Cars-vs.-Housing Groundhog Day

The city’s latest clash of cars and beds took place at the dead end of Greenwich Avenue, where an alder sought to stop the creation of a single new apartment on the grounds that the street already has too many parked vehicles.

Hill Alder Carmen Rodriguez spoke out against that housing-without-parking plan Tuesday night during the latest monthly online meeting of the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA).

Her testimony marked the most recent example of influential New Haveners pushing back on plans for denser neighborhoods by citing the potential detrimental impact of too many new cars vying for too few on-street parking spaces.

At the tail end of the two-and-a-half-hour Zoomed meeting on Tuesday, local attorney Ben Trachten pitched the commissioners on a special exception to permit 0 off-street parking spaces where 1 is required at 146 Greenwich Ave.

Trachten said that the property’s landlord, a holding company called LBSE Holdings LLC, seeks to add a third apartment to an existing two-family house. The conversion of the house from two to three dwelling units is ​“as of right,” he explained, as the building has more than 3,000 square feet of gross floor area.

The requested zoning relief, therefore, pertains solely to parking. He said there’s not enough space on site to add an off-street parking space for the planned new apartment.

The two-family house abuts a state-owned parcel of land that includes a long driveway. That driveway, however, is off limits to 146 Greenwich’s occupants, meaning that renters’ cars cannot get to the rear of the residential property’s lot. 

The commissioners didn’t take a vote on the special exception request Tuesday night. Instead, as required for parking-relief applications, they referred it to the City Plan Commission for review, which will then send the matter back to the BZA for final deliberations and a potential vote next month.

Trachten argued during Tuesday’s hearing that the potential addition of one car to the street shouldn’t have any impact on the surrounding area. He urged the commissioners to approve the requested parking relief, allowing for the creation of a new apartment without a new off-street parking space.

During the public testimony section of the hearing, Alder Rodriguez disagreed and urged the commissioners to turn down the application.

She said that she lives in that area, and that this stretch of Greenwich is often quite jammed up with cars.

“I have cars that are parking on the sidewalk, which is illegal,” she said. ​“I ask that at this time, that this [application] not get approved.”

Rodriguez said other neighbors on Greenwich who were not able to make it to Tuesday’s meeting were also against the proposal. She said she’s against the addition of another new unit of housing at 146 Greenwich ​“unless they can provide information that folks are going to be able to utilize that long driveway” — the one owned by the state, which Trachten said the residential property’s occupants can’t use. 

There’s simply no way to accommodate a single new parking spot on this site, Trachten replied. And there’s just no way the addition of a single car to the street would ​“impact the habitability of the neighborhood.”

“Parking is not a right. It’s something that some people utilize,” while others use a bicycle or scooter or the bus, he argued. Just because someone might not be able to park on the street right in front of their house doesn’t mean they won’t be able to park on the street at all, he said. ​“It’s fine for people to walk two or three blocks” from their car to their house.

Trachten stressed that new housing is sorely needed across the city. There’s no need to prevent a new dwelling unit from coming online ​“solely out of fear that one car will have a deleterious impact on a neighborhood. It’s ridiculous.”

Reached by phone on Thursday, Rodriguez defended her position in urging the commissioners to reject the zoning-relief request.

“We want safe, clean, affordable housing,” Rodriguez said, in reference to one of the Board of Alders’ stated legislative goals. ​“We also want a safe place for someone to station their vehicle.” 

Some people still need cars to support their livelihoods, she said. Not everyone can live without a vehicle. ​“Putting one [more] vehicle [on the street] may not cause harm,” she conceded. But she’s unconvinced that it won’t have an impact, given how frequently cars park up and down Greenwich Avenue.

Just come on out to Greenwich Avenue, she urged any city officials trying to determine the real traffic and parking situation on the block, and see for yourself how many cars are parked where they shouldn’t be.