Thomas Breen photo
Anstress Farwell pitches mixed-use, not more parking, train station.
Fereshteh Bekhrad and Rick Wies design
2nd parking garage-less visions for what the area around Union Station could look like,
As the state plods ahead with its plans to build a second parking garage next to Union Station, one local New Urbanism activist is stepping up her fight against the car-centric proposed construction.
Anstress Farwell, the founder and president of the New Haven Urban Design League, made her Union Avenue pitch, for mixed-use development over parking at the Downtown-Wooster Square Community Management Team’s most recent regular monthly meeting on the second floor of City Hall.
Farwell received a round of applause from the 40 attendees as she shared designs from a flash charette she hosted earlier this year about what could be built on a surface parking lot adjacent to the current Union Station parking garage.
She noted that, instead of seeking out housing or retail or office builders, the state Department of Transportation (DOT) instead still plans to build a controversial new seven-level, 1,015-space parking garage on that site.
Robert Orr design
State public transit chief Rich Andreski confirmed as much during a recent retail-revamp tour of Union Station, though he added that the $60 million planned construction project is currently stalled due to expected deficits in the state Special Transportation Fund.
State DOT Director of Communications Judd Everhart doubled down on the parking garage plans in response to a request for comment for this article.
“Union Station connects New Haven to the world,” he wrote in an emailed statement. “To do that, the station must itself connect to other modes of transportation and to downtown New Haven. DOT is working with the rest of the Lamont administration and the City of New Haven to accomplish both objectives by developing parking and other uses for the state-owned property at the station. Additional parking will allow this busy transportation center to better serve its customers.”
Tuesday’s management team meeting.
David Bednarz, a spokesperson for the Gov. Ned Lamont’s office, was more equivocal on the plans for the second garage in his response to a request for comment for this article.
“The governor believes that any development built on the site should contribute to the fabric of the neighborhood and the function of America’s busiest commuter rail system,” he wrote in an emailed statement. “The administration is currently in the process of reviewing proposals and appreciates the input of those who live in, travel through, and represent the community.”
CHA CONSULTING
The state’s latest design for the second Union Station garage.
Farwell, during her presentation at the management team meeting this past Tuesday night, said neighbors and Union Station customers tell her that a second parking garage would not “contribute to the fabric of the neighborhood.” Rather, it would rather throw away a prime piece of public real estate towards traffic congestion, air quality degradation, and paltry economic use.
The city might be able to convince the state to let it in on some kind of revenue share of the parking receipts, she said, but she argued that money would pale in comparison to the tax revenue that could be garnered from the construction of some kind of residential, commercial, and office development built right next to one of the busiest commuter hubs in the region.
“At this point in the city’s life,” she said, “we really shouldn’t be struggling for peanuts.”
As an alternate vision for what could go on that state-owned lot other than a parking garage, Farwell presented the two designs to emerge from the January charette: one by local architect Robert Orr, one by local architect Rick Wies and developer Fereshteh Bekhrad.
Both plans, she said, envision a four-foot elevated sidewalk to protect pedestrians from automobile traffic and protect prospective ground-floor retailers from flooding.
One shows what the neighborhood could look like with two 10-story towers of apartments and stores surrounded by smaller commercial and residential buildings. One shows what the neighborhood would look like with a more diverse assemblage of smaller buildings with interior courtyards.
Instead of building a garage, Farwell said, the state could lease the land to a private developer, who would then finance the construction of such a mixed-use block. Or the state could hand the property over to the city, and the city could work with private developers to make these visions a reality.
“It’s essentially our property,” Farwell said about the land’s public ownership. The state should not be able to build a garage if enough people express their opposition, she said.
Kevin McCarthy (back right),
“The state is on a debt diet,” East Rock Community Management Team Co-Chair Kevin McCarthy pointed out. He said the likelihood that the state would build something like what Farwell was proposing, or would give the parcel to the city to try to realize such a project, is somewhere between zero and none.
The state would never build such a project, Farwell agreed. But they could lease the property to a private developer who could.
City transit chief Doug Hausladen (right).
“What’s difficult for a lot of Connecticut people to understand,” city transit chief Doug Hausladen added, “is that the private sector will build, if you let them. Or you could pay $100 million to get a garage.”
What can we do to oppose this project? one attendee asked. Sign a petition? Email the DOT?
Farwell implored the group to reach out to the governor directly. She said she plans on hosting another design charette for the proposed parking garage site later this fall, after the mayoral election.
“We have to just stay deeply engaged,” she said, “and keep this really good, helpful thinking going.”