DMS Design LLC
Design of new proposed apartments planned at Winthrop and George.
Thomas Breen photo
Project manager Marty Ruff, LCI’s Serena Neal-Sanjurjo at hearing.
Plans to convert a long-shuttered West River nursing home into a “neighborhood within a neighborhood” of 128 new apartments earned a key sign off on proposed custom zoning regulations.
That happened at the regular monthly meeting of the City Plan Commission on the second floor of City Hall, where commissioners unanimously signed off on a proposed Planned Development District (PDD) set of bespoke zoning regulations for a proposed 128-unit complex of townhouses and apartment buildings at 240 Winthrop Ave. and 790 George St.
The only building still standing on the 200,000-plus square foot lot is the former Atrium Plaza nurshing home, also known as Winthrop Health Care, which closed its doors in 2004.
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240 Winthrop Ave. today.
Hamden attorney William Gambardella, representing the site’s Jamaica, N.Y.-based landlord and developer Harry Dorvilier of Connecticut Health Care Holdings LLC, said at the meeting this past Wednesday night that the zoning regulations in the proposed PDD are critical for allowing this project’s townhouses, apartments, new sidewalks, stormwater management infrastsructure, and roadway to take shape.
“The real idea here is to create a neighborhood within a neighborhood,” he said.
The proposed PDD now goes to the full Board of Alders for a final vote.
Gambardella noted that the one-story, 71,000 square-foot nursing home was built in 1929, has been empty and derelict for well over a decade.
“The nursing home itself is dilapidated,” he said, “of no great use. The proposal is to remove the nursing home in its entirety, create a PDD … and put 128 apartments units in this area.”
DMS Design LLC
More designs of the proposed townhouses.
While the final design and layout of the complex will be subject to site plan review, he said, the general concept is to have 20 street-facing, two-story townhouse units lined up along Winthrop Avenue that will blend in with the many other two-family houses in the neighborhood.
The complex will also include six one-bedroom units, 78 two-bedroom units, and 24 three-bedroom units in two three-story buildings to be built along a new private roadway connecting Winthrop Avenue to George Street.
“Every unit has its own porch,” he said, while the three-bedroom units will have their own laundry machines.
A total of 169 parking spaces are planned for the site, he said, with underground on-site parking space being built for the rental units in the two main apartment buildings.
“I’m sorry,” City Engineer Giovanni Zinn said with surprise. “You said there’s underground parking?”
That’s right, said the project’s property manager, Marty Ruff. The land slops behind where the two main buildings will be, so drivers will be able to access the underground parking by coming in off grade.
Thomas Breen photos
LCI Executive Director Serena Neal-Sanjurjo (right) and project property manager Marty Ruff.
The site currently straddles both a RM‑1 Low-Middle Density Residential zone and a RM‑2 High-Middle Density Residential zone. The proposed PDD would change the minimum lot area to 200,000 square feet where 6,000 square feet is permitted, the minimum lot area per dwelling unit from 1,6000 square feet where 3,5000 square feet is permitted, and the maximum front yard space to 14 feet where 20 feet is permitted, among other yard and dwelling unit updates.
While the PDD would reduce the minimum lot area per dwelling unit ratio, Gambardella said, each unit will still have over 800 square feet of open space, not counting parking.
Livable City Initiative (LCI) Executive Director Serena Neal-Sanjurjo testified in support of the proposed PDD, calling the zoning changes critical for the project as a whole.
Gambardella said that the developer, LCI, and the neighborhood are still in negotiations around how many of these units will be reserved as affordable through Section 8.
But, he said, just because the project is seeking federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) financing doesn’t mean that it is going to be entirely affordable units.
“It’s a market rate apartment complex,” he said, “not an affordable housing complex.”
Virginia Spell.
Virginia Spell, the president of the West River Neighborhood Services Corporation and the chair of the West River Neighborhood Services Revitalization Zone, also testified in support of the PDD and of the project.
She said that her neighborhood organizations have been working on the project plans with the developer for the past three years.
“We’re excited to move forward with this project,” she said, “we’re in full support of this project.”
Before voting in support, City Plan Commission Chair Ed Mattison praised the planned conversion of the derelict property into more housing in West River.
“To get this moving,” he said, “and to get it cleaned up and make it a place people want to be could be tremendous.”
Gambardella said that the developer, LCI, and the neighborhood are still in negotiations around how many of these units will be reserved as affordable through Section 8.
But, he said, just because the project is seeking federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) financing doesn't mean that it is going to be entirely affordable units.
"It's a market rate apartment complex," he said, "not an affordable housing complex."
Snake-Oil and Three Card Monte being sokd on the people.There will be no section 8.It will be all market rate.