On Edwards, Up Goes The Neighborhood?

An East Rock landlord’s plans to convert a vacant historic firehouse into a five-story apartment building has sparked a debate around preserving character vs. creating new places to live in a vibrant mixed-use stretch of Upper State Street.

That new residential development is planned for 15 Edwards St., an old firehouse that was purchased this past September for $1.395 million by a holding company controlled by landlord-developer Albert Annunziata.

Annunziata’s company has submitted an application to the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) that, if granted, would allow him to build up 15 Edwards St. into a five-story, mixed-use building with 23 new apartments. 

That request was slated to be heard by the BZA on Tuesday but, for public noticing reasons, the hearing has been temporarily postponed — likely until next month.

Nevertheless, on Friday evening, a group of concerned neighbors met up at Spruce Coffee to debate whether or not such a development would be a boon for the block, or would box out existing cultural-commercial tenants by promoting higher rents and changing the fabric of what makes Upper State special.

That meeting took place on a blistering cold evening Friday, as the sidewalks were barren and the restaurants were packed. Cars lined the curb along State Street, illuminated dimly by the glow of storefront windows. On Edwards Street, the block was coming alive. 

Couples filled the booths at Bar August, and a reception kicked off at Wet Clay Works pottery studio, where a few dozen New Haveners browsed for locally made holiday gifts and neighborhood ceramicists caught up over drinks and homemade guacamole. 

The building next door, however, was quiet and dark. That’s the old Firehouse 19 at 15 Edwards St., which is in the early phase of a major residential renovation and expansion project. 

Over at Spruce Coffee, neighbors met up to discuss the development proposal. The meetup was organized by Tory Sansing, who owns the property next door at 11 Edwards St., where the pottery studio is, along with neighbor Augustine Filomena, who lives around the corner on Nash Street. 

The two called the community meetup in anticipation of Tuesday’s BZA hearing. Residents of the area, alongside East Rock/Fair Haven Alder Caroline Smith, hashed out arguments surrounding the proposal, which seeks the board’s approval for some project specs that deviate from what’s now permitted. 

To make way for 2.5 new stories atop the original 1874 firehouse, the developer hopes to be able to build within 3.5 feet of the property line, down from the 15 feet required by law, and to put up a wall 60 feet high, up from the 14 feet currently permitted at the site. Per Annunziata, the new structure will be done in a contemporary style to contrast with the historic edifice. Goatville Ventures crafted the appeal under the auspices of the city’s Inclusionary Zoning rules, which allow for a higher density of units in a given complex and will result in one apartment being set aside for renters making no more than 50 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI), which currently translates to an annual income of $58,050 for a family of four.

Of the dozen or so participants at Friday’s meeting at Spruce, around seven were vocally opposed to the development in its current form. One attendee was for it. Two were mostly silent. Alder Smith, citing the rising cost of housing in the city, engaged with both sides but encouraged opponents of the plan to think about the project as part of a larger effort to tackle housing affordability in the city. 

At the start of the hour-long discussion, Sansing laid out her reasons for opposing the plan, which inspired her to submit a formal letter to the Board of Zoning Appeals, design a leaflet for distribution throughout the neighborhood to encourage the community to submit similar notes, and circulate a petition. In addition to eliminating an existing off-street parking lot and creating only five handicap-accessible spots in its place, jeopardizing car traffic for local businesses in an area where parking can already be scarce, the development, she argued, threatens the historic character of the East Rock area and would set a bad precedent for small property owners. 

“We are not opposed to this man developing his property, but we simply want the city to recognize the value of the zoning rules that protects the business district,” Sansing said.

“Without them, small landlords like myself could potentially be pushed out. I get calls all the time from people wanting to buy, and when I look at this and realize that developers will understand how to connect the dots to be able to have huge properties that might burden the neighborhood, diminish the values of nearby properties, and also the fact that the building is a historic gem is a huge consideration.” 

Sam Krystal, another East Rock resident who attended the meeting, had a different perspective on the issue. ​“We have a 2 percent vacancy rate. We have the oldest housing stock of any place in the city let alone the county. We haven’t developed in 60-plus years,” Krystal said. ​“And yes, developers shouldn’t necessarily be greedy, but we need more units now to ensure New Haven’s economic prosperity. There are more people coming into the city than there are units. Period. Full stop. And in order to accommodate new businesses, new citizens, housing needs to go up somewhere.”

Acknowledging the concerns voiced by opponents of the plan, including her own landlord who was in attendance at the meeting and led the redevelopment of another historic property in the area, Alder Smith echoed Krystal’s sentiment. She said that shrinking the number of residential units in the plan down from the 23 proposed was a ​“big deal.” 

“It’s one of the reasons why we’re in this situation of a housing affordability crisis,” she said. ​“And so I just want us to take that seriously as a neighborhood and also address some of these really serious concerns.”

In a follow-up interview with the Independent, Annunziata said he sees this proposed development as a benefit to the area. ​“I want to build something that the neighborhood’s going to be happy about, and I’m going to be happy about,” he said.