Route 34 West Plan Advances

A new headquarters for the Continuum of Care. A pharmacy. A building for docs and labs. A deli/bakery that provides both wonderful buns and vocational training. A surface parking lot.

In a later phase more buildings for retail, lots of trees and an inner courtyard, and a structured parking garage rising in the middle of the block.

The builders of a proposed new development along Route 34 across from Career High School went public with a conceptual design and details of that plan at City Hall Wednesday night, and they got the approval of the City Plan Commission.

The commissioners unanimously voted to approve a development and land disposition agreement (DLDA) that would allow the not-for-porfit mental-health agency Continuum of Care to build an $11 million, 30,000 square foot , three-story headquarters in partnership with a Middletown builder called Centerplan Companies at 243 Legion Ave., on a 5.39 acre lot bounded by Dwight and Orchard Streets, Martin Luther King Boulevard and Legion Avenue.

The partnership would buy the property from the city for $2.65 million and proceed in two phases. First they would erect a three-story Continuum of Care headquarters at Legion and Dwight.

Planners hope the deal will spark a mixed residential and retail rejuvenation along the 16-acre wasteland created by the urban renewers of the past and stretching from Dwight Street through the Hill and West River to Ella Grasso Boulevard in the west.

Click here for a story on recent zoning changes for the entire 16-acre parcel; and here for an overview of the deal and how in planners’ minds it fits in with the ​“restitching” of streets and neighborhoods across the scar of Route 34.

The initial LDLA for the Continuum property passed Wednesday night after engaged inquiry from the commissioners but little public criticism. Now it goes to the Board of Aldermen for review; the plan is expected to spark more public debate there.

Continuum is a fast-growing not-for profit that runs programs for people with psychiatric problems and developmental disabilities. Currently spread out in rental space across the city, it seeks to centralize operations to meet growing demand. (Patients would not be seen in the new building.) Sixty-five nurses would be headquartered there and fan out to make approximately 150,000 home visits a year, said Continuum President Patti Walker.

As additional parts of a first phase, the developers would erect a four-to-six story medical and laboratory building at Dwight and MLK, a pharmacy at Orchard and Legion, and another retail building at Orchard and MLK; surface parking would remain in the center of the development. (See the rendition at the top of the story).

Assuming the project attracts tenants, in the second phase, builders would add another three-story medical building on Legion. They would substitute a structured four-level parking structure in the middle of the block, with a maximum of 795 car spaces. All together, Continuum of Care’s 30,000 square feet of space for its nurses and staff would attract tenants for an additional 90,000 square feet of lab, medical, and retail space, according to the plan.

Little Criticism This Time

At last month’s City Plan meeting, where the DLDA was discussed in a zoning context and at previous meetings with neighborhood management teams, residents raised objections.

They focused on the extent of community input, the density the new plan will bring to the residential areas to the west, as well as concerns about jobs and the amount of parking.

Although the proceeding Wednesday was not a public hearing, commissioners consented to allow public comment.

One member of the public spoke up: Ohan Karagozian, the vice-chair of the Hill North Community Management Team.

“How much community involvement” went into the plan? he asked.

Centerplan Vice President of Development Yves Joseph replied, ​“We went to all the management teams, many more than once.”

“What changes were incorporated as a result of what you heard the community wants?” asked the commission member Adam Marchand, a Westville alder.

A deli, a market, a bank, replied Joseph and the other plan proponents. Continuum of Care’s Walker said that as a result she is committed to having a deli and bakery combination on the ground floor of her building. She said that would serve two purposes: activating the street for the community and providing ​“vocational training for our clients.”

Karagozian also expressed concern about the pollution the new parking structure would cause, exacerbating New Haven’s already high asthma rates.

“We would love not to build a garage, but they are necessary. The uses wouldn’t be possible without parking. Docs won’t lease from you if you don’t have parking. We believe the garage is over-sized [in the concept] and will [probably] be less,” said Centerplan CEO Robert Landino

Livable City Initiative Executive Director Erik Johnson, who helped craft the deal, added, ​“This is not against the city’s commitment to transit-oriented development (TOD).”

He said the plan will include bike paths and connections to the Yale shuttle. He said the city’s overall aim is to promote non-automobile transportation. ​“These are not mutually exclusive, [but] we have to have a space that will attract tenant interest, and parking is one,” he said.

Karagozian (pictured) said later that he supports the plan in general, but he continues to view the phase two garage as a particular ​“a thumb in the eye” to his neighborhood. He called the resultant pollution a detriment to local residents’ health.

Johnson said the site plan and the drawings are only a beginning, a ​“conceptual” site plan subject to change and further review by the commissioners and City Plan staff.

The city has not yet made any capital commitment to the project, he said. He also added that of the total of 120,000 square feet of space, only Continuum’s 30,000 is not-for-profit; the plan calls for the rest of the property to generate taxes.