BEULAH LAND DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION / HELP USA RENDERING
The proposed 4-story, 69-unit apartment building at 340 Dixwell.
A planned new four-story, 69-unit apartment building slated for a Dixwell lot formerly home to Joe Grate’s barbecue stand advanced with a unanimous vote of support from the city’s zoning commissioners.
That vote took place Tuesday night during the latest regular monthly meeting of the Board of Zoning Appeals.
As City Hall remains indefinitely closed to the public because of the state of emergency around the Covid-19 pandemic, the meeting took place online via the Zoom teleconferencing app.
The city’s five zoning commissioners voted unanimously in support of the zoning relief requested by two affordable housing developers, Beulah Land Development Corporation from Dixwell and HELP USA from New York City.
Beulah owns the main triangular lot at 340 Dixwell, HELP owns a single-family house at 783 Orchard, and the city owns a vacant garage at the adjacent 316 Dixwell.
Beulah Chief of Operations Darrel Brooks said at April’s BZA meeting that 80 percent of the complex’s apartments would be reserved for “low-to-moderate income families.”
Click here to read more about the project.
The commissioners granted Dixwell Housing Associates LLC, a holding company owned by HELP, a variance to permit a floor area ratio (FAR) of 2.175 where 2.0 is allowed at 316 Dixwell Ave., 340 Dixwell Ave., and 783 Orchard St.
They also granted the company a special exception to allow for 32 off-street parking spaces where 69 are required at the site.
“We are excited about the BZA’s unanimous vote in approving this stage of our project,” Brooks told the Independent by email Wednesday morning.
“We are looking forward to our next steps of securing funding for the project. We will be submitting for funding this fall, and our projected timeline for construction will be the summer of 2021. Without question as a Development team, we are excited for meeting this significant milestone.”
He said that the development project has a “net zero energy design” that will provide a “new normal” for families who have been marginalized or forgotten “when it comes to luxury living at affordable pricing.”
“We are thrilled that the BZA unanimously approved the application,” agreed the developers’ attorney Bernie Pellegrino. “The merits of this proposal speak for itself. It will be a tremendous benefit for the neighborhood and the City as a whole.”
He said the next step for the project is for the developer to submit a proposed site plan to the City Plan Commission.