Park Saved; New Housing Plan Dropped

A Boston-based affordable housing developer has dropped its plans to buy a Kensington Street public park and construct 15 new apartments in its stead — prompting the Elicker administration to move to end a related years-long lawsuit on the grounds that the contested public greenspace will remain public and green.

That’s the latest with Kensington Playground, a 0.67-acre park on Kensington Street between Chapel Street and Edgewood Avenue in the Dwight neighborhood.

On Thursday afternoon, city spokesperson Lenny Speiller announced via an email press release that The Community Builders (TCB) no longer plans to build 15 new income-restricted apartments atop the Kensington Playground site.

TCB Senior Development Project Manager Kristin Anderson confirmed for the Independent that her organization indeed will not be building any new housing as part of its ongoing Kensington Square redevelopment plan, which will instead see 96 units of existing TCB-owned affordable apartments in the neighborhood significantly renovated with new floors, kitchens, baths, roofs, and more.

Because TCB will no longer be building on that Kensington Playground greenspace, Speiller continued, the city no longer plans to sell the publicly owned land to the developer for $1, as the Board of Alders signed off on doing in October 2020.

And because the city will no longer be selling this park land to TCB, the Elicker administration has filed a motion to dismiss the Friends of Kensington Playground et al v. City of New Haven state court case. That lawsuit has been wending its way through court since November 2020 when a group of parks advocates first sought to stop the Kensington Street park-to-housing deal from going through by citing, in part, the Connecticut Environmental Protection Act (CEPA).

The upshot of all of this: After nearly three years of political and legal debates on the matter, Kensington Playground will remain a public park. TCB will not be building any new apartments atop the site. And the city will not be selling the park to any other developer.

“This has been a challenging issue and some in the community have felt passionately on both sides in balancing the need for more affordable housing units with the need for green space in the City,” Mayor Justin Elicker is quoted as saying in Thursday’s press release. 

“In light of the developer’s decision not to proceed with the housing development, I have directed the City’s corporation counsel to dismiss the case. It is time to move forward — and, while not everyone may agree with the result, this decision settles the issue and this bit of the Dwight neighborhood will remain a green space for the community moving forward.”

Patricia Wallace, a long-time Dwight neighbor and the lead plaintiff in the state lawsuit, welcomed the news of TCB dropping its park-to-housing development plans and of the city moving to end the course case.

“We recognize that City leaders hoped to increase the supply of affordable housing by their offer of the playground to a local non-profit, a noble goal,” she said in a separate press release issued on Thursday. ​“Housing can be built on other City-owned land in neighborhoods with ample green space. Dwight has less of it than any other neighborhood in the City.” Her group is still raising money to cover the legal costs of pursuing the lawsuit, and also plans to fundraise for a new playscape to be built at the park.

Elm Street resident and Dwight neighborhood native Kishaun Jenkins, 33, also welcomed the news of Kensington park’s preservation when this reporter caught up with him Thursday afternoon as he was walking his dog in the park.

“It should be for the kids,” he said about the public greenspace. Plus, for adults like himself, ​“this is the coolest spot to be,” thanks to the two dozen mature trees that provide shade for parkgoers.

Local attorney Keith Ainsworth, who has represented the friends group in its years-long legal challenge to the city’s sale of the park to TCB, also heralded this latest turn in the case as ending up with the right result.

“Dignified and affordable housing is an acute need,” he said, ​“but the park space is a finite asset that you really shouldn’t be trading.”

You can’t just say housing is greater and the city therefore needs to sell some parks to make it happen, he continued. ​“You need to keep both. If there’s a lesson in this suit, in making these difficult choices, the city really needs to find a way to provide dignified housing and preserve parks and not make the choice between them.”

Ainsworth also praised the friends group for the way its brought neighbors together around this park. ​“One of the silver linings of all of this is, as a result of the threat to the park, the neighborhood rallied. They’ve cleaned up the park. They’ve made it a source of community focus. I think they’ve given that park a new life.”

And why exactly did TCB decide to drop its 15-apartment construction plan for the park space, and thereby release the city from its previous commitment to sell the developer the green space?

“The decision not to move forward with the 15 units was made in partnership with the City and not due to funding,” Anderson told the Independent. ​“TCB remains committed to aligning our work with the City’s revised objectives, which includes releasing any obligations for TCB to develop the Kensington Playground. We look forward to continuing construction to preserve the existing 19 buildings, offering 96 stable homes for Kensington residents, and continuing to support the City’s goals for further mixed income and affordable housing investment in New Haven.”

That latter reference to an ongoing construction project concerns 96 existing apartments that TCB already owns on and around Kensington Street. The developer has already begun renovating those affordable rentals, having completed 16 already and with 80 still to go.

“We are not building any new housing,” Anderson reiterated, ​“the 96 units under renovation already exist. The improvements to the existing 96 units include apartment upgrades (new floors, kitchens, baths), health and safety improvements (asbestos abatement, improved energy efficiency measures), building systems upgrades (new boilers, roofs, exterior repairs), and site improvements (landscaping, parking lot repairs, etc).”