People won’t be leaving 454 Whalley Ave. with freshly washed laundry anytime soon. But they might be carrying buckets of paint.
After more than a year-long battle, neighbors appear to have thwarted plans for a laundromat to move into a commercial space in the Walgreen’s plaza, near the corner of Whalley and the Boulevard.
In the laundromat’s stead, a new tenant has emerged.
The owner of 454 Whalley Ave. has submitted an application to the Board of Zoning Appeals seeking permission to open a Sherwin-Williams paint store at the location. The application will be heard on Oct. 13.
Neighbors celebrated the news at a press conference at the vacant commercial space (pictured) on Wednesday afternoon. They hailed the paint store bid as a victory in their struggle to stop the laundromat.
Led by local activist Eli Greer, neighbors have been working to prevent Precision Wash-n-Dry, a local laundromat chain, from opening a new operation on Whalley. Greer and his allies on the Whalley-Edgewood-Beaver (WEB) Hills Community Management Team have cited concerns about parking, litter, loitering, and crime associated with a laundromat. They’ve also complained that Whalley already has several laundromats and doesn’t need another.
After Precision won BZA approval for the project last winter, neighbors hired a lawyer and appealed the decision. They also filed suit against the laundromat company and the property owner, New Haven Surplus LLC, claiming that they misled the BZA. The matter has been tied up in court, with Precision unable to move forward until it’s resolved.
In the meantime, New Haven Surplus LLC has found another business interested in opening up shop: Sherwin-Williams.
While WEB members rejected the laundromat, they have welcomed the idea of a paint store coming to the neighborhood.
“Whalley is no longer going to accept fast food restaurants and laundromats and things that do not add to the community,” Greer said at the press conference on Wednesday. He sent out a call for neighbors to come out on Oct. 13 to urge the BZA to approve the paint store.
Greer recounted the neighborhood’s yearlong struggle with the laundromat. He presented it as a hard-fought battle that has nearly been won, thanks to neighbors’ determination and grit.
“There were certain individuals who wanted to compromise,” he said. “Compromise for the Whalley area is mediocrity.”
“We’re on the right side of history,” he said.
John Vuoso (pictured), chair of the Whalley Avenue Special Services District (WASSD), said a paint store would bring more jobs to the area than a laundromat.
A paint store will serve a local need without creating an area for loitering, Vuoso added. It will also help to retain local dollars, since Whalley residents won’t need to trek out to Lowe’s to pick up paint, he said.
“We didn’t want a laundromat being the anchor of the corner of Whalley and the Boulevard,” Vuoso said. “We want paint.”
Just like the laundromat, Sherwin-Williams will need permission from the BZA to have fewer parking spaces than required by zoning regulations. Vuoso said parking at a paint store won’t be a problem like it would be for a laundromat.
“It’s two different businesses,” he said. With a laundromat, there would be “20 people coming at one shot and waiting around for two hours,” he said. With a paint store, “you go in there for 20 minutes or half an hour and you’re gone,” he said. “It’s hit and run.”
Vuoso said that all 101 business members of WASSD were in support of a paint store coming in. A recent marketing study found that no one was in favor of a laundromat, he said.
Attorney Tony Avallone prepared both BZA applications on behalf of New Haven Surplus LLC — one for the laundromat and the paint store.
He said his client told him to pursue zoning for the paint store because the laundromat case is caught up in court.
In a phone conversation on Wednesday, Precision Wash-N-Dry co-owner Frank Sproviero said he hadn’t heard about the rival tenant.
“Our application is still moving forward,” he said. “We can’t make any moves until appeals have played [their] course.”