“Mill River Crossing” Signs Up

The housing authority’s old Farnam Courts at Grand Avenue and Franklin Street — now the unfolding new Mill River Crossing development —is about to get a spiffy new sign.

The four-part grouped column, standing about ten feet high with a design of a meandering blue sash running through it — think Mill River — will not only let people know where the 13 buildings of the complex are when complete. It will also help to brand the new enclave and the neighborhood.

Housing Authority of New Haven staff and sign-makers were on hand at the Tuesday night regular meeting of the Board of Zoning Appeals to to make that pitch and to get permission to place the indirectly illuminated sign, abut 20 square feet on each side, for a total of 40 square feet total, where zoning currently allows only a sign of three square feet.

“We’re proposing a single ground sign that doesn’t flash or produce glare and one that is consistent with the building,” said Stephen Studer, a lawyer with the authority’s Milford-based law firm, Berchem Moses.

The sign would be placed at the corner of Grand Avenue and Franklin Street and with what lawyer Studer called a ​“meandering blue sash.” It will help people know of the development, including three future commercial tenants.

Those commercial tenants will not be allowed to have external signs. When Mill River Crossing is complete, the single sign proposed will be the only one for 13 buildings on the large approximately 10-acre site, Studer said.

Studer argued that is the hardship that merited zoning permission for the sign. The sign needs to be seen day and night and do the job for the whole complex, which will number 13 buildings, when complete, he said.

The four grouped columns, all with the blue-logo ​“Mill River Crossing,” will be visible at several angles on Grand Avenue, the main access to the development. It will bear only the name of the development.

The sign is being designed by Alyson Ibbotson of the Terryville-based Lauretano Sign Group; she was in attendance but did not speak.

We really want to brand and create a new neighborhood,” added HANH’s Ed Lachance. ​“It’s more than just a sign for us.”

Studer took his appeal beyond hardship into art. ​“This is really nice, a functional work of art.”

He needn’t have. The BZA commissioners voted unanimously to approve the sign.