Valley Street Tax Break Advances

City planners advanced a proposed 39-year tax break to help with the housing authority’s redevelopment of the mold-wracked, 40-unit Valley Street Townhomes.

That vote came during the most recent monthly City Plan Commission meeting, which was held this past Wednesday night online via Zoom.

The local land-use commissioners unanimously endorsed a proposed 39-year tax abatement that would cap local property taxes for the project’s 32 affordable apartments at $350 per unit per year, with a 3 percent annual increase.

The site’s prospective new owner, the Glendower Group — which is the development wing of Elm City Communities / Housing Authority of New Haven — would pay market-rate taxes on the eight remaining market-rent units at the site.

The proposed tax abatement now advances to the Board of Alders for a public committee hearing and a subsequent final vote by the full local legislature.

During the July 21 commission meeting pitch, Elm City Communities Vice President of Development Edward LaChance said that the City Plan Commission has already approved the site plan for the proposed redevelopment of the Valley Street apartments.

In fact, City Plan has approved the redevelopment multiple times.

First in 2017, when commissioners OK’d a proposed 40-unit redevelopment.

Then in 2019, when they signed off on a larger 55-unit redevelopment as part of a Planned Development District (PDD) application.

And then again in 2020, when they re-approved the original 40-unit redevelopment plan after the housing authority found out that the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority (CHFA) would be providing roughly $25 million to make that version of the project happen.

The site at 210 Valley St. is currently home to 10 buildings containing 40 two-story townhomes that were built in 1974. The proposed redevelopment would include nine new residential buildings containing 40 apartments, along with a new community building.

“It’s been plagued almost since its creation with moisture issues” that are ​“really not correctable,” LaChance said about the current Valley Street apartments.

City Plan Commission Chair Leslie Radcliffe asked for orientation purposes if the project in question consists of blue-painted houses on the south side of Valley Street heading towards Woodbridge.

“Yes, when you drive by, you can see mold on the outside,” LaChance responded. ​“The moisture is really hard to control there. You don’t want residents living in those conditions.”

LaChance said that the housing authority plans to close on all of the necessary financing for the project in December at the latest.

“We have all of our funding sources in place,” he said.

On Tuesday morning, acting housing authority director Shenae Draughn told the Independent by email that demolition of the existing Valley Street apartments will begin ​“immediately following the closing” on financing for the redevelopment.

She said construction will begin as soon as demolition is complete. And she said the Valley Street redevelopment should take 15 months in total to build out.

“Residents will be provided relocation assistance in accordance with the URA and RAD guidance,” she said when asked about where the current tenants of the 40-unit complex will go during demolition and construction.

“All current residents wishing to return to the development will be temporarily relocated and those wishing to move permanently, may do so within our housing portfolio or with a Section 8 voucher.”

Another RAD Redevelopment

LaChance and city Economic Development Administrator Michael Piscitelli said that this proposed redevelopment is yet another Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) project.

That’s the Obama-era federal initiative that allows public housing authorities to leverage public tax credits to attract private investment in rebuilt affordable housing.

The way that program works is that the housing authority transfers ownership of the properties like Valley Street from the Housing Authority of New Haven to its nonprofit development wing, the Glendower Group. With that transfer from public to private ownership, the federal government shifts the affordable housing subsidy for the project from Low Income Public Housing (LIPH) to Section 8 project based vouchers.

The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) ​“takes a portion of the money we were getting as a housing authority for Valley Street,” LaChance said, ​“and turns them into project-based vouchers. Because they’re standard project-based vouchers, it allows us to charge higher rents — not to residents, but to projects.”

He said the new Valley Street affordable apartments, like the current ones, will charge tenants no more than 30 percent of their annual income in rent.

Because of the shift from housing authority to private ownership, LaChance continued, RAD further allows the housing authority to turn those project-based vouchers into tax credits. ​“We then sell this project, get the tax credits, and those vouchers allow us to obtain private financing.”

The RAD program has played a key role over the past decade in allowing the housing authority to rebuild 2,000 public housing units across the city, including at Rockview, Brookside, and Farnam Courts/ Mill River Crossing.

“It allows us to generate a lot of income” to rebuild high-quality affordable housing for some of the neediest New Haveners, LaChance said.

Westville Alder and City Plan Commissioner Adam Marchand praised the proposed Valley Street redevelopment as furthering the city’s priorities of providing more ​“quality, wholesome, affordable housing.” ​“The new condition this project will create for these residents is a great improvement” over the current.

The commissioners unanimously voted in support of recommending that the Board of Alders approve the proposed local tax break.