It’s A Wrap: Fusco Waterfront Plan OK’d

Alders unanimously approved plans to build up to 500 new apartments on Long Wharf after arguing that the city’s waterfront should be developed and protected — not abandoned — amid climate change.

Alders took that vote Monday night during the latest bimonthly full Board of Alders meeting in the Aldermanic Chamber on the second floor of City Hall.

They voted unanimously in support of a zoning text amendment to modify Planned Development District (PDD) #53 to allow for residential use of up to 500 apartments at 501 – 585 Long Wharf Dr.

The vote means that the property’s landlord, the Long Wharf-based Fusco Corporation, can now legally build apartments atop the largely vacant 4.3‑acre waterfront site that had previously been zoned for commercial and industrial use only.

Fusco’s current plans for that site include a mixed-use development with 410 new apartments spread across two new 13-story and 15-story residential towers; a two-acre landscaped public park along the harbor; and a public market and food hall.

Before the developer can move ahead with actually constructing those buildings, it will need to submit a detailed site plan application to the city and then win approval from the City Plan Commission.

“We’re very happy, very pleased,” Fusco Corporation President Lynn Fusco said after watching Monday night’s vote from a bench at the back of the Aldermanic Chamber.

“We’re going to review the order that was adopted and be in touch with the city for the next steps,” added Fusco’s attorney for the project, Matthew Rannelli.

“We Are Not Abandoning Our Shoreline”

Monday’s final aldermanic vote capped just over a month’s worth of public hearings about the zoning change — and about the philosophical, environmental, engineering, and economic conundrum of moving forward with a substantial new waterfront development during climate change.

The City Plan Commission and the Board of Alders Legislation and Community Development Committees all wound up endorsing the zoning amendment after those previous meetings, even though a top state environmental official urged the city to reject it because of the risks to life and property that could result from building new waterfront apartments at a time of climate change-exacerbated sea level rise, flooding, and storms.

The alders who spoke up Monday night in support of the zoning change insisted that New Haven should not have to abandon its largely underused waterfront entirely in the years and decades ahead.

Echoing arguments made at previous meetings by City Engineer Giovanni Zinn and City Plan Director Aicha Woods, they said that New Haven should instead embrace waterfront developments that are constructed in environmentally responsible ways — and that contribute much-needed tax dollars that can in turn be used to fund some of the climate resiliency infrastructure projects detailed in the city’s recently adopted Long Wharf Responsible Growth Plan.

“This is going to be able to help us fund what’s needed to keep us all safe when the flooding does start in the future,” Hill Alder Carmen Rodriguez said Monday night in support of the zoning change.

“Should we retreat from the shoreline, or should we embrace the shoreline?” Westville Alder Adam Marchand asked.

He sided emphatically with the latter option.

“We are not abandoning our shoreline. We are developing our shoreline. We are protecting that infrastructure that is extremely important nearby, including the highway and the train station.”

Prospect Hill/Newhallville Alder Steve Winter drew his colleagues’ attention to one of the more climate-change-vulnerable public assets associated with Fusco’s residential development. That is: Long Wharf Drive.

While Fusco’s planned new apartment towers will keep residential uses at least 20 feet above high tide, he said, Long Wharf Drive is only a few feet above that highwater mark. Since Long Wharf Drive plays a key role in Fusco’s preliminary flood evacuation plan for the apartments, he said, that could be a big problem.

“With rising sea levels and storms, Long Wharf Drive could flood and cause evacuations frequently in the near future, underscoring the need to raise the road and make other coastal improvements to keep new residents safe,” Winter said. ​“We should approve the PDD amendment because of the significant development potential it enables, but we should also be aware of the significant costs of new infrastructure improvements, like raising Long Wharf Drive.”

Winter called on the city to ​“expedite plans for how to finance infrastructure improvements to make sure the entire area is safely habitable.”

East Rock Alder and Legislation Committee Chair Charles Decker agreed with the urgency of protecting Long Wharf from the rising tides of climate change. He also agreed that the Fusco project as currently envisioned could do more to help, rather than hurt, the area’s and the city’s climate resiliency.

“The city needs more and denser housing, and the Long Wharf area could be a thriving, transit-centered neighborhood,” Decker said. ​“Both of these things are necessary to lower carbon emissions in the long term. Short of making a decision to abandon the waterfront altogether, the best we can do is development that prepares for our new reality the best we can.”

After the meeting, City Plan Director Woods cited the various coastal resiliency projects included in the city’s Long Wharf Plan.

Those include building ​“living shorelines” of intertidal marshes, dunes, native plants, and other manmade structures to protect Long Wharf from erosion; building out a central ​“Long Wharf Greenway” that would connect neighborhoods and help with stormwater drainage; and potentially raising roads to push them above the risk of future floods. The Army Corps of Engineers, the state, and the city are also planning on building a mile-long flood wall near Long Wharf.

“It proposes a really ambitious green infrastructure program,” Woods said about the Long Wharf Plan. She said the city will be going after state and federal grants to help make that program a reality.

The city’s chances of snagging federal dollars to help build out some of these projects likely got a lot brighter Monday, as President Joe Biden signed a $1 trillion infrastructure bill that includes billions of dollars for coastal resiliency.

“It’s a happy coincidence,” Woods said, that the Fusco zoning change was approved on the same day that the president signed such a massive infrastructure bill.