Christopher Peak Photo
Jaqueline Carleton McFadyen makes case to zoners.
Millennials in East Rock would gladly downsize to one-bedroom apartments — if the city rules didn’t make them hard to build.
Zoners heard that argument from a young couple who rehab historic homes and have a new project requiring a deviation from what’s allowed in even a high-density residential area.
Citing the demand for smaller units in East Rock, Jaqueline Carleton McFadyen asked the Board of Zoning Appeals at its monthly meeting Tuesday at 200 Orange St. to grant a variance — a hurdle that can be met only with an extraordinary hardship rooted in the land — so she can convert the walk-in basement at 43 Lawrence St. into an efficiency apartment.
That change would mean the building had only 757 square feet of lot size per dwelling, where 2,000 square feet are required; that a staircase cut the side yard to three feet, where five are required; and that no parking would be available, where one on-site spot is required.
Even under a laxer standard for conversions, which is judged by the gross floor area, the project would still come up short of the 1,500 square feet required per unit.
“A lot of millennials are moving in. We know how to live with small amounts of space that’s well-engineered and planned out,” McFadyen said. “My husband and I have plans from our architect to make sure there’s plenty of space, not cramping any of our tenants.”
City planning staff recommended denying the application, saying it didn’t follow the city’s strict rules for a variance. McFadyen hinted that the law might not be right, arguing in her presentation that East Rock needs these smaller apartments.
The application will go before the City Plan Commission before it returns to the Board of Zoning Appeals at its next meeting for a final vote.
McFadyen said she and her husband left New York City three and a half years ago to pursue jobs in New Haven. After settling in East Rock, they bought a vacant house on Nash Street out of foreclosure, fixed it up and rented it to tenants. McFadyen said that the one-bedroom was a hot commodity.
“We found that there aren’t a ton of one-bedrooms that are well-maintained and affordable in the East Rock neighborhood. Sure, you could live at 360 [State St.] or in a luxury apartment at Corsair, but there aren’t so many other options,” she said. “My husband and I really take pride in developing these homes to what the neighborhood should be, attracting really interesting, eclectic neighbors.”
McFadyen bought the Lawrence Street property, a decrepit brick rowhouse that had sat vacant for nearly 15 years. She thought she could rehab the historic property too, and like she’d done on Nash Street, rent it out. She envisioned keeping the house as its own apartment but converting the basement into its own unit.
“We’re not increasing the number of bedrooms,” McFadyen said. “We’re just reorganizing how they’d be used.”
Applicant asks zoners to recognize demand for one-bedrooms in East Rock.
Patrick Gourley, an assistant economics professor at the University of New Haven, testified in favor of the project. He said that there’s a definite shortage of one-bedroom apartments in the area.
“There seems to be a huge lack of moderately priced one-bedrooms,” he said. “I currently have a roommate for that reason, because the one-bedrooms that I looked at were, in my mind, very expensive and out of my price range.”
In an advisory report, Nate Hougrand, a planning staffer, said there was nothing unusual about the lot that necessitated the “exceptional degree of relief that is being requested” for adding another unit.
He added that it made sense to cut down the side yard, as a “minor improvement related to an existing doorway,” but he couldn’t find a justification for allowing the second unit, contrary to the comprehensive plan’s discouragement of converting residences into denser apartments.
McFadyen said that being a rowhouse was a hardship in itself. Without surrounding land or living space, there wasn’t room for density, parking and side yards. “It’s just a little bit of a different situation from a normal single-family home,” she said. “There’s very few examples of rowhouses in New Haven. It’s a different setup from what a normal unit is like.”
I too would gladly downsize into a modest 1br, or even a reasonable studio, if it were an option. However both those things are valuable commodities, and it's cheaper for me to share a 2br in one of the nicest parts of town vs finding a 1br almost anywhere for the same price.