Biz Renewal Plan OK’d; Grand, Affordability Dropped

Grand Avenue and affordability mandates were both dropped from a long-in-the-works rezoning initiative that now advances to the full Board of Alders with only Whalley Avenue slated to be affected.

That was the outcome of Tuesday night’s Legislation Committee meeting, held in the Aldermanic Chambers on the second floor of City Hall.

The committee alders unanimously voted to pass along a favorable recommendation to the full Board of Alders regarding the city’s proposed Commercial Gateway District zoning text and map changes.

City staff have pitched those proposed changes for months as an opportunity to encourage dense, affordable, and sustainable development along three ​“commercial corridors” that connect downtown to the city’s neighborhoods: Whalley Avenue, Grand Avenue, and Dixwell Avenue.

After Tuesday night’s committee vote, only one of those avenues, Whalley between Howe Street and Pendleton Street, is likely to receive the new rezoning update, at least for now.

Those proposed updates include replacing parking minimums with parking maximums; allowing certain commercial uses like bakeries, supermarkets, and restaurants as of right; and bumping up the allowable floor area ratio (FAR) for new building projects to 3.0, with additional density available through a variety of environmental sustainability incentives.

Dixwell had already been dropped from the project after last month’s City Plan Commission meeting City staff consented to removing Dixwell between Tower Parkway and Munson Street from the pilot after neighbors voiced concerns about the public meeting process and about the potential unintended consequences of gentrification and displacement.

Committee alders Tuesday night unanimously agreed to remove Grand Avenue from State Street to Hamilton Street from the pilot as well after upset Wooster Square neighbors turned out in force to voice their displeasure with the public process and with the potential unintended consequences of tall new buildings transforming the neighborhood’s historic character.

“We feel there is precedent for our removal since the Dixwell corridor was removed,” Lyon Street resident Mona Berman (pictured) told the committee alders.

She submitted dozens of signatures of neighbors in opposition to the project, and said she spent around 20 hours organizing and preparing for Tuesday’s meeting. Fellow Wooster Square neighbors Anstress Farwell and Richard Lee, among others, testified against the Grand Avenue rezoning, too.

“We really urge you to consider that this is a historic neighborhood,” Berman said. ​“It needs to be maintained. Buildings should reflect that same nature. It [Grand Avenue] should be a centerpiece for Wooster Square, and not a divider.”

Along with the Grand Avenue rezoning skeptics, a half-dozen Dixwell Avenue neighbors also testified Tuesday to make sure that the alders followed the City Plan Commission’s advice and left their avenue out of this pilot, for now.

“I’m in support of taking Dixwell out of the rezoning at this time and allowing us to reevaluate the plan so that we can take into consideration the impact this will have on the residents,” said Ashmun Street resident Carla Chappel.

“We’re willing to work with the city so long as you guys are willing to work with us,” added Melissa Singleton (pictured).

Whalley Avenue Ready

A slew of Whalley Avenue residents, developers, and neighborhood boosters testified in unequivocal support of the rezoning for their corridor. They stressed that they didn’t want to wait for Grand and Dixwell before moving ahead.

“The zoning ordinance as they stand now have been a huge barrier in this process” of attracting new developers to Whalley Avenue, said St. Luke’s Development Corporation Executive Director Bill Spruill (pictured) as he read a letter from Whalley-Edgewood-Beaver Hills Community Management Team Chair Nadine Horton.

For three decades, he said, Whalley has been known as ​“automotive row” — even as the early 1960s-era car dealerships have largely moved out and been replaced with autobody shops, fast food restaurants, and surface parking.

“We would like to experience the growth that other parts of the city enjoy. But as the zoning ordinance exists now, that would be difficult to do.”

WEB management team vice-chair Christian Peralta (pictured) agreed. ​“We strongly believe Whalley Avenue is ready for a change,” he said. The neighborhood has seen too many instances of developers looking at Whalley and then ultimately moving elsewhere because of the financial and administrative burdens of having to seek some kind of variance or special exception.

Whalley shouldn’t just be a ​“highway into New Haven,” he said. It should also be a ​“living, breathing space.”

Linda Townsend Maier (pictured) of the Greater Dwight Development Corporation said that, despite her sore throat, she made the effort to come to City Hall Tuesday night to testify in support of such an important initiative for Whalley.

“City Plan staff have been extremely receptive” to Whalley neighbors’ comments, she said, and the GDDC is in support of the latest proposal.

Westville Alder Darryl Brackeen, Jr. (pictured below at right, with Westville Alder and Legislation Committee Vice-Chair Adam Marchand) applauded the committee, the City Plan Commission, and interested neighbors in helping make history for Whalley Avenue Tuesday night by pushing the rezoning initiative for that corridor that much closer to completion.

He said he remembered attending Whalley Avenue commercial revitalization meetings as a teenager, and is very pleased to see that all those conversations and all that planning has now positioned that stretch of the city for potential revitalization.

“The mayor set an agenda to see Whalley transformed,” he said. ​“This is really exciting.

Affordability Dropped, For Now

In addition to dropping Grand Avenue from the recommended approval passed along to the full board, the committee alders also unanimously voted to remove the previous ​“inclusionary zoning” mandate that required 10 percent of apartments in new buildings nine units or larger to be set aside at rents affordable to tenants making 60 percent or less of the city’s area median income (AMI).

East Rock Alder Charles Decker explained his support for that removal by noting that neighbors had raised concerns that including an affordability mandate on just one avenue in the city might discourage investment along a corridor already struggling to attract builders.

He also warned against committee to 10 percent as a ​“floor” for mandated affordable set-asides before truly understanding what the need is. He argued that the best minimum would be based on citywide research.

“I think that having an affordable housing provision before we have a citywide inclusionary zoning policy is inadvisable,” he said.

City Plan Department Director Aïcha Woods supported removing the 10 percent affordable mandate from the commercial corridor project. She said the city is about to undertake a citywide inclusionary zoning study, and will develop a citywide recommendation based on those findings.

The committee alders did retain an updated provision that requires new projects 50,000 square feet or larger to secure a special permit, and thereby undergo a public review process before the City Plan Commission. And they included, at city staff’s recommendation, a new sustainability incentive for projects that use ​“mass timber” construction methods instead of building with steel or concrete.