Allan Appel Photo
Nicole Davis amid the dumped mess to be cleared for a pocket park.
A community dumping ground in Fair Haven is poised to become a greenspace full of bio-retention features and fun and environmental education for neighborhood kids
That good news conveyed was by Connecticut Fund for the Environment/Save the Sound Mill River Watershed Coordinator Nicole Davis.
Thursday night Davis was on hand at the Fair Haven Community Management Team’s regular meeting, which drew 35 attendees via the Zoom teleconferencing app and was hosted by the team’s chair, Michelle Lee Rodriguez.
The discarded tire and mattress haven in question is the lot where Exchange Street meets Haven Street and dead-ends in what is now a dumping site adjacent to the playing fields of the John Martinez School.
Converting that space into what Davis has described a green pocket park is a key aim of the second leg of the Mill River Trail
The Mill River Trail is a walking and biking path envisioned to connect Whitney Dam on Whitney Avenue and Criscuolo Park on James Street.
This summer the ribbon was cut on the completion of the first or northern leg of the trail, a stone dust or cinder surface suitable for walkers or bicyclists that snakes dreamily along the east side of the Mill River from the Chapel Street Bridge right up to the train overpass 25 yards from Humphrey Street.
The stretch of the newest segment-in-progress from Grand Avenue to Chapel Street and its terminus at Criscuolo Park by the Sound follows the path of the Mill River but obviously much of it is an urban trail whose aim in no small part is simply to remind you that a river is nearby, even if in segments it is not visible.
The rescue and re-purposing of the abandoned lot is a key feature of this leg of the trail. The idea is that it will be the catchment area where storm water — - which is not caught by bioswales and other features planned for the nearby streets — - racing along the impermeable surfaces of Exchange south of Grand will eventually end up. Better there than in the Mill River.
In the little pocket park storm water and run off will be filtered into the ground through green infrastructure planned for the lot. “By greening this space, we will depress dumping,” as well as reduce pollution of one of the city’s three rivers, she said.
The effort is a feature of the Mill River Watershed Plan, released two years ago, to offer a blueprint of suggestions to clean up the river and make it more accessible to the community.
Davis reported, in an email after the meeting, that the initial $30,000 from the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven has led to additional funding from private foundations and another $150,000 from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
The city is not contributing any funding to the project, although city staffers are working with Davis and her team on technical and design issues, she reported.
Asked to describe in some detail how the space will be transformed, Davis replied: “The parklet will remove pavement from the closed dead end portion of Exchange street and replace it with a trail with bioretention areas (depressed gardens) planted with native vegetation that will collect storm water runoff from the road way and allowing it to infiltrate into the ground naturally. The Current plans include native grasses, wildflowers like black eyed Susan, purple cone flower and and native shrubs and trees.”
In addition to the storm water control benefits, the space will also feature pollinator and bird habitats, she added.
Covid Slowed The Outreach
Fair Haven advocate Lee Cruz urged Davis to be in touch with homeowners in the immediate area of the lot: “The key is not only beautification but identifying home owners in the area.”
Davis said efforts to bring local homeowners into the loop slowed and then stopped due to the onset of Covid in March, “so we haven’t been in as much touch as we should.”
The main community engagement thus far has been with local schools, primarily Martinez, where playing fields abut the parklet site; and the private Cold Spring School.
Curricula have are already in development to incorporate the park and activities that will be able to be conducted there, Davis added.
Fair Haven activist and gardener Mary Ann Moran was enthusiastic. “I think this is a great idea for the school, but when Covid calms down I am sure homeowners will want to be involved,” she said. “This will make a difference in the neighborhood.”
“I agree,” replied Davis. “It’s just the timing that we couldn’t reach out. We will as soon as we start building the project.”
Davis said the project is in the permitting process with the city and if all the green ducks line up, construction should begin in the spring 2021.
What a beautiful project it will be when completed. I hope more effort will be made to encourage the neighbors to be involved. We need to reclaim and clean up our green spaces and abandoned areas and our waterways. By healing our environment, we heal our communities. Nature reduces stress, anxiety and depression as well as improves our physical health when we go out and participate in enjoying it and keeping it clean.