around, the plan calls for not one curb cut, but two: one for cars, one for trucks.
That unanimous approval came at the most recent regular monthly meeting of the City Plan Commission on the second floor of City Hall.
Commissioners gave developer Arsalan Altaf the go-ahead to build an Avis/Budget car and truck rental facility on the 18,000 square-foot site of a former gas station at 170 Olive St. in Wooster Square.
“Oh, this again?” City Engineer Giovanni Zinn asked when Altaf, local attorney Carolyn Kone, and local enginereer Tim Onderko reintroduced the project towards the end of last week’s three-hour meeting.
He wasn’t wrong to feel a bit of deja vu. The commissioners unanimously approved the site plans for the rental car facility during its December 2018 monthly meeting.
The developers were back before the commission at last Wednesday night’s meeting because the city’s transit department had told them that they had to change their curb cut designs.
The only problem was, the city department had told them that after they had received approval from the commission.
Onderko: There will now be two curb cuts.
“An approval from the traffic and parking group was granted on this configuration in December 2018,” Onderko said about the previous design, which had called for a single, 45-foot-wide curb cut on Olive Street to be shared by both cars and trucks entering and exiting the facility. “Persons were on vacation. Persons came back from vacation, and this design was no longer acceptable to the department.”
The only changes to the site plan, therefore, were in regards to that curb cut. Onderko said the developer and the city worked together and came to a compromise to split the curb cut into two: one 30-foot curb cut reserved for trucks, one 15 or 18-foot curb cub reserved for cars, and a fence in between to ensure that the two vehicle types don’t accidentally cross paths when entering and exiting the lot.
Otherwise, the site plan remains the same as what was approved in December: Avis will be able to store up to 26 rental vehicles in the rehabbed 7,000 square-foot garage currently on site; it will still have 11 outdoor, on-site parking spaces, including four standard spaces, one accessible space, five truck rental spaces, and one loading space.
“It is is sessential that Mr. Altaf begin construction immediately,” Kone said, “or he will lose his lease with Avis.”
The commissioners obliged, granting unanimous approval of the modified site plan.
“It looks to me like the new design could be more successful,” Westville Alder and City Plan Commissioner Adam Marchand added, “in preventing any conflict between cars and trucks. That’s in everybody’s interest.”
“The applicant had to put quite a bit of extra effort in this,” Acting City Plan Director Michael Piscitelli said, “on something that we should have caught previously, so we just want to make sure it’s clear publicly that that was very much appreciated.”
Let's see - rental cars available for the community...nice jobs....converting the property from an abandoned building into something active....likely some on-site cameras that can be used for blockwatch....a win/win/win/win. City of New Haven Gov't, PLEASE get out of the way. Holding this up over curb cut details is foolish, costly to the business (they are at risk of losing Avvis), and an awful use of taxpayer money.