Farnam Phase 2 Survives Dumpster Debate

Phase 2 of the Farnam Courts / Mill River Crossing public housing rebuild won a key city sign-off — on the condition that the end result doesn’t require elderly tenants to walk a block and a half outdoors in the winter time just to throw out their trash.

The City Plan Commission unanimously granted the city’s housing authority, Elm City Communities, that approval with the key Dumpster-distance condition at its regular monthly meeting last week on the second floor of City Hall.

Elm City Communities Vice President of Development Edward LaChance, Glendower Group Construction Manager Michael Southam, and Fuss & O’Neill Senior Project Manager Joseph Lenahan presented the commissioners with the plans for the the second and final phase of the housing authority’s reconstruction of the former Fair Haven public housing complex, which has been renamed Mill River Crossing.

Phase 1 of the project, located at the corner of Grand Avenue and Hamilton Street, opened with 94 new apartments last October. Eighty-six of those units are affordable, the remaining eight are market rate, and all but two are currently occupied, LaChance said. ​“It’s amazing,” Lenahan added about the occupancy rate.

Phase 2, to be built at 910 Hamilton St. behind the Phase 1 Mill River Crossing apartments, will see the demolition of the remaining vacant buildings of the 1940s-era complex and the construction of a total of 111 new residential units across 10 different townhouse-style buildings.

Four of those buildings containing 45 residential units will be built as part of Phase 2A, while the remaining six townhouse buildings containing 66 residential units will be built at the northernmost end of the site as part of Phase 2B.

The complex will also house a new community building; a centrally located park; a total of 149 on-site parking spaces, with 92 open to the public and 57 reserved for tenants; 45 bicycle parking spaces; and a mix of new public and private roads and sidewalks.

“It’s really adding a lot of value and livability back to this area,” Lenahan said.

LaChance said the housing authority has secured a mix of public and private funding for Phase 2. It hopes to close on those funding packages in October.

Where the housing authority’s reps ran into a major snag with the commission was in the proposed placement of Dumpsters.

The site plan pitched to commissioners Wednesday night split up the Phase 2A and Phase 2B residents among six different Dumpster locations: three along a reconstructed Hamilton Street and three along a reconstructed Franklin Street, which will also be renamed as part of this project. The Dumpster corrals will be enclosed by a screen, Lenahan said, handicap acccessible, and outfitted with a yard drain that will prevent fallen trash from getting into the city sewer system.

LaChance and Lenahan said they initially planned on providing two ​“totes,” or wheeling trash cans, for every unit. However, they said, that plan would have outfitted the site with nearly 230 totes, which city dump trucks wouldn’t have been able to access for two reasons: the proposed new public streets are narrow enough that the trucks would have blocked them entirely, which violates city law; and some of the proposed new streets will be private, which city dump trucks cannot pick up trash on.

“We didn’t want to put a Dumpster location on the park” in the center of the proposed complex, Lenahan said. Which left no spaces left than the six locations on Hamitlon and Franklin.

“Some folk’s don’t want to cross the street to put away their trash,” Westville Alder and City Plan Commissioner Adam Marchand noted.

That was the Dumpster layout with the old Farnam Courts, Lenahan replied. And the tenants disposed of their trash just fine then.

“So if you live in the middle” of the new proposed complex, Marchand continued, ​“you’ve got to walk a block and a half…”

“With a bag of trash…” Commissioner Leslie Radcliffe added.

“In the winter time,” Marchand concluded.

“Fresh air,” Lenahan said with an optimistic smile. The proposed street layout, he said, includes crosswalks at the intersections leading to each Dumpster.

That just won’t do, especially if you’re 65 years old, Radcliffe said.

“It may not seem like a big thing,” she said, ​“but waste management in a household is an issue.” If tenants can not or do not take trash out of their home on a regular basis simply because of the relative inaccessibility of Dumpsters, that will affect their quality of life.

“I hear what you’re saying about it being the best solution,” she said. ​“But it’s not a good solution.”

As a condition of approval for the site plan, the commissioners required the housing authority designers and city staff to rework the waste management operational plan for the site so that tenants don’t have to walk as far of a distance just to throw out their trash.

What’s In A Name?

Radcliffe had one more bone to pick with the housing authority developers.

Why is Franklin Street being renamed as part of this project? she asked.

“I grew up in Brookside,” she said, referring to the former West Rock public housing complex that has also been rebuilt by the housing authority. ​“Brookside no longer exists. Generations of people grew up in Brookside. Brookside no longer exists.”

Not just the building where she grew up, but even the street where she grew up. That has a bit of a psychological toll on residents, she said, to have their history in part erased.

“I think you’ll be pleased with some of the names” proposed for Franklin Street and the new private and public streets inside Farnam Phase 2, Lenahan said.

There will be a Sheila Drive, named after the late Sheila Allen Bell. There will be a DeLauro Drive as well, and a road named after former Mayor John DeStefano. Hamilton Street, however, will not be renamed.

“All of those new streets are named after wonderful people,” Radcliffe said. But when you start changing the names of existing streets, you take something away from current residents. After the change, whenever someone says, ​“I used to live on Franklin Street,” most people will respond, ​“Where? There’s no more Franklin Street.”

LaChance promised to keep talking with the city about whether or not Franklin Street should be renamed as part of this project.

“Leave Franklin Street alone,” Radcliffe advised.