Neuro Center Debated, Moves Forward

Yale New Haven Hospital’s pitch to transform the city’s healthcare economy with a new $838 million neuroscience center earned the project four key aldermanic committee sign-offs — as well as impassioned testimony from Dwight neighbors worried about gentrification, traffic congestion, air pollution, and historic property demolition.

Alders issued those unanimous recommended approvals Tuesday night at the end of a three-and-a-half-hour meeting of the Joint Community Development/Legislation Committee in the Aldermanic Chambers on the second floor of City Hall.

The project in question is the hospital’s planned overhaul of and nearly-$1 billion investment into its St. Raphael campus, which it acquired in 2012 and which is bounded by Chapel Street, Sherman Avenue, George Street, and Orchard Street in the West River and Dwight neighborhoods.

The centerpiece of that proposed renovation and expansion is a planned new neuroscience center, consisting of two connected eight-story and seven-story buildings near Sherman Avenue and George Street. The center will have around 210 hospital beds as well as new neurological research facilities.

The project includes a planned expansion of the campus’s existing Emergency Department on Orchard Street, the construction of a new 200-space underground parking garage on Sherman Avenue, and the replacement of the existing Orchard Street Garage with two new seven-story parking garages on the block. One of those new garages will have 773 spaces, the other 722.

Following up on the City Plan Commission’s recommended approvals in November, the committee alders unanimously voted to pass along to the full Board of Alders favorable recommendations on four items related to the neuroscience center.

Those included a proposed amendment to the Medical Area Overall Parking Plan (MOAPP), which describes the total number of parking spaces contained by the various medical area lots and garages used by YNHH, the Yale School of Medicine, and the Connecticut Mental Health Center.

They also included a proposed amendment to Planned Development District (PDD) #45, which defines the geographic boundaries and building contents of the St. Raphael campus; a proposed order that would grant various licenses and easements necessary for the hospital to build a new pedestrian bridge over Orchard Street; and an incorporation of the hospital’s traffic-impact study for the project into the relevant amended PDD.

“We really think this is special,” YNHH Senior Vice President Public Affairs Vincent Petrini (pictured) said about the planned neuroscience center and St. Raphael campus expansion. ​“We think this is transformational.”

The project is expected to generate around $1 billion in economic activity and 1,000 jobs over the course of construction, he said. Iit will also enshrine New Haven as a hub for cutting-edge medical research and care for those suffering from Parkinson’s Disease, ALS, strokes, and other all-too-common neurological diseases, he added.

“We know a project of this magnitude and importance carries with it its own set of challenges,” Petrini said. But ​“this is a project that comes around rarely.”

22% Parking Surplus

Just as at November’s City Plan Commission meeting, hospital brass turned out in full force to push the case for why the planned new neuroscience center and St. Raphael campus expansion should move forward.

Petrini was joined at the crowded table at the front of the Aldermanic Chambers by YNHH Senior Vice President Operations Michael Holmes, YNHH Vice President Facilities Design Stephen Carbery, Shepley Bulfinch architect Andre Kamili, Milford attorney John Knuff, and Tighe & Bond Senior Project Manager Christopher Granatini.

The hospital officials gave a nearly identical pitch to the one they presented to the City Plan Commission — but this time, with many more details regarding expected staff increase numbers, traffic safety improvement locations, and parking garage spaces.

Pending aldermanic and site plan approvals, construction should begin by mid-2020 and be completed by late 2023, with the new medical buildings fully fitted out and serving patients by early 2024.

That work will include the demolition of several historic buildings on Sherman Avenue, the construction of the new connected Sherman Avenue and McGivney neuroscience structures, the construction of the underground Sherman Avenue garage and a new seven-story garage at Orchard Street and George Street, and the replacement of the existing Orchard Street Garage with a new expanded seven-story parking structure.

According to Holmes’s and Carbery’s presentation, the Tighe&Bond traffic-impact study, and the city Transportation, Traffic & Parking Department’s staff report (read it in full here), the St. Raphael hospital campus currently has 450 beds, 3,705 employees, and parking garages and smaller surface lots containing a total of 1,386 parking spaces.

