A rebuilt Dixwell Plaza, with a one-level-larger greenhouse-topped parking garage (circled in red).
Dixwell Plaza’s redevelopers won permission to scrap a too-costly underground parking garage in exchange for a larger temporary surface parking lot in their ongoing effort to build up the heart of New Haven’s historic Black neighborhood.
They won approvals for that parking-related change in plans Wednesday night during the latest regular monthly meeting of the City Plan Commission, which was held online via Zoom.
The local land-use commissioners voted unanimously in support of “modifications to the approved site plan for the Dixwell Plaza phased redevelopment project,” to quote from the item’s description on the City Plan Commission agenda. The commissioners also unanimously approved a special permit allowing for parking facilities with 200 or more spaces in a BA zone at the Dixwell Avenue site between Webster and Charles Streets.
What does all of that mean?
Wednesday night's City Plan Commission meeting.
Attorney Carolyn Kone explained Wednesday night that these two requests — which have now been approved — both pertain to ConnCORP’s plans to knock down the fraying midcentury Dixwell Avenue shopping plaza and build in its stead a mix of apartments, storefronts, and commercial, educational, and cultural venues. The redevelopment team recently estimated that the project should cost roughly $220 million in total, and that demolition should begin in the first quarter of 2023.
Back in December 2021, the City Plan Commission signed off on the site plan for the phased redevelopment project. Phase 1 will see ConnCORP demolish Dixwell Plaza’s existing commercial condos and the old Elks Club at 87 Webster St. and build in their stead 184 apartments (20 percent of which will be set aside at below-market rents), a 18,460 square-foot food hall, a 20,000 square-foot grocery store, 5,600 square feet of Dixwell Avenue-fronting retail space, a new headquarters for the job-training nonprofit ConnCAT, a healthcare clinic, a daycare center, and a public plaza. Per a Board of Alders land disposition agreement from last year, 20 percent of the site’s residential units must be set aside at below market rents.
As part of that initial approval, ConnCORP had also planned on constructing a 259-space underground garage near Webster Street and a 237-space temporary surface parking lot closer to Charles Street as part of Phase 1. That surface parking lot would then have been replaced by an above-ground 340-space parking garage during the redevelopment’s Phase 2, which should also see a new 350-seat performing arts center, a new five-story office building with groundfloor retail, and 13 new three-bedroom townhouse units.
According to Kone’s and the redevelopment team’s presentation Wednesday night, ConnCORP has now dropped Phase 1’s previously planned underground parking garage because of just how expensive it proved to be.
ConnCORP COO Paul McCraven at a recent community meeting.
“When things began to cost out, the underground parking garage became unaffordable for this project,” Kone said.
ConnCORP Chief Operating Officer Paul McCraven agreed. “It’s tens of millions of dollars of savings to eliminate the underground parking,” he said during the public hearing portion of Wednesday’s meeting. “We experienced that the prices have dramatically increased throughout the pandemic with the supply issues.”
So, instead of building out the 259-space underground parking garage, Kone said, ConnCORP now plans to build a 392-space temporary surface parking lot — rather than the originally planned 237-space temporary surface parking lot — as part of Phase 1.
That expanded surface parking lot on the northern side of the site will require the redevelopers to knock down the Charles Street police substation building and the Cornell Scott Hill Health Center clinic building earlier than they had previously planned for.
Then, Kone and engineer Emilia Perez and architect Scott Cryer said on Wednesday, as part of Phase 2, the redevelopers now plan to construct a three-story parking garage rather than a two-story parking garage atop the temporary surface lot. That parking garage will be topped by greenhouses that will be open to community members interested in growing fruits and vegetables, ConnCORP CEO Erik Clemons said.
“Really nothing functionally has changed about the parking deck from the last time that we submitted [a site plan],” Cryer said, “other than the additional level.”
All in all, Kone said, the full buildout of the redevelopment project will see an increase in 10 parking spaces from what was approved by the City Plan Commission in December, thanks to Wednesday night’s now-approved parking-change request. She added that the fully built out site will also have over 200 bike parking spaces.
Westville Alder and City Plan Commissioner Adam Marchand asked about how the change to the parking garage’s height might affect surrounding neighbors on Dixwell Avenue and Charles Street.
“We are anticipating that adding that additional parking level will add about 12 feet of height to the overall structure,” Cryer said. But, he emphasized, the garage will still be wrapped by taller structures — including the planned new townhouses to the north and to the west, and the planned new office building and performing arts center on Dixwell Avenue.
“So it would be difficult to see all of that from the street?” Marchand asked about the now-taller parking garage.
That’s right, Cryer replied. Plus, he said, “we like to think that the greenhouses [on top of the garage]” will be “cool to see” from taller neighboring properties.
During the public hearing portion of Wednesday’s meeting, members of the public largely spoke up in support of the parking modification — with a few neighbors, like Crystal Gooding, repeating oft-expressed concerns that this redevelopment will affect the current parking plans for a handful of nearby churches that currently use the parking lot behind the Elks Lodge. Gooding encouraged the redevelopers to continue working with neighbors on a parking replacement plan for church parishioners.
“I watched the plaza just fall apart” over the decades, local contractor Rodney Williams said in support of ConnCORP’s request. “There’s a window of opportunity for this project to be developed.” He thanked the redevelopment team, and urged the commissioners to support the parking change request.
“I commend the project team for their hard work on this and for their due diligence,” Marchand said before casting his vote in support of the parking changes. City Plan Commission Chair Leslie Radcliffe also expressed her support for the project. And with that, all of the commissioners present voted in support of ConnCORP’s requests.