City Plan Department
After more than 50 public meetings and three hearings, the city has a new official plan for how to grow over the next 10 years.
The City Plan Commission unanimously approved the comprehensive plan for development and land use, also known as New Haven Vision 2025 at its regular meeting this past Thursday night. Now it is up to the Board of Alders to decided whether to approve the plan as is, or to consider and ask for changes.
The final draft of the report reflects how, unlike in 2003, when the last plan was prepared, climate change has become an immediate planning concern for cities. It also reflects how New Haven is now growing. From the 360 State Street apartment tower to Crown Street’s numerous new apartment complex to Route 34 West, builders have been rushing in to serve a booming rental-housing market. Meanwhile, activists and at times City Hall have cast a wary eye on suburban-style retail development.
New Haveners told city planners in person and through a survey that received 920 responses that they want bike and pedestrian-friendly trails that connect to each other and to public transit. They also want sea walls, flood plains and roads that are prepared for climate change-sparked super storms. The vision for New Haven 2025 calls for space where people can grow food; and less space for big-box stores and parking. (Read more of the details of the plan here, and a copy of the full plan here.)
While commissioners praised City Plan staff for two years of reaching out to the community, not everyone is pleased with the plan.
The Maryland-based owners of sloping land below West Rock at 1155 Whalley Ave., who have been trying to put a housing development for the elderly there since 1999, lodged an official objection to some of the recommendations in the plan.
In a letter to the City Plan Commission and the staff of the department, the owners, West Rock Views LLC, noted the following objections and asked for revisions: “1. We object because the proposed change to the BA Zone on Whalley Avenue in the vicinity of Dayton Street to Emerson Street does not conform to the characteristics described in the plan. 2. We also object because the inclusion of our property for a targeted change in the Comprehensive plan without the inclusion of an text for future regulations for the proposed new land use category. 3. We further object because while there has been ample opportunity to consult with the owners about this zone change there has [been] no attempt to do so.”
Markeshia Ricks photo
Architect and planner John Torello (pictured at left in the above photo) represented West Rock Views during the public hearing portion of last Thursday’s City Plan meeting. He suggested that the report’s recommendations were an attempt to stop the proposed development, which has been on hold for several years because the commission has twice denied approval for the plan on the grounds that the proposed structure would be too close to the West River, which has a history of flooding. (Read more about this issue here, here and here.)
City Plan staff and Chairman Edward Mattison (pictured) said that was not the case, that in fact the recommendations about changed zoning were made with big-box developments in mind like the failed attempt by Cumberland Farms to suburbanize a strip of upper Whalley.
And while the comprehensive plan is expected to be used as a guide for future development, the city has no mandate to actually adhere to all of the recommendations it contains.
Torello remained unconvinced.
“We have been in this community for a number of years and we have yet to get an answer about what we need to do to get approved,” Torello said.