Thomas MacMillan Photo
Amid dire warnings and readings from scripture, city lawmakers voted in favor of selling sections of High and Wall streets to Yale University for $3 million, forever. One more needed approval awaits.
The vote came at a City Hall meeting Thursday night of the “Committee of the Whole,” comprising 24 of the Board of Aldermen’s 30 members. The group convened to consider a proposal made by the city to sell High Street between Elm and Grove streets and Wall Street between College and York streets to Yale for $3 million.
In an 17 to 7 vote, aldermen approved selling Yale the streets once and for all following an original 1990 deal that temporarily handed over control.
Supporters of the deal said the streets are already practically part of Yale and could be reclaimed by eminent domain if necessary in the future. Opponents argued that forever is a really long time and that the city has no guarantee that Yale will continue voluntary payments or keep the streets open to the public.
The matter now heads to the full Board of Aldermen for a final vote. The same outcome can be expected there, since the special Committee of the Whole includes all members of the Board of Aldermen. (Five aldermen didn’t show up to Thursday’s meeting; that’s not enough to change the result.)
The vote followed a couple hours of testimony and debate Thursday, and a couple years of contentious consideration of the fate of High and Wall.
Yale has closed and controlled the streets for more than two decades, since a 1990 agreement (struck during a previous city fiscal crisis) that laid the foundation for a new era of financial contributions from the university to the city.
Two years ago, when it came time for a required 20-year review of the deal, some aldermen saw it as a chance to renegotiate the deal with Yale. The conversation hit an impasse; discussions moved behind closed doors until the emergence of the current proposal to sell the streets outright.
High Street.
The question of High and Wall is one that gets at the heart of town/gown relations in the city. Yale is the city’s biggest employer and its biggest single property owner but it doesn’t pay taxes on much of its property since it’s tax-exempt as an educational institution. The fates of the city and the university are intertwined in a relationship that can veer between collaboration and resentment. Both sentiments were on display during debate Thursday night in City Hall’s Aldermanic Chamber.
The committee also voted to recommend the sale of 182 square feet on Broadway to Yale for $8,190. The area is a slice of the sidewalk just in front of the Yale bookstore, where the university plans to put in a building addition and a sign to signal the beginning of the “Broadway shopping district” and increase foot traffic in the area.
“Once And For All”
The evening began with a presentation of the proposal by Matt Smith, the administration’s liaison to the Board of Aldermen. He handed out a sheet detailing the voluntary payments that Yale has made to the city since the 1990 agreement.
From 1991 to 2004, Yale made increasing annual payments for fire service of between $1.2 and 2.2 million. In 2005 Yale started making additional voluntary payments of between $4.3 and 5.5 million each year. Also as part of the deal, the city in 1994 began to collect property tax on the Yale golf course. All told, the city has collected over $86 million from Yale since 1991.
Projecting into the future, Smith said Yale is expected to give the city $216 million more by 2030 as fire service and voluntary payments increase with inflation and university expansion.
Under the proposed deal, the city would abandon the streets. Ownership would then revert to the only abutter: Yale University. “In exchange, Yale is offering a one-time payment of $3 million,” Smith said. That figure is based on an assessment by an appraiser agreed upon by the city and Yale. The appraiser calculated the property is worth about $45 per square foot.
Yale spokesman Michael Morand (pictured), who was an aldermen when the 1990 agreement was struck, said that Yale’s contributions to the city have exceeded anyone’s wildest dreams from 20 years ago. He mentioned Yale’s homebuyer program, its contribution to the college scholarship program New Haven Promise, and its funding of events like the International Festival of Arts and Ideas.
While the 1990 agreement included a condition that the deal be revisited in 20 years, that was only to ensure that the street closures weren’t having an adverse impact on traffic, Morand said. The 1990 deal was not a lease, he argued.
“What’s before you tonight is a simple matter to put this to bed once and for all,” Morand said.
In response to questions by East Rock Alderman (and mayoral candidate) Justin Elicker, Smith said the proposed deal would not prevent Yale from ceasing its voluntary payments, building on the property, or even putting up gates to keep people off of the streets.
Elicker asked about creating an easement to ensure that the public always has access to the streets.
