Affordable Mill River Townhomes Planned

Twelve new homes may sprout near the Mill River where an empty brick garage now stands.

Developer Eric O’Brien of Urbane NewHaven presented his plan for 156 – 158 Humphrey St. to the Downtown-Wooster Square Community Management Team on Tuesday to praise from neighbors. Four of the 12 homes would be deed-restricted to be affordable.

“We’re looking at this as our own pilot program to teach new homeowners how to buy a home,” O’Brien said.

O’Brien said that he started developing in the early 1990s by buying multifamily homes in places like Orange Street and renovating them. Then prices started to increase and the business switched to focus on high-end restorations, O’Brien said.

“As much as I love architecture, it wasn’t fulfilling. We’ve moved away from that over the years and worked on figuring out how to build homes for real people. Putting a roof over a family’s head means a lot to me,” O’Brien said.

The property is a city-owned plot at the intersection of Humphrey and Mill River Street. It is across the Mill River from the DISTRICT tech hub, which O’Brien helped develop.

O’Brien said that Urbane responded to a city request for proposals sent out in March 2019 to redevelop a variety of city-owned parcels. Next step would involve negotiating a purchase from the city.

Urbane is proposing six townhouses at the site, each divided into two apartments. Each townhouse would have its own plot of land to avoid maintenance problems and homeownership association fees.

The first floor apartment would be a studio or a one-bedroom and the upper two floors would be a separate two-bedroom unit.

O’Brien said that townhomes are part of the iconic architecture in the surrounding Wooster Square, East Rock and Fair Haven neighborhoods. They have not been built in a long time because of changes to zoning in the 1960s, he said.

Urbane plans to request variances on many of these zoning rules, including how much of the land can be built on and how close the building can be to the street.

The company also plans to ask to build no parking on-site. O’Brien said that there is plenty of street parking and that the transportation department is considering adding more. He also said that the city zoning department has expressed support for the variances.

One downtown neighbor, Miriam Grossman, wrote in the Zoom chat that Urbane might want to reconsider waiving all parking requirements. Grossman said that the families in the larger units are more likely to want a car.

Otherwise, neighbors asked clarifying questions or lauded O’Brien.

“It’s really about the best thing I’ve seen in a long time,” said Anstress Farwell.

“I’m usually the first person to ask, ​‘Is it affordable?’” said Ian Dunn. ​“To be able to promote homeownership in multifamily buildings in a way that works economically … how are you doing that?”

O’Brien said that his firm has worked to simplify construction and maximize the number of units on the lot.

“We’re building a two-family home for the cost of a one-family,” he said.

Two of the six townhomes would be deed-restricted, with the bottom apartments affordable for renters making 60 percent of area median income (AMI) and the top capped at 80 percent AMI.

O’Brien said that he intends to make all of the homes affordable at 80 percent AMI but he does not want to deed restrict them so those homeowners can build wealth through the purchase. The bottom apartments can be rented by the homeowners as supplemental income.

Negotiations remain between the developer and the city’s anti-blight agency, Livable City Initiative. For example, the amount of time the properties will be deed restricted is still up in the air.

Urbane has offered to purchase the plot for $25,000 and estimates that construction will cost around $1.2 million.

Alder Ellen Cupo said that she plans to host a follow-up meeting before the end of July and invite community members from adjacent neighborhoods.