Westville Bowl Wins Street Closure Permission

The operators of the planned new Westville Bowl outdoor music venue won permission to close down an adjacent block of Yale Avenue this summer on days when the former tennis stadium will host concerts.

The City Plan Commission granted that unanimous approval Wednesday night during its regular monthly meeting in the municipal office building at 200 Orange St.

NHCPA Outdoors LLC, a subsidiary of the nonprofit that owns the College Street Music Hall downtown, won the right to convert the tennis stadium next to the Yale Bowl at 45 Yale Ave. into an outdoor music and comedy venue. 

Wednesday, the music venue earned permission to close down Yale Avenue from Chapel Street on the north to Derby Avenue on the south on concert days.

Premier Facilities LLC President Keith Mahler, local attorney Steve Mednick, and Langan Engineering Vice President Timothy Onderko explained to the commissioners that this is the exact same type of street closure that took place when the tennis stadium hosted the Connecticut Open.

The only difference is that the tennis tournament caused the street to be blocked to through traffic for four to six weeks at a time over the summer, while the new music venue will only close the street on a day of a given show.

“This is a much simpler closure,” Onderok said. ​“It would be on an as-an-event-occurs basis.”

The underlying planned development district (PDD) that has governed the tennis stadium’s operations since its construction 30 years ago required the building’s operators to receive permission from the City Plan Commission for its street closure plans.

According to the City Plan Department’s favorable report on the planned street closures, ​“the street will be fenced off to accommodate Food Truck / Beverage vending which will function as part of the pre-show experience. Concert fans will be able to float between the street vending area and the music bowl. Use of the street experience will be limited to show days and will be set up mid-day and broken down post-show to allow for through-traffic.”

Langan, Mahler and Mednick said that the planned parking layout for concerts is identical to the parking layout allowed for the tennis tournament. Most of the concertgoers will have to park in a lot just west of Central Avenue and then make their way across the street and through the Yale athletic complex over to the concert venue.

Mahler pointed out that there will be a VIP parking area immediately adjacent to the Westville Bowl, as well.

Westville Alder Adam Marchand said that other events at the Yale fields, such as the Yale-Harvard game and youth lacrosse tournaments, often lead to residents complaining about a perceived lack of parking enforcement. He urged the new music venue operators to work closely with the city to ensure that there are enough parking enforcement officers working on show days.

The tennis tournament had up to 15,000 people attend at a time, Onderko said, while individual concerts at the Westville Bowl shouldn’t bring out more than 5,000 people at a time.

“There is a difference in quantity of cars.” Nevertheless, the Westville Bowl operators pledged to work through traffic concerns with the neighborhood’s alders, city police, Yale police, and an alder-appointed parking committee.

“The intent is to be very aggressive in dealing with neighborhood issues,” said Mednick, a former alder for Westville’s Ward 26. ​“We want people to park cars and buy food and beverages at the facility.”

The first concert announced for the Westville Bowl is a July 18 show featuring the Tedeschi Trucks Band, St. Paul and the Broken Bones, and Gabe Dixon.