Thomas Breen photo
251 West Hazel St.
Dixwell Plaza’s redevelopers are bringing their neighborhood revitalization efforts to Newhallville — in the form of a new duplex where a blighted, vacant single-family home currently stands.
The developers won permission to do that at the most recent meeting of the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA), which took place online via Zoom.
City land-use commissioners voted unanimously at the meeting last week in support of a variance to allow a two-family dwelling to replace an existing single-family structure on a 4,975 square-foot lot at 251 West Hazel St. where 5,400 square feet are required. The zoning relief granted for that property also allows a building height of 29 feet and seven inches where a maximum of 28 feet is permitted for the west elevation.
Conncorp President Paul McCraven: Branching out in the neighborhood.
The owner of 251 West Hazel St., and the applicant for the duplex-enabling zoning relief, is Conncorp Housing LLC. That’s a holding company led by Paul McCraven. McCraven is the president of ConnCorp, which is a for-profit subsidiary of the Science Park-based nonprofit Connecticut Center for Arts and Technology (ConnCAT).
ConnCorp has been working to buy up and put together redevelopment plans for the fraying mid-century Dixwell Plaza shopping center. The group plans to build an estimated $200 million mixed-use project at that site that will include a grocery store, 150-plus apartments, an office tower, a performing arts venue, and more.
At the zoning board meeting last Wednesday night, McCraven said that ConnCorp is also interested in reviving derelict housing in the greater Dixwell/Newhallville area, as evidenced by its purchase of and redevelopment plans for 251 West Hazel.
“It’s an extremely blighted property,” McCraven said about the current boarded-up single family house, which ConnCorp purchased from Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven in 2020 for $35,000. “Our goal is to create affordable housing… The neighborhood is looking forward to this particular house being renovated.”
Boarded up ground floor of 251 West Hazel St.
McCraven and attorney Danielle Bercury said that ConnCorp plans to demolish the existing blighted property and construct in its place a two-family home on the existing foundation.
“The building is unsound,” Bercury said about the need to tear down the existing structure and build up a new duplex.
“The subject lot is a pre-existing nonconforming lot and the new duplex building will be constructed on the existing foundation,” Conncorp’s written application for zoning relief reads. “Although the lot is nonconforming as a lot area and lot width, the new structure complies as to minimum lot area per dwelling unit, building coverage, building height and parking. The variance will allow Conncorp Housing LLC to redevelop the property, which currently has a vacant and unsafe structure which must be demolished, with two new affordable housing units.”
BZA Chair Mildred Melendez encouraged her colleagues on the board to support the requested zoning relief.
“It’s a blighted property,” she said Wednesday. “And affordable housing is desperately needed in the neighborhood.”
The board ultimately voted unanimously in support of the requested variance.
In a comment sent to the Independent on Wednesday, ConnCORP Executive Chairman Erik Clemons described the 251 West Hazel St. duplex project as part ConnCORP’s “larger vision of home ownership for the people in this community. This property will allow us to take another step closer to that vision and our goal of transforming this section of the city.”