Zachary Groz photo
Alder Caroline Smith (right): "There are lot of different goals in the neighborhood."
A housing meetup at City Hall quickly devolved into a fiery exchange of barbs over whether or not 23 new apartments above a historic firehouse will help or hurt an East Rock block.
That meeting took place Monday evening on the second floor of City Hall. It was hosted by the new owner of 15 Edwards St., the New Haven-based real estate developer and landlord Albert Annunziata, as well as by attorney Ben Trachten and architect Sam Gardner.
The meeting took place roughly a week before Jan. 14’s Board of Zoning Appeals meeting, where commissioners will deliberate on height-related variances requested by the developer, who has proposed increasing the height of the building by 2.5 stories, or to 60 feet above street level; creating 23 new apartments; and shrinking the distance to the property line from 15 to 3.5 feet.
Roughly ten East Rock residents were in attendance at Monday’s meeting. Among them were East Rock/Fair Haven Alder Caroline Smith, who represents the area, and two owners of properties abutting 15 Edwards, Tory Sansing and Augustine Filomena. The latter two hosted a separate meeting last month with neighbors to discuss details of the development plan, which they oppose. Three neighbors on Monday showed up to support Sansing and Filomena’s effort, and four others mostly listened, asked questions, or pitched in with context on the zoning rules.
The current proposal, Sansing and Filomena argued, is unworkable for a number of reasons: Should the variances be approved by the BZA, the building would tower over other smaller houses in the area, disrupt the look and feel of the neighborhood, and eliminate several parking spaces, burdening local businesses.
Annunziata, on the other hand, framed the proposal as a “compromise plan,” which sets out to balance historic preservation with a push for more housing density in the area, while addressing concerns over parking.
Within the first five minutes of the meeting, it was apparent that neither of the parties had budged much in the new year. As Annunziata wrapped up his opening remarks, Filomena broke in.
“Albert, have you changed the height of the building in your modifications?” he asked.
“No,” Annunziata replied.
“Have you changed the request of having the 15-foot setback rule changed?”
Annunziata answered no again.
After some more back-and-forth, the meeting proceeded with a slideshow with site plans and zoning documentation, which Trachten presented to the attendees, nearly all of whom were already familiar with their ins and outs. Eventually, the slideshow came around to a shade study that the developer conducted to analyze the impact of the taller structure on sun exposure at the surrounding properties at different hours of the day and times of year, which was of particular concern to Filomena, who lives next door.
“I have solar panels on my roof,” Filomena said, gesturing toward the slide with projections of the shadow cast by the proposed 60-foot structure, “and you look at the December 21st at 3 p.m. [projection], and it completely covers them.” Sansing also picked up on the theme of sun exposure and said it was part of a bigger issue with the development’s effects on the look and feel of the neighborhood. “We’re looking beyond my roof porch,” she said. “Light also is not only in sun rays. It’s also just light, and as people who appreciate the sky, that’s another consideration.”
The conversation took a turn when the developers showed two alternative plans for the expansion, which they could build as-of-right, without going to the zoning board. One of those plans would extend the structure horizontally, eliminating parking entirely, requiring more extensive modifications to the original firehouse building, and covering the side view of the property that Sansing owns. That idea seemed to be met with less skepticism than the 60-foot-tall proposal, but still didn’t sit well with Filomena and Sansing.
“I think that for scale purposes, this is way out of scale for anything that we have in this area,” said Filomena, “and I really wish that we could find another solution, like maybe six or eight apartments in the existing building and leave it at that.”
After an hour and a half, the meeting ended in a deadlock. After catching up with the attendees and presenters, Alder Smith said that even as the tensions ran high on Monday, she’s still optimistic that the parties will find a way to get past their disagreements.
“I think what was presented is there are a lot of different goals in the neighborhood,” Smith told the Independent. “There’s interest in historic preservation, there’s interest in making sure there’s parking — whether that’s parking for cars or bike parking — there’s interest in making sure that surrounding neighbors have access to sun for their solar panels or for their gardens, and there’s interest in having more housing to meet the housing need that we have […] I still feel hopeful that there’s some path forward that can help us accomplish all of those goals.”