The proposed expansion will bring those numbers up to a total of 660 hospital beds, 5,435 employees, and 2,437 parking spaces.

Holmes said that the combined 1,600 hospital beds between YNHH’s York Street and St. Raphael campuses are routinely at near capacity. At this very moment, he said, there are 1,400 patients in those beds, and another 98 waiting to be transferred to in-patient care from the Emergency Department.

“From our perspective, we cannot build this new facility and expand our Emergency Department fast enough.”

As for the planned parking space increase, he said that the parking minimum formulas laid out in the proposed amended PDD would require the expanded campus to have a total of 1,893 spaces.The hospital is proposing building 603 spaces more than that — giving its campus a 22 percent parking surplus above the stated minimum.

“We think that this is absolutely important to provide flexibility for our patients, our patient families, and visitors, and our staff,” he said.

That’s because the hospital is expecting to lose quite a few parking spaces it currently leases at the Sherman/Tyler and Coliseum surface lots as those parcels are developed into new housing and other tax-generating structures in coming years. Hospital employees and visitors who currently park there will need to park somewhere, he said; much of that shift will be handled by the ​“surplus” to be provided by the new St. Raphael campus garages.

The project calls for the replacement of four existing traffic signals at Chapel and Orchard, Chapel and Sherman, Sherman and George, and Orchard and George, Granatini said. The hospital will also implement traffic signal timing improvements at a number of signals in the area, and will remove the Orchard Street Garage’s Orchard Street entrance, so that all parking garage traffic is funneled instead through the larger arteries of Chapel Street and George Street.

“New Haven has the second-highest concentration of bioscience and life-science companies in the country,” city Acting Economic Development Administrator Michael Piscitelli said as he urged the alders to support the project-related amendments and leases.

That has a lot to do with YNHH and the Yale School of Medicine, he continued.

This neuroscience center and St. Raphael campus expansion will only add to the city’s economy, its workforce, its medical offerings, and its job training opportunities for high school and college students alike, he argued.

“This has been a big project for us,” Livable City Initiative Executive Director Serena Neal-Sanjurjo said. The hospital has been a collaborative partner, and local residents and neighborhood leadership are on board. ​“We are very excited about this project.”

“Reinvestment Must Be Resident-Driven”

A majority of people who turned out to testify during the two hour-plus public hearing section of the meeting, praised the hospital’s investment in new medical research and care — and then lambasted potential negative impacts on the neighborhood

Yale undergraduate and Dwight resident Rasmus Schlutter and legal aid staff attorney Ming-Yee Lin presented a map showing that the area around the St. Raphael campus saw a dramatic out-migration of African American residents between 2010 and 2017.

“This reinvestment must be resident-driven,” Schlutter said. ​“We need to make sure that this will not displace residents and we need to make sure that this will benefit residents in Dwight.”

He said he and several friends had canvassed the neighborhood this weekend, and only five of the 45 people they spoke to knew about the planned development. Many expressed concerns about the project bringing thousands of new cars to the area and driving up home and rental prices.

Legal aid community organizer Kerry Ellington lives right across the street from the St. Raphael campus. She said she has seen large-scale local landlords rebrand and ramp up rents from 2012 as they seek to push out existing tenants and attract hospital employees.

“It’s not enough that we conduct a traffic study,” she said. ​“There needs to be a displacement study that’s connected to this PDD plan.”

Fair Haven developer Fereshteh Bekhrad criticized the new Orchard Street garages’ ​“massive scale” and lack of ​“interactions” and ​“diversified space.”

“It’s a good use and it’s a needed use,” she said about the hospital expansion. ​“But maybe we can work closer and better with the team so that we can come up with some elements to soften the harshness of this structure and to create a more friendly atmosphere for pedestrians.”

University Place resident Kate Walton agreed. ​“The stretch of Orchard Street on the east side is going to be an entire city block” of garages, she said. ​“It’s going to be a very long, scary block going down George Street with this industrial feel to it.”

