Allan Appel Photo
Palitz & Ayala said young downtowners do have cars.
While planners and professionals debated whether a Chapel Street project needs more parking, six young professionals showed up to say: We have cars and need the spaces.
They came to City Hall Tuesday night for a meeting of the City Plan Commission. They came to speak about a contentious proposal to build a five-story, multimillion-dollar building with 136 apartments (plus eight more in adjoining existing buildings) and street-level retail at the corner of Chapel and Howe.
The commission wasn’t discussing all the contentious issues about the project, including whether the developer, Randy Salvatore, should be allowed to tear down an historic home at 1249 Chapel to make room for the 53,000 square-foot project.
Instead, the commission discussed whether to give Salvatore parking relief. In addition to asking for 10 variances for his project, Salvatore has requested a special exception from the Board of Zoning Appeals to permit him to provide only 90 parking spots where 144 are required. The zoning board asked City Plan for an opinion on the parking question — hence Wednesday night’s meeting. (Click here to read a full story on the project and last week’s zoning board hearing.)
The City Plan commissioners Tuesday night voted unanimously to advise OKing the request and sent the project back to the zoning board. But, this being New Haven, first they participated in a drawn-out, passionate philosophical argument about density and cars.
City Plan staff and commissioners were asked their advice on whether the availability of mass transit, the provision of bicycle spots in the proposed building, and the availability of street parking justified the reduction.
The lot that would become apartments.
Akimi Palitz and Rosa Ayala came to tell their story to City Plan commissioners. The two teachers (pictured at the top of the story) and four other friends, another teacher and three graduate students, share apartments in 1249 Chapel, the slated-to-be-demolished historic house that abuts the parking lot where the building would rise. All six young women have their own cars. They said there’s often no space in the public lot that’s adjacent to their building that’s on its way to being eliminated for private development.
“We’re the demographic they’re hoping for. The idea that this age group doesn’t have cars isn’t right. It’s idealistic to think that reducing parking will reduce the need for cars in New Haven,” Palitz said.
She and her five fellow Chapel-dwellers didn’t get to testify; City Plan ruled that the meeting wasn’t technically a public hearing. Plenty other people did speak, and in the background the six offered a real-life perspective.
Nor were other petitioners who were still hot from last week’s zoning board discussion allowed to speak. They included Dwight Alderman Frank Douglass, who asked for the administrative process to be tabled pending a full meeting with his constituents at a management team meeting.
1249 Chapel.
Preservationist and former Dwight Alderwoman Olivia Martson also was not allowed to speak. She asked to intervene in the process about the 1249 removal; she lives around the corner.
To Be Haunted?
City Plan Chairman Ed Mattison ruled that no certain “algorithm” guides the many City Plan decisions permitting such reductions in parking. He wondered aloud whether one day such decisions might come back “to bite us.”
City Plan Director Karyn Gilvarg offered assurance that the city’s parking utilization studies reveal that only 67 percent of available spots are usually filled in the Chapel-Howe neighborhood, well below other downtown area averages. She also said that there is no evidence that previous large developments, such as 360 State Street, that have received parking relief, are now experiencing overflowing garages.
The staff’s recommendation for a yes vote was based partly on the availability of mass transit and bicycle parking in the area, according to its report. The report also stressed that young professionals are a target of the development, and they often don’t have cars.
Though voting yes, Westville Alderman Adam Marchand, a City Plan commissioner, remained skeptical. “This will raise demand and reduce existing supply as the lot will be built over.”
169 Dwight, an historic house that would be part of the proposed Salvatore development.
Mattison also confessed that the Howe Street area is his “secret” in that he could very often find available on street parking.
Commissioner Kevin DiAdamo moved to vote to recommend approving the exception. He, too, said he feels confident the neighborhood has enough parking.
That would be news to Palitz. The Wilbur Cross High School English teacher said when she returns from work, around 6 p.m., the lot is often full or near to it.
Douglass said the Dwight Management team would meet on the matter before the BZA meeting. “My constituents need to be on board,” he said.