Neighbor Concerns Delay Riverfront Project’s Zoning Quest

The builder of a proposed new mini-village on the banks of the Quinnipiac River agreed to delay asking for zoning help from the city until neighbors get more of a chance to vet the plans.

The developer, the NHR Group, has been meeting for months with neighbors for months about a plan to build a mixed-use project to transform the east-side gateway to New Haven at the Grand Avenue Bridge, a project called New Heights. The project intends to provide housing to middle-class workers — like firefighters, teachers and police officers.

Then neighbors learn that NHR planned to appear before the city’s zoning board to request the creation of a Planned Development Unit (PDU) at the property to allow the developer to eliminate the basement, which would have taken up roughly 14,000 square feet in the development, because it would be in the floodplain.

Noel Petra, one of the NHR Group partners, said there is no plan to build a taller building. In fact, builders plan to reduce the density of the development from 67 units to 62. The reduction of units was made to further reduce the number of parking spaces. He said the unit and hallway sizes would stay the same.

“Nothing changes except the basement goes away,” he said.

At a community management team meeting held Tuesday night at Ross Woodward School neighbors expressed concerns that the PDU would be used to build a taller development and block views of the river. NHR agreed to hold off on the PDU request pending further neighborhood discussions.

“The biggest issue is proper recognition of the river,” Fereshteh Beckhrad said at the meeting. ​“Developers should be concerned with community events, and should fully utilize the waterfront. There over 210 feet will be used for this development, and we can do a lot of things in order to make people more involved with the community.”

“The neighborhood needs to be revitalized, but we have to push for quality development,” neighbor Patricia Kane said. ​“Middle-class families are not going to live in smaller studio or one bedroom apartments and pay $1,500 a month in rent for them. We want development to happen in the area, but we only want quality development.”

Petra said he was surprised by the sudden opposition. He sought to reassure neighbors and have them on board before making any trips to BZA, he said. NHR had planned to go before the Board of Zoning Appeals this month; Petra agreed to postpone the meeting until everyone has adequate information.

He also said he heard concerns from neighbors that PDU would give them blanket approvals, and he said that’s not the case. If the BZA grants the development request to designate it as a PDU, it will still have to go to the Historic District Commission and the City Plan Commission for site plan review.

Some neighbors also expressed dismay about the maintenance of the property, and whether or not adequate retail stores would be placed in and around the development.

“I can’t stand developers who build and the property starts going downhill when changes start happening in the neighborhood. We’ve seen property values go down significantly in the past few years, and developers don’t always retain their properties,” Donald Spencer, another resident, said.

Recently, the property value of many homes in Fair Haven Heights has declined for a variety of reasons. Some residents think that this is related to the deterioration in the Fair Haven Heights community and around the Grand Avenue Bridge.

“There is still more vacant land for more retail,” Kane said. “ We need to see more things like coffee shops, bakeries and sandwich shops in order to make Fair Haven Heights the vibrant community it once was. We also need to emphasize the beauty of the river — there is a nature reserve, but it isn’t very prominent. Developers should be pushing for this kind of community engagement.”

Petra’s project is aimed toward working middle-class renters like firefighters, cops and schoolteachers.