Orchard Street resident Frankie White said she wants to hear more details about who exactly will benefit from these new jobs and about how much the neighborhood will directly benefit from this massive investment.

“What we don’t need is an ugly garage” in the neighborhood, she said.

Her son, David White, Jr., lamented that no one closely involved in developing and pushing the project seems to be from the Dwight or West River neighborhoods — and many of the hospital higher-ups appear to be from the suburbs.

“Nobody lives in New Haven,” he said. ​“Nobody lives on Orchard Street. Nobody’s picking up trash on the block. Nobody’s worrying about my niece getting hit by a car. Nobody’s worrying about my 12-year-old nephew with chronic asthma.”

Dwight historic preservationist Olivia Martson described the proposed garages as creating a streetscape that will be ​“extremely detrimental to our community” and ​“very, very unfriendly” to pedestrians.

Job-Creater, Talent Magnet

Not everyone who testified Tuesday was critical of the project.

Board of Alders President and West River Alder Tyisha Walker-Myers (pictured) said that this type of project will attract world-class medical talent, and care, to the Elm City.

“When you have a development like this, you have to think about all aspects,” she said. ​“Is parking in the neighborhood a burden? Yes it is.”

And with such a large construction project and nearby surfaced lots planned to be built up in the near future, where is all of that parking supposed to go? ​“It has to go somewhere,” she argued.

Local carpenter, union leader, and City Plan Commissioner Ernest Pagan (pictured) also urged the committee alders to support the project. ​“This job will give the construction industry four years of stability,” he said.

Webster Bank Regional Vice President Jeff Klaus (pictured) agreed.

“We should support a prime enterprise that’s about jobs, that’s about economic growth,” he said.

“Development-Induced Displacement”

After the public hearing had closed, the alders called the hospital execs back up to answer a few more questions.

“We heard some comments about displacement,” said Board of Alders Majority Leader and Amity/Westville Richard Furlow (pictured, with Beaver Hills Alder Brian Wingate). ​“Who is actually being displaced?”

On the face of it, Petrini said, no one. This project is contained entirely within the existing footprint of the hospital campus. No one is being uprooted to make way for the new buildings.

He said the hospital is open to talking with the city and the alders more about how best to prevent indirect displacement through rising property values. The hospital already offers a homebuyers program, he said, which around 100 employees have taken advantage of. It also partners with Habitat for Humanity to support the construction of new, affordable homeownership opportunities.

This may be a bit late in the game, Dwight Alder Frank Douglass asked, but have you considered building this elsewhere? Like on Yale’s West Campus?

Yale University, not the hospital, owns that property, Petrini said. Also, this project requires being built in a dense, medical area, proximate to the existing York Street and St. Raphael hospital campuses, he said, to allow for ease of access for existing staff and patients.

Hill Alder Dolores Colon (pictured) asked if the hospital could simply invest in the construction of new housing instead of new parking garages for its employees. That way hospital staff could more easily walk or take public transit to work, cutting down on almost all of the concerns expressed by residents Tuesday night.

“We’re more than willing to have that conversation,” Petrini reiterated. ​“We’ll do whatever we can to preserve access to affordable housing as part of this project.”

Ultimately, all of the committee alders present decided to vote in favor of all four relevant items, passing them along to the full Board of Alders for a final vote.

Furlow, Marchand, and Westville Alder Darryl Brackeen in particular, however, cautioned that they might vote no on the floor of the full board meeting if they remain unsatisfied by the hospital’s answers between now and then about how it will mitigate some of the residents’ concerns about traffic, pollution, and housing affordability.

Brackeen (pictured at right, with Westville Alder and Legislation Committee Vice-Chair Adam Marchand) coined a phrase for the paradoxically mixed impact that massive new developments like the neuroscience center project can have on a neighborhood. He called it ​“development-induced displacement.”

“No matter what,” he said, ​“anything that’s coming into this city that’s large is going to cause displacement. Economic, political, or otherwise.”

“It is real,” he stressed. ​“This type of displacement is real.”