Yale Cleared On Wall St. Parking

Yale’s plans to convert a former Wall Street pizza restaurant into classrooms and gathering spaces took a small step forward, as alders unanimously approved a resolution stating that the project won’t require any changes to the university’s central campus parking plan.

Local legislators took that vote Monday night during the latest regular bimonthly meeting of the full Board of Alders. The in-person meeting took place in the Aldermanic Chamber on the second floor of City Hall.

Without any discussion or debate on the matter, alders approved by unanimous consent a resolution ​“certifying that no amendment to the Yale University Central/Science Campus Overall Parking Plan is required for the application for variance pertaining to 82 – 90 Wall Street” (to quote from the title of the resolution itself.)

That means that, as Yale heads to the Board of Zoning Appeals to seek a host of variances pertaining to its plans to transform the vacant former home of Wall Street Pizza and Naples Pizza, it won’t need to amend the comprehensive parking agreement it has with the city for university-adjacent areas around downtown.

Click here to read a previous article about Yale’s plans for 82 – 90 Wall St., which include demolishing the pizza kitchen and dining space to build three classrooms, two of which could be merged into one larger space. The university also plans to create an indoor lounge area and an outdoor back patio in the former pizza restaurant, which has been vacant since 2019.

Yale Associate Vice President for New Haven Affairs and University Properties Lauren Zucker explained the reasoning behind the no-parking-amendment-required resolution in a March 11 letter sent to Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers.

Zucker wrote that the university submitted a zoning relief application for 82 – 90 Wall St. to the BZA on March 11.

That application ​“seeks variances to enable the provision of an accessible entrance to the front and improved accessibility to the rear of the buildings; creation of outdoor terrace, patio and landscape space; creation of classroom space in an addition to the rear of the Property; and provision of a decorative and functional enclosure wall between a portion of the Property and the adjacent garden on the Elizabethan Club property to the south,” she wrote.

According to the zoning relief application itself, which Zucker included along with the request for the aldermanic resolution, the university is seeking variances from the BZA to:

• Permit the construction of a building addition with rear yard of two feet where 20 feet is required.

• Permit the construction of a one-story open-air covered accessible walk, knee wall, fascia and columns within five-foot required front yard to within 0 feet of front property line.

• Permit the construction of open-air terrace, patio, stair, ramp, rails, walls and landscape beds within 20 foot required rear yard to within 0.2 feet of rear property line.

• Permit the construction of a building wall with heigh of 15.7 feet within two feet of rear property line where 7.85 foot setback is required.

• Permit the construction of a building wall with height of 15.7 feet within 0.2 feet of side property line where 7.85 foot setback is required.

• Permit the construction of a rear enclosure wall with a height of 9.6 feet where eight feet is permitted.

None of those specific zoning-related requests were before the alders on Monday.

Rather, Monday’s vote was on a resolution certifying that all of Yale’s work won’t affect the university’s central campus parking plan with the city.

“No parking spaces will be added or lost as a result of the project,” Zucker wrote in her letter to Walker-Myers.

“No parking is required for the project under Section 12(b)(1)(g) of the Zoning Ordinance since the project will not expand the University’s existing student body, no faculty or employees will be added, and no new places of assembly will be created. The project will have no impact on the Central/Science Campus OPP.”