East Rock neighbors Rob Narracci, Bruce Johnson, Marion Coleman, Mary Johnson testify.
Thomas Breen Photos
177 Lawrence.
What matters more: Housing density? Or neighborhood character?
Zoning commissioners had to decide between the two in an East Rock test case of where and how best to encourage the creation of more housing.
Ultimately, commissioners “split the baby” and found a compromise somewhere between the two.
On the side of building more apartments stood Albert Annunziata, a local attorney and landlord who owns a half-dozen properties in East Rock through his holding company Sohu, LLC.
Annunziata had applied to the BZA for a variance and a special exception that would allow him to convert the two-family house he owns at 177 Lawrence St. into a house with five separate apartments.
On the side of preserving neighborhood character stood nearly every other homeowner on that stretch of Lawrence Street.
Tuesday night’s BZA hearing.
The debate arose in the middle of Tuesday’s three-hour Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) meeting in the basement of 200 Orange St.
Eight neighbors came out to testify about how converting the two-family house into five apartments would tarnish the historic owner-occupied feel of the block, and would contribute to the “overdensification” of a street that currently consists of mostly two-family homes.
“I was born in New Haven,” Annunziata said in defense of his proposal, and of his motivation to develop the property. “I live in New Haven. I work in New Haven. I have a vested interest in New Haven.”
His neighbors were having none of it.
“Packing as many people as possible into an old building is nothing new,” said Lawrence Street resident Mary Johnson. “It seems to me a throwback to the tenements of old.”
The commissioners wound up siding somewhere in between, granting Annunziata a special exception to convert the property into three, not five, residential units.
The debate got to one of the core questions raised by the Affordable Housing Task Force, which recommended that the city, the region, and the state encourage the develop of more and denser housing by eliminating restrictive zoning regulations that seek to preserve historic character.
Tuesday’s hearing on 177 Lawrence St. did not involve a developer promising to build “affordable” housing or explicit zoning regulations about historic character. It did reveal just how reluctant neighbors in a relatively affluent, historic, owner-occupied neighborhood are to see neighboring properties turned into denser residences.
The Pitch
Local attorney Miguel Almodovar and Annunziata.
Annunziata’s attorney, Miguel Almodovar, introduced the application on Tuesday night as a sensible proposal to develop a reasonable number of apartments in a very big house.
“It is way too big to be a two-family,” Almodovar said.
The two-and-a-half-story, early-20th century house has 5,158 square feet of gross floor area, he said, and is located on a 6,970 square-foot lot.
He pointed out that in Low Middle-Density (RM‑1) Districts, which 177 Lawrence St. falls in, buildings that predate the zoning code only need a minimum of 1,000 square feet of gross floor area per dwelling unit.
The footprint of the building, he said, would stay the same. The only additions that Annunziata planned to make were new egress stairways and window wells, which city law requires of any residence with more than three housing units.
“The units are permissible,” he said, “but we need to build out the safety.”
Annunziata said he planned to build out one two-bedroom apartment in the house’s 1,653 square-foot basement; a three-bedroom apartment and a studio or a one-bedroom apartment on the first floor; a four-bedroom apartment on the second floor; and a three-bedroom apartment on the third floor.
He said he also planned on demolishing a dilapidated garage currently behind the house in order to increase the available on-site parking from two spaces to five.
“He’s here to stay,” Almodovar said about Annunziata’s New Haven roots. “This is where he’s made his life.”
Neighbor Pushback
East Rock neighbors Rob Narracci, Bruce Johnson, Marion Coleman, Mary Johnson testify.
But when the commissioners opened the public hearing on the proposal, they heard just about every neighbor on the block oppose the five-unit conversion. Not only did neighbors decry the potential density disparity between Annunziata’s proposal and the rest of Lawrence Street, they all warned the commissioners that approving the full five units would set an unwelcome precedent for the rest of the city.
Bruce and Mary Johnson, who have lived at 173 Lawrence St. for nearly 19 years, decried the “overdensification” that would result from the five-unit conversion. Bruce said that a basement apartment with a relatively low ceiling “is not in the public health interest,” and said that the crowding in of tenants would change the character of a house, and a block, proud of its high number of owner-occupants.
“The more likely result would be a student dorm,” he said. “And that’s not appropriate for the neighborhood.”
Mary agreed. “This property is correctly zoned right now,” she said. “As a two-family residence, it is in conformity with the block.”
Rob Narracci, who has lived at 678 Orange St. at the corner of Lawrence for nearly 13 years, pointed out that no house on the block currently exceeds three units. Most, he said, are two-family homes.
He added that Annunziata should reconsider demolishing the garage behind the house.
“It’s not just a garage,” Narracci said. “It’s actually a carriage house.”
Christa Dove said that, while Annunziata only bought 177 Lawrence late last year, she has lived in her two-family house at 193 Lawrence St. since 1967.
“All this is just unthinkable on our street,” she said about a five-unit house.
Marion Coleman, who has lived at 188 Lawrence for 41 years, agreed. She said it would be a real shame to see the street and the neighborhood lose its owner-occupied, relatively low-density character.
“I don’t think there’s a shortage of places to live,” she said.
Hanlyn Davies, who has lived at 196 Lawrence St. for 18 years, agreed that the street is full of two and three-family homes.
If the zoning commissioners were to allow a five-unit conversion on the block, he said, “that establishes a huge precedent.”
Commissioners Decide
Zoning commissioners on Tuesday night.
“I have trouble with five units in this building,” BZA Chair Pat King said after Annunziata and his unhappy neighbors had finished addressing the board.
Almodovar pointed out that the five-unit special exception request does not require Annunziata to prove any kind of hardship, in the way that a variance would. The variance the landlord had applied for to permit a side yard of zero feet where eight feet is required. That side yard relief would allow Annunziata to build the necessary egress stairs and window wells, he said.
King remained unconvinced.
“They are increasing the nonconformity by adding the units,” she said.
Ultimately, she proposed to her fellow commissioners that they approve the variance as is, and that they limit the special exception to allow for a total of three units at the house, not five.
When she moved the item, both the variance and the amended special exception passed unanimously. Annunziata got permission to convert the two-family house into a three-family, not a five-family.