Allan Appel photo
Sandra’s at its current location on Congress Avenue.
Zoning commissioners Wednesday night signed off on the planned expansion in the Hill of a popular soul food restaurant. They granted parking relief for a planned 44-unit apartment complex in Dwight. And they approved a new resident-run cafe in a planned affordable housing complex in West River.
All in 15 minutes.
The Board of Zoning Appeals covered that broad range of development projects during a special meeting held in the City Plan Department’s office.
omas Breen photo
City attorney Roderick Williams, zoning staffer Nate Hougrand, and zoning director Jenna Montesano.
The three commissioners present, Sarah Locke, Ann Stone, and Al Paolillo, Sr., as well as chair Mildred Melendez, who participated via speaker phone, breezed through the five-item agenda, which also included parking relief for a three-family house at 230 Nicoll St. (unanimously approved) and a proposed new convenience store on 143 Kimberly Ave. (unanimously denied).
Besides the commissioners and city staff and this reporter, the only other person in attendance at the meeting was local attorney Ben Trachten.
The special meeting was held in part to make up for the board missing its regular monthly meeting on the second Tuesday of October when it had failed to achieve quorum by having four commissioners in attendance.
BZA commissioners Sarah Locke and Al Paolillo, Sr.
Finding BZA members to come to meetings may be a bit easier going forward. Mayor Toni Harp recently submitted two nominations to the Board of Alders for new prospective BZA commissioners: John Brehon and Lois Victori. Those two nominees will likely be interviewed by the Board of Alders Aldermanic Affairs Committee next month before the full board takes a vote.
At Wednesday night’s meeting, all five items on the agenda had been previously presented to the board by their respective applicants in September. The applications had then been passed along to the City Plan Commission for review, and had subsequently returned to the BZA for final deliberations and votes.
Wednesday night’s Board of Zoning Appeals meeting.
The first item, a special exception to allow for a coffee shop / bakery at 16 Miller St., received an enthusiastic, unanimous approval from the commissioners.
“This is for an affordable housing complex that needed extra points to get CHFA [Connecticut Housing Finance Authority] funding by converting a little space from office to a cafe and bakery that’s going to be partially run by people who live there,” city Deputy Director of Zoning Jenna Montesano explained.
This is part of a larger 56-unit affordable housing complex planned for the edge of Rt. 34 West.
The project’s developers West River Housing LLC, a partnership between the New Haven-based West River Self Help Investment Plan (SHIP) and the New-York based National Housing Partnership Foundation, is in the midst of applying to CHFA for another round of funding after their first application was denied last year.
“I think its a great idea,” Melendez said about the prospective cafe / bakery. “It’s an amazing addition for the neighborhood.”
The 4.5-acre site of the future development, at Tyler Street and Legion Avenue, where the coffee shop would be.
The second item on the docket involved the proposed relocation and expansion of the Sandra’s Next Generation soul food restaurant to a former garage and vacant adjacent lots between 197 and 213 Davenport Ave.
The restaurant’s owners had applied for a use variance to permit a restaurant in a residential district, variances to permit a front yard of 17 feet where 25 feet is required and a building wall height of 31 feet where 16 feet is allowed, and special exceptions for a restaurant liquor license and to permit 51 on-site parking spaces where 75 spaces are required.
The planned new restaurant space will have 300 seats.
“I remember this had tremendous turnout,” Melendez said about the September presentation of this item.
“I think 40 people came out in support,” Locke added before the group unanimously voted in support.
Surface parking lot at 104 Howe, where the new building is proposed to rise.
The commissioners granted another unanimous approval to landlord Broadway Living LLC and applicant Nicholas Falker for parking relief related to the planned construction of a new 44-unit market-rate apartment complex on a surface lot at 104 Howe St. Falker had applied for a special exception to permit 22 on-site parking spaces where 40 are required and 0 loading spaces where one is required.
Montesano explained that the City Plan Commission was comfortable recommending approval of half the zoning code-required parking for this project because it’s entirely residential and “because it’s close enough to Downtown that not a lot of people have cars.”
The developers must now receive site plan approval for this project from the City Plan Commission before they can start pulling building permits.
The one application on the agenda unanimously turned down by the commissioners was Edgar and Valeria Gonzales’ bit for a special exception to open a convenience store in a residential district, at 143 Kimberly Ave. The BZA staff report and the City Plan Commission advisory report both recommended denial, city zoning staffer Nate Hougrand said.
“This is the one where there were 30 or 40 people who came out to speak in opposition,” he added. “There’s already a convenience store just two houses down.”
“I make a motion to deny it,” Locke said. Paolillo seconded. And then all four commissioners voted it down.
Given the housing crisis, zoning approvals for new construction should be fast-tracked. The current process results in delays which add to the cost of projects.
Also, New Haven's antiquated parking requirements should be entirely eliminated. Let the market provide parking spaces so that we can choose to subsidize housing for people, not housing for cars.
Some studies have found that requiring parking spaces can triple the cost of each unit. Why do we treat cars better than homeless families?