Markeshia Ricks Photo
Petra, left, with attorney James Segaloff at hearing.
Close to 300 new apartments planned for Wooster Square won’t significantly increase car traffic — and the project will actually bolster safety for bicycle riders and pedestrians, its engineer argued.
That’s what project engineer Tim Onderko told the City Plan Commission about the new apartment complex planned for 87 Union St., by the downtown edge of Wooster Square.
Onderko reported on a traffic study before the commission before it proceeded to vote unanimously to approve a special permit to increase the number of parking spaces to 210 in the development’s garage, and to approve the project’s site plan.
Developer Noel Petra said that aside from building permits, the project has no more governmental hurdles that the project needs to clear. But he still can’t break ground on the project, which will replace warehouses and a plumbing supply store with a mix of studios, apartments, townhouses, and retail. That’s because he’s waiting on the outcome of a lawsuit filed by a competing nearby apartment complex. The owners of the Strouse Adler “Smoothie” building at 78 Olive St. are suing Petra and the city over a zoning change granted for the proposed 299-apartment 87 Union development. (Read more about that lawsuit in this story by the Register’s Mary O’Leary.)
Petra’s planned community (pictured) — a mix of studios, apartments, townhouses, and retail—is the second to receive zoning relief on the same block of the western edge of Wooster Square, connecting the neighborhood to downtown with hundreds of new homes. Spinnaker, the developer for the first project in that immediate area, at the old Comcast building at Chapel Street between Olive and Union, applied for a similar zone change from BA to BD‑1 for their parcel. That request was recommended for approval by the City Plan Commission in May and ultimately approved by the Board of Aldermen at the beginning of August.
Petra said no dates have been set yet to hear the lawsuit.
Low Traffic Impact
At the City Plan Commission’s meeting last week, a public hearing was held on Petra’s request an additional 10 parking spaces — six for parking and four for loading — for the community’s parking garage. Because the parcel is now in a BD‑1 zone, any lot or garage over 200 spaces requires a special permit.
As part of a public hearing for the special permit, engineer Onderko briefed the commission about the development’s potential for creating more traffic. The analysis looked at four signalized intersections and three intersections without signals, near the development. A mathematical formula is used to determine how much traffic a project might generate. Developers get credit in the formula for “internal capture” (the people who live in the development and use its amenities), for cars that already use the roadway near the development and for the development’s proximity to public transit and the ability of people to bike and walk.
Onderko said 87 Union will generate only about 75 new trips on the road network in the peak hour of a typical 5 p.m. during a work week.
“The state threshold for making you study an intersection is 100 trips,” Onderko said. “Our whole project, put into a single intersection, would not trip the threshold.”
Onderko said the project will add some features to the roadways and sidewalks that will improve the walking and biking experience around the development including two new crosswalks. One crosswalk would go across Olive Street from the northeast corner of Wooster and Olive Street. A second would run across Union that is currently a long diagonal crossing, which will become shorter, and perpendicular. He said that the developer is also working with the city Transportation, Traffic and Parking Department and the state transportation department to improve southbound on-ramp exit access to I‑95 around Franklin and Wooster streets.
He said currently the state Department of Transportation gives that intersection an “F” rating for level of service, the lowest grade. The state is redoing some improvements including a retiming of signal lights to improve the service by one letter rating to “E”. Onderko said based on his data, further signal changes could further improve the service rating to a “D.”
City Engineer Giovanni Zinn recommended that the developers consider creating a flashing beacon for crosswalks on Olive Street. The city installed a similar solar-powered, push-button system for pedestrians at Whitney Avenue and Audubon Street and there are plans to install another one on Olive Street.
“Pedestrian safety on Olive Street is pretty big to us,” Zinn said.
Westville Alder and commission member Adam Marchand had questions about security. He asked what hours the retail and restaurant spaces on the first floor of the development would keep, and how the building’s residential spaces will be kept secure from the more public spaces.
Paul Bass File PHoto
Petra (pictured) said the hours have not yet been established. He assured Marchand that the hours would be in keeping with those of other restaurants in the neighborhood: “It won’t be any bar or club type hours.” He called security a top priority. Resident access-only areas will likely use a keycard entry system.
Marchand also encouraged Petra to make sure that he has public bike parking for those who might be near the development by way of the Farmington Canal. Petra said that is already a part of design plans for Olive Street. Additional plans include possible charging stations in the development’s parking garage for electric cars.