Westville Says OK To CVS, But …

The new Westville CVS won’t be two stories high, or have outdoor seating, but it might feature the work of local artists and other touches advocated by its future neighbors.

So promised developers of a proposed CVS pharmacy with a drive-thru proposed for the corner of Whalley Avenue and Dayton Street , across the street from where a smaller CVS currently exists.

The developers sat down with a small group of neighbors at Mauro-Sheridan School to pick their brains about how to design a new store that would be more pleasing to the neighborhood.

The meeting was a lot less raucous than a previous one held in May, when developers pitched their idea for building a 13,225 square-foot store to replace the smaller, existing CVS at 1168 Whalley Ave..

Neighbors called the initial design, which was awash in a yellow color, ​“cookie cutter,” reminiscent of the existing, dilapidated buildings, and didn’t take into account the unique Westville aesthetic. Neighbors were equally skeptical of the city’s concept for the corner that called for more residentially-dense structures and retail.

That previous meeting devolved into sharp words between the city’s development chief, Matthew Nemerson, an advocate for new urbanist design, and the principal for the development, Scott Weymouth. (Read more about that here.)

At the latest meeting Tuesday night, Weymouth and his team return with a different version of their plan for the store featuring a mashup of some of the suggestions they heard at the previous meeting.

The new design features a building close to the sidewalk, with a Cape Cod gray paint job, more windows, and clapboard siding. It also featured fewer parking spaces as well as a seating area at the corner of Dayton and Whalley to soften the harshness of the parking lot at the corner.

The developers’ request to the neighbors: help us make it better.

Better for the group of neighbors was not asking the developers to stray from CVS design template as to be unrecognizable, but making tweaks that help it blend in better with the community, while contributing to traffic calming and litter control.

Neighbor Henry Lowendorf (at right in photo) suggested that instead of putting up large swaths of blank, gray walls along the sides of the building, the developers tap into the city’s artist community and even local public schools for an ongoing art project.

“We have some wonderful artists in New Haven,” he said. ​“It would be nice to have kids and local residents doing something with the outside. There are a bunch of schools in Westville and all sorts of possibility that could mean interaction between the community and CVS.”Tennille Murphy (at left in photo), who has lived in her home on Dayton Street for 16 years, said some of the newly added design features — such as the sitting area and a building that meets the sidewalk — might worsen traffic, litter and even snow removal. ​“Litter is a huge problem in the neighborhood already,” she said. Murphy suggested that the developers seek to push the building back a few feet, and to lose the seating area because ​“it would just become a hang out spot.” She suggested a landscaped area at the corner, but no seats.Murphy said as the project moves forward, she wants to hear more from developers about plans not only hiring in the finished store, but for hiring local people to work on the construction side of the project, as well as plans for CVS donations of school supplies and possibly scholarships for local students.Other suggestions included a less modern, more ornamental style of lighting for the exterior of the building, possible changes to the signature bright red CVS logo all over the building, speed bumps to mitigate cut-through traffic, and the removal of a tree near the drive-thru exit out to Whalley to improve sight lines.Alder Richard Furlow said he convened the smaller group for a sit-down with the developers so that they could hear some of the concerns of the community and ​“have a real conversation that represented Westville.” He said that many in the community frequent the current CVS, including the residents of Chapel Haven. ​“We need a CVS, but we need a better one,” he said. ​“But we want one that is in keeping with the look of the community.”Weymouth said he appreciated the input and vowed to have updated plans incorporating the suggestions of the community in the coming weeks.