Neighbors who have been cleaning up this pond see a looming threat to their efforts — a garage planned by Southern Connecticut State University.
At a public hearing on March 5, SCSU officials announced they still want to build the garage off Crescent Street near the Boulevard, but reduced the size from 650 cars to 250. The public has until Friday (March 20) to comment on the Environmental Impact Statement for the proposal.
An online petition is gathering steam as Beaver Hill neighbors seek to stop the university from building at least one of several parking garages in its master plan.
Three longtime residents met at the site of the proposed garage on Wednesday afternoon. Shelly Altman, Bob Caplan and Nan Bartow are pictured standing next to Beaver Pond. The Friends of Beaver Pond Park have been working hard to clean up the body of water over the past several years, clearing out invasive species and planting native trees and shrubs. (Click here for a previous story.) The planned garage is seen as threatening that progress.
“The real issue here,” Altman said, “is that of all places to build a garage, this seems like the worst possible one, for two reasons. One is the proximity to Beaver Pond Park; the other is the proximity to the neighborhood.
“Building a garage closer to a residential neighborhood is inevitably going to cause more traffic coming down the side streets with the ensuing risk to kids playing in the street and just in general disrupting the neighborhood.”
Bartow added that an existing garage that borders on parkland creates air, noise and light pollution. “The university thinks about the university from the point of view of inside the university,” she said, “but not the effects on the outside of the university.”
Bob Caplan, chair of the Beaver Hill Management Team, zeroed in on the university’s plan that accommodates private vehicles while minimizing the use of greener options like shuttles from distant parking lots or garages that are not adjacent to residential neighborhoods or to sensitive habitat.
(Click here for a previous story.)
Keith Epstein, an assistant chancellor for planning with the state university system, said there’s a need for more parking on campus. Asked if planners had considered discouraging private cars by increasing shuttle service, he said, “That hasn’t been discussed to date.” But he added that the community members “have been clear they don’t want a garage there, and their comments are important. We’re certainly not ignoring what they have to say.”
The surface lot by Crescent and Boulevard, pictured, with the proposed garage site in the background, was far from full early Wednesday afternoon.
Epstein said that before the school moves forward, a master plan revision must be approved by the Connecticut State University Board of Trustees. No date has been set. Also, an environmental impact evaluation — the “EIE” — must take place, allowing the general public to weigh in. Epstein said it should be submitted to the state in the next four to six weeks.
“The EIE takes into consideration both environmental [issues] and physical placement of buildings and general public’s concerns, traffic,” Epstein said, “so it’s a complete look at what’s happening at the site. It’s to protect the interests of everybody.”
Altman turned his letter of opposition that he sent to Epstein into a petition to gather as many signatures as possible by Friday.
The neighborhood’s two aldermen, Moti Sandman and Carl Goldfield, have spoken out against the garage. In an email message to their constituents, they noted the reduction in the number of cars from 650 to 250, as a result of the community’s efforts, and added, “We believe that if there is enough public outcry we can get the garage taken out of the plan altogether.”
In a phone conversation Wednesday, Sandman said, “We need to get them to understand that a suburban sprawl vision for a campus doesn’t work anymore. They have to start thinking out of the box, thinking about mass transit.” Another concern: a dispute over who owns the land on which the university wants to build the garage. Neighbors say the university claims to own it but has not shown them the documentation. Meanwhile, activist Chris Ozyck wrote in an email, “New Haven GIS shows New Haven owns this land by the park.”
Sandman said if the CSU Board of Trustees approves the garage, he and Goldfield will discuss next steps with the community. He said the money would have to go through the state Revenue and Bonding Commission; they might appeal to their state elected officials for help in stopping it there.