“Any appraiser would say you’ve diminished the value” of the property if it comes with easements, Morand said.
Newhallville Alderwoman Delphine Clyburn asked for a written agreement that Yale will continue its voluntary payments “for the protection of the people.”
“I think that’s a little difficult,” said Smith. “What’s before you is probably the fairest agreement we could come to between the interested parties.”
Fair Haven Heights Alderwoman Brenda Jones-Barnes sought to clarify that Yale would not have to guarantee public access.
“That is exactly what we’re giving up,” said city lawyer John Ward. “We’re losing it and Yale is gaining it.”
“Losing” is not the right word, Morand claimed. “It’s a financial transaction.”
A Word From Isaiah
Gregory Williams, a Yale Divinity School student, was the first member of the public to testify. He had been holding signs in the gallery along with several others. He read from Isaiah 5:8. “Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land.”
He said there is “not a more accurate description of our culpability as a Yale community. … Please do not let Yale control any more land in this city.”
Yale employee Stephen Poland said the university should rent the property from the city.
Yale student Cameron Sandquist, on the other hand, presented an 82-signature petition calling for the city to sell the streets to Yale.
Budget watchdog Ken Joyner said that since the 19th century, Yale has paid no taxes on its exempt properties as its endowment has ballooned. He urged aldermen not to approve the sale.
Priceless? Worthless?
“I think these streets are priceless,” Alderman Elicker (pictured) said during pre-vote negotiations. He cautioned that the sale would be “for eternity.” Years ago, no one could have imagined that pay phones would become obsolete. Similarly, he asked, “who knows what we’re going to use these streets for” in the future?
“When I came here tonight, I was thinking that this $3 million could help us with our debt,” said Clyburn. But after listening to the testimony and hearing Yale say it couldn’t guarantee people access to the streets, she changed her mind, she said. “I just can’t vote on this because on my insides it’s saying no tonight.”
Hill Alderman Jorge Perez (pictured), the president of the board, argued for the other side. He said the city can take the property back by eminent domain if it decides it needs it.
Elicker later warned that any attempt to take the streets back by eminent domain would be met by an “army” of Yale-hired lawyers, a fiasco that would make the Ricci case look inexpensive by comparison.
“You can’t not move on with progress because you don’t know what the future may bring,” Perez said. “I think we should approve this. Yale has been a good partner.” The university deserves to be treated like any other buyer of city property, he said.
“It’s a street that really is probably useless to us,” said Hill Alderwoman Jackie James (pictured). The average person never goes to Wall or High streets, she said. They’re “actually already a part of Yale. … It’s useless to us collectively as a city.”
Hill Alderwoman Dolores Colon, who works at Yale’s Beinecke library on Wall Street, said concerns about Yale shutting the streets down to the public were unfounded. Yale needs those streets open to allow fire trucks to reach its valuable collections of rare books.
“How much are we really going to miss these streets?” she asked. “The streets are priceless and worthless at the same time.”
Downtown Alderman Doug Hausladen (pictured) spoke up against the sale. “Three million dollars doesn’t even cover the lost revenue in parking spaces alone,” he said.
“If you look at this deal, it’s a bad deal,” Elicker said. The deal has no guarantee of public access, no guarantee of continued fire payments. “This is forever and this is forever.”
Lots of sales are forever, Perez countered. The city sold the Martin Luther King school to Achievement First charter school organization forever, he said. This deal is just the same, “the only difference is we have a big corporation some people feel we should get money from,” he said.
It’s not the same, replied Elicker. The street deal is about public access, he said: It’s more comparable to selling off a city park.
Seventeen aldermen voted to approve the sale: Frank Douglass, Sergio Rodriguez, Jeanette Morrison, Michael Smart, Jorge Perez, Mark Stopa, Santiago Berrios-Bones, Brian Wingate, Andrea Jackson Brooks, Al Paolillo, Tyisha Walker, Ernie Santiago, Adam Marchand, Sarah Eidelson, Jackie James, Jessica Holmes, and Dolores Colon.
Seven voted against: Migdalia Castro, Doug Hausladen, Brenda Jones-Barnes, Brenda Foskey-Cyrus, Delphine Clyburn, Justin Elicker, and Angela Russell.