Thomas MacMIllan Photo
Pastor Todd Foster thought he had an ideal location for a new teen center: a neutral area untainted by neighborhood rivalries. Then his efforts to open the center revealed a turf war of a different kind.
Foster’s Church On The Rock, on Hamilton Street, lies in a semi-industrial area just off I‑91 between Wooster Square and the Mill River. Since it’s not a residential neighborhood, no group of teens can claim it as their territory.
That makes it a good spot for a center that aims to bring together young people from many different city neighborhoods, Foster figured. They could feel comfortable coming to a neutral, unclaimed area.
But when Foster showed up at Tuesday’s meeting of Board of Zoning Appeals, he discovered a beef over the area was already brewing.
Foster seeks zoning permission to open the youth center at the rear of the church building. His neighbors on Hamilton Street came out in opposition to his proposal. They said the church is already taking up more of a shared parking lot than it has a right to. A new facility would only make that problem worse, they said.
After the meeting, Foster said the parking complaints are merely a smokescreen to conceal an underlying fear of young people coming to the area. His neighbor, Phil Bleich, strenuously denied the charge.
The BZA referred Foster’s request to the City Plan Commission, which will consider the proposal next week. It will be back in front of the BZA for a vote next month.
Plans
On Wednesday afternoon, Pastor Foster gave a quick tour of the space chosen for the proposed youth center. Located at the rear of his church building, the area is now vast empty warehouse space. Pointing to some plans, Foster explained that the youth center will include classrooms, a library with 12 Kindles and 200 books, two dance studios, a fitness center, and an arts and entertainment area, complete with a production studio where youth can “hone their spoken word skills.”
The youth center will be run by the Greater New Haven Help Alliance, an independent non-profit organization started by the church. The youth center will not be a religious institution, Foster said. It will run programs after school, on weekends, and during school vacations, he said. There will also be programs for parents.
All told, the project will cost about $740,000, Foster said. That money will come from grants and private donations, which Foster has already begun to collect. “I raised $120,000 in the last 100 days,” he reported
New Haven needs the youth center, Foster said. The schools have great programs, but “kids are still falling through the cracks,” he said.
The Hamilton Street building would be an ideal location for the center, Foster said. “Kids don’t feel comfortable walking outside their neighborhoods.” If teens go to a neighborhood where they’re not recognized, they worry about getting jumped. Church Of The Rock’s building is “not in anybody’s area,” Foster said.
If kids from various neighborhoods could come together at one youth center, they could begin to move beyond a narrow definition of community, one that separates young people block by block, Foster said.
Speaking after the BZA meeting on Tuesday night, church member Shirley Ellis-West and youth outreach worker Tyrone Weston also called the location ideal for a neutral teen center accessible to many neighborhoods. “No one can claim that area,” Ellis-West said.
Addressing the BZA on Tuesday evening, attorney John Parese outlined the teen center proposal. He said another not-for-profit use makes sense in the church building, which is also occupied by Easter Seals Goodwill Industries. “It would be a hardship to bring an industrial user in,” he said.
Nine people stood to register their support for the proposal.
Opposition
Two people stood in opposition.
The first was Phil Bleich, who owns the building right next to the church. The building, at 75 Hamilton St., is occupied by Electrical Wholesalers and Sid Harvey Industries, a wholesale heating and air conditioning supply company.
Bleich’s property shares a parking lot with the church and also — potentially — with the youth center. A right-of-way belonging to the city runs through the middle of the shared parking lot.
Bleich presented board members with photographs showing that church cars park in the middle of the parking lot, preventing his tenants from full access to their side of the lot.
“Many, many times their customers have to park in the street,” he said. The management at the two stores has been patient with the church, and not made a fuss about the parking problems before, Bleich said. But a new youth center will create an untenable situation, he said.
“We have nothing against the church. We’ve worked with them for 10 years,” Bleich said. But it’s an industrial area that’s inappropriate for a teen center, he said.
Marc Kelly, manager at Sid Harvey’s, also presented photographs of a congested parking lot. His store relies on tractor trailer deliveries throughout the day. Sometimes the big trucks just can’t maneuver in the lot, he said. Kelly said he is “constantly” leaving notes on cars asking drivers not to park on his side of the lot.
Attorney Parese responded that the church has not heard parking complaints before. “It’s a matter of picking up the telephone,” he said.
Pastor Foster said that the parking lot has been clogged at times recently because of a failed experiment that reserved a number of spaces for Easter Seals vans. The signs reserving those spaces will come down, he said.
City Deputy Director of Zoning Tom Talbot said that the problem is exacerbated by a lack of paint. “Nothing out there is marked,” he said of the parking lot. Church-associated vehicles are impinging on the city’s right of way, he said. “You’re literally taking up that whole common access way.”
Underlying Issue?
On Wednesday afternoon, Pastor Foster referred to the parking complaints as “a mock issue.” The real source of resistance is a “misunderstanding of city kids,” he said. “They [opponents] think there’s going to be Bloods and Crips in the parking lot.”
All the “hyperbole” about parking comes from a fear of the unknown, Foster argued. People think that “kids carry violence.” Foster said he’s suspicious of statements like “I’m all for youth, just not here.”
“It’s about more than parking,” he said.
Foster said he’s ready to be flexible when it comes to hours of operation, and willing to work with neighbors.
Foster said that the church shovels the lot when it snows and paid to pave it a few years ago. “I’m just disappointed,” he said, referring to the parking dispute that’s arisen.
Ten years ago, Bleich and his neighbors allowed the church to move in, he said in a phone conversation Wednesday. “We didn’t fight the variance. Now they want to make it even more.”
“No one is against the concept of the teen center,” Bleich said. “This is not the place for it. It doesn’t belong in an industrial area.”
It would not be a safe area for teens, he argued. Trucks and vans go through the parking lot all day and someone is bound to get hit. “There’ll be an accident,” Bleich predicted.
Bleich objected to Foster’s suggestion that fear of “city kids” might be the underlying source of resistance to the teen center. “I’m actually insulted that he would say that,” Bleich said. “It’s just a straw man, basically. There’s not an iota of truth to that.”
Good People
Inside Sid Harvey’s on Wednesday afternoon, Dale Dewitt and Dan Blum were working the counter. Blum said parking is a big problem for the store. Some days, cars are parked several rows deep against the church, with a final row parked perpendicularly, Blum said. That makes it nearly impossible for a 53-foot tractor trailer to come in and make deliveries, he said.
Dewitt said marking parking spaces in the lot with yellow paint might help clarify the situation. He was optimistic that a solution could be found. “They’re all good people over there,” he said.