Decision Postponed On
Army Reserve Center’s Fate

The fate of the George D. Libby Army Reserve Center — soon to be vacated by the U.S. Army — was supposed to become clearer at a meeting this week. Instead, the city board charged with recommending a new occupant postponed the meeting.

The delay was made Tuesday night in order to give the two contenders for the space time some more time, said Rob Smuts, New Haven’s chief administrative officer and the mayor-appointed head of the city’s current Local Redevelopment Agency for Surplus Military Property.

Since March of last year, the LRA has been weighing proposals from the New Haven Police Academy and from a group of eight homelessness agencies led by Columbus House. Click here for the back story.

Both groups would like to acquire the property on 200 Wintergreen Ave., but only one of them can receive the LRA’s blessing. After making their choice, the LRA members, including Aldermen Carl Goldfield of Beaver Hills and Darnell Goldson of West Rock, will submit their recommendation to the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Those agencies must give the final approval.

Both the police academy and Columbus House are proposing some changes to the current building on the site, but the academy’s changes would be less dramatic, said Maggie Targove, the city’s deputy director of emergency management and an assistant to Smuts. The reserve center is already set up with offices and classrooms, much like the academy’s current location on Sherman Parkway in the Beaver Hills neighborhood. The reserve center would provide the Academy more space — space that could be used to house an indoor shooting range (soundproof from the outside), if the academy can muster the money for it. The reserve center’s current shooting range (in photo) is too small for police training and is not up to safety regulations, according to Smuts. Noise from the range also upsets neighbors.

Columbus House would like to retrofit the space with apartments. The group originally called for about 70 units, which would require a two-story addition to the current building. When LRA members began questioning how Columbus House would fund that construction, the group downgraded its proposal to 52 units. ​“We got no real financial commitment [from Columbus House] on how they were going to do it,” Targrove said of the initial plan.

Columbus House plans to offer half of those units to the homeless and to rent or sell the other half as affordable housing for low-income tenants. According to Army regulations, the space would be offered at no charge if the LRA-approved group plans to use the entire building for homeless services. However, DOD and HUD might offer half or more of the space to Columbus House for free if its plan is approved by the LRA, said Smuts. 

Meanwhile, the police academy — if its plan is approved — could apply for money from the Department of Justice to cover the cost of taking over the site. However, Smuts cautioned that the final word on federal assistance for either of the groups won’t come until after the LRA makes its recommendation, so both groups should be prepared to pay for the space themselves.

The police academy has the budgetary ability to stay in business for years to come. Columbus House faces questions about whether it could do the same. Yet if the LRA members advance the academy’s proposal, they would still be required by Army regulations to submit a plan to HUD about how the local homeless community would be served in other ways, according to Targrove. 

Smuts indicated that those discussions might result in one of the groups (most likely Columbus House) dropping its bid, leaving the LRA to officially endorse the remaining group on July 27, the new date of the postponed meeting. Otherwise, LRA members will likely use the July meeting to choose between the two proposals. That meeting, like all previous LRA meetings, will be open to the public. The location will be announced on the LRA website closer to the meeting date.