Little Land Triangle Ditched To Help Building Plans

The city has officially handed back to the state a vacant triangle of land on Mill River Street — with the hopes that that small parcel may one day grow into 70+ new apartments.

That 0.06-acre parcel is on a stretch of Mill River Street adjacent to I‑91 and behind an existing two-story industrial building at 1041 State St. in the East Rock neighborhood.

During Wednesday night’s latest bimonthly meeting of the full Board of Alders, legislators unanimously voted in support of disposing of that parcel to the state Department of Transportation (DOT)—over 44 years after the city first acquired that same plot of land from the state DOT.

“This particular parcel has been a dumping site,” Beaver Hills Alder and Community Development Committee Chair Brian Wingate said before casting his vote in support of the land deal. ​“This group wants to come in and clean it up. And, hopefully one day, this will be on the tax rolls.”

That hint at a potential future productive use for this site referred to plans by the Fairfield-based developer Post Road Residential to build upwards of 75 new apartments at 1041 State St. That’s right across the street from Post Road Residential’s last high-end development in town, the Corsair apartment complex at 1050 State St.

A state DOT spokesperson told the Independent earlier this year that the state intends to sell the newly re-acquired Mill River Street property to the developer for ​“fair market value” so that the developer can build a planned new apartment complex atop an of four different assembled, adjacent parcels of land.

The new complex would be at a lower price point than the existing apartments, with four ​“deeply affordable” units at 30 percent of the area median income (AMI) and 50 percent AMI.

The city couldn’t sell the 0.06-acre parcel directly to the developer because of restrictions the state tied to that land in 1977. The state cleared the triangle as part of the I‑91 highway project. When the state did not need the land, the state sold it to the city for $100, as long as the city used it ​“for highway purposes only.”

See below for the full resolution approved by the alders on Wednesday night.

RESOLUTION OF THE BOARD OF ALDERS OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN APPROVING THE DISPOSAL OF A PARCEL OF LAND CONSTITUTING A PORTION OF MILL RIVER STREET TO STATE OF CONNECTICUT DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

WHEREAS, the City of New Haven (the ​“City”) is the owner of a certain parcel of land consisting of approximately 0.06 acres (MBP 182/ 0804/ 01500) and constituting a portion of Mill River Street, New Haven, Connecticut (the ​“City Property”); and 

WHEREAS, the City acquired the City Property from the State of Connecticut Department of Transportation (the ​“CT DOT”) on January 11, 1977 with a restriction that the City Property be used for highway purposes only; and

WHEREAS, the City does not intend to use the City Property for highway purposes and does not otherwise have any use for the City Property; and

WHEREAS, the owner of the property abutting the City Property (the ​“Abutter”) wishes to acquire the City Property as part of a multi-parcel assemblage (in aggregate, the ​“Development Property”) for the purposes of constructing a residential building upon the Development Property; and

WHEREAS, the CT DOT has agreed to reacquire the City Property from the City, remove the restriction and negotiate a sale of the City Property with the Abutter to allow the Abutter to construct a residential building upon the Development Property.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Mayor of the City be and hereby is authorized to execute and deliver a deed quitclaiming to CT DOT any and all interest of the City in the City Property and to execute and deliver such other documents as may be necessary or desirable in order to complete such conveyance.