Collage of Firebird memories presented at Tuesday's BZA meeting.
An affordable housing group has spotted space for nine new nests to accommodate Firebirds and lower-income renters on Orchard Street — but hopes the city will find room in its zoning regs for the dense development.
The Greater Dwight Development Corporation (GDDC) pitched a plan to the Board of Zoning Appeals Tuesday night to tear down a historic, vacant building and construct a four-story structure in its place to create the nine affordable apartments and office space for the Firebirds, the local chapter of the International Association of Black Firefighters.
The property is 410 Orchard St. The GDDC purchased it in 2019 under a limited liability corporation called 410 Orchard. It currently hosts a two-family home erected in 1850 that’s been left empty for years since last being home to a barbershop on the first floor.
“We’ve been searching for a home for quite some time,” retired firefighter Terrance Roundtree said in support of the project. GDDC has similarly been long searching for opportunities to create more homes in the community amidst a spiraling dearth of affordable housing and limited funding options to build more.
In order to get going on those nine apartments — the first phase of a broader initiative by the neighborhood development crew to build 25 affordable apartments over 10 years within the Dwight community — GDDC asked the Board of Zoning Appeals for variances to permit denser-than-usual housing on a particularly tight property.
For example, they sought permission to establish 403 square feet of lot area per apartment where 2,000 is usually required; to maintain building coverage of 85 percent of the property where 30 is typically the maximum; and to reduce the front, rear and side yard setbacks down to just a few feet. They also requested a special exception to allow zero off-street parking where 35 spaces are usually required.
The apartments proposed for Orchard Street ...
... as compared to the old barbershop and attached home slated for demolition.
Carolyn Kone, the attorney representing the project, said that without those variances, the “only thing we could build as of right now” after demolishing the building “is something the size of a tractor trailer.”
The BZA will vote on the matter after the City Plan Commission and the State Historic Preservation Project review it.
In order to get approval from that latter body, the development team is designing a building for compatibility with the “historic fabric of the neighborhood,” according to a cover letter about the project. That means that in exchange for demolishing a home from the 1800s, the developers are promising not to build above four stories while choosing a flat roof and bay windows among other features to help the new apartment building fit in with its surroundings.
Architect Esteban Reichberg noted that the current structure is “not the original,” in any case, but rather an “aggregation of small additions over time,” that’s plagued by a water damaged facade riddled with termite damage.
GDDC originally hoped to build just four apartments in the property. They said they are now aiming for nine because that is the minimum number demanded by the Community Investment Fund, the source they’re hoping will ultimately help cover the $5 million construction cost.
The grant application from that organization is still under review.
The plan calls for six two-bedrooms and three one-bedrooms, two of which will be priced at 50 percent area median income (or an income of $45,900 for a family of two) and seven at 80 percent (an income of $73,400 for a family of two). It also includes 1,500 square feet of office space would be set aside for the Firebirds.
That local group, founded in 1971, includes Black and Hispanic firefighters from around the Greater New Haven Region. They organize community events like toy drives while training incoming firefighters, offering scholarships to recruit youth into the field, and educating residents about fire safety, among other initiatives.
A letter to the city written by GDDC noted that the “greater Dwight neighborhood is suffering severe economic distress.”
Dwight Alder Frank Douglass welcomed the proposed development during Tuesday’s public hearing: “It’s gonna mean vibrancy for our community … The Firebirds program is a must and an asset to New Haven itself.”