Oyster Farm Expansion, Redesigned, Wins Support

It’s not every day that neighbors dispatch their lawyer before a city commission for the sole purpose of expressing joy at an outcome.

That’s happened at the most recent meeting of the Historic District Commission at City Hall.

The joy in question was an alteration in plans for the proposed expansion of the Copps Island/Norm Bloom & Sons oystering business, which has been operating for decades out of a sprawling riverine site adjacent to Quinnipiac Avenue just south of the Grand Avenue Bridge.

Plans unveiled to the commissioners at a previous meeting had featured a large new Oyster House near the northern border of the property, just feet from the home of the most adjacent neighbors, Donna Curran and Patrick McCaughey.

They and other neighbors, while encouraging expansion of an historically appropriate business, were taken aback by the mass of the proposed new building. They said it upset the rhythm of the residential streetscape. They said they worried about the noise of mechanical machinery attached to the new structure.

The business owner and the project architects, Paolo Campos and Karin Patriquin of Patriquin Architects, listened to the concerns, met with residents, and unveiled an architectural design flip at the commission meeting held last Wednesday evening.

The new design pleased most participants. The proposed large Oyster House is now slightly reduced in size and has its mechanicals tucked away in a separate alcove. Most importantly, the entire structure now slides away from the northern border, ​“reducing noise and preserving the rhythm of the street,” said Campos.

Serving as a buffer between the residential property on the north will be the two small, modest historic structures raised on a plinth or platform around a small plaza area that also preserves views of the river. The previous plan had featured the Oyster House cheek by jowl with the residential property and the historic structures farther south.

That significant switcheroo was the source of the praise that local land use and zoning attorney Marjorie Shanksy delivered on behalf of Curran and McCaughey. Along with it came appreciation for the resulting rescue of a stately chestnut tree, which would have gone had the previous iteration of the plan proceeded.

Other neighbors continued to express some concern about the mass of the site’s other large structure, the Hatchery, where oyster aquaculture will occur but right on the river, farther away from residences and towards the southern end of the site.

The result; Commissioners voted unanimously to approve a Certificate of Appropriateness for the expansion as long as the following conditions are met:

• Provision of further detail on how the historic structures will sit on the platform keeping them above potential flood surges.

• More detail on the fiberglass windows proposed for the structures.

• Drawings that show more clearly the piping amid the tanks on the farm

• And a drawing that addresses screening of the mechanicals on the roof of the Hatchery as seen by neighbors on the facing Quinnipiac Avenue.

Local activist Chris Ozyck (his house is directly across from the entryway to the farm) had initially proposed the flipping of the structures. He praised the architects and their clients for a ​“fantastic job of reaching out to neighbors. We were shocked — in a good way — by the changes. This will work well for everybody. We’re very pleased with the process thus far.”

Commission Chair Trina Learned also acknowledged the collaboration among neighbors, architects, and the Bloom family, whose representatives were also attending the meeting: ​“This is a gigantic commitment on your part, and it shows faith in the neighborhood. I commend you.”

Commissioner Doug Royalty in particular had agonized over the historically adverse effect of lifting the two small historic structures up and onto a plinth. He said he was ultimately won over by the case that the elevation is the key to the buildings’ survival for future generations. ​“It cuts to how to deal with historic structures in the flood plain,” he said.

Learned also credited historic photographs for helping to make the case, and the compromise. Those photos, provided by the architects, proved that comparably large buildings have been on the site in decades before.

Contemporary neighbors are simply used to the site being relatively absent large structures, but they are historically appropriate, said the New Haven Preservation Trust’s Elizabeth Holt.

“We’re pleased to go forward and happy to take the next steps,” said Copps Island/Norm Bloom Special Projects Manager Lauren Gauthier. Those next steps include going to FEMA for flood plain reviews and to the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to make sure that the ducks of tidal and wetland issues are in order.