PERKINS EASTMAN
Rendering of Long Wharf’s proposed “Market District.”
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Artspace’s Kauder (left) at Tuesday’s gathering.
What about arts? And sports?
And for goodness sake, where are all these people going to park?
Neighbors popped those questions Tuesday evening as they helped refine a vision for a new Long Wharf District.
The occasion was the latest in a series of community meetings about Long Wharf, held at the Betsy Ross Arts Magnet School Hall in Kimberly Square.
A firm hired by the city updated neighbors on the progress of its emerging plan to transform Long Wharf from one big disconnected district to a gateway for the city that is made up of five smaller districts that are walkable, attractive and ripe for commercial and residential development. Previous discussions have focused on elements of the plan like an interconnecting greenway, a public market, and better use of the New Haven Harbor. (Read about that here and here.) There are no plans for how to involve local artists in the whole exercise of placemaking.
The five proposed districts of the Long Wharf District.
“That seems something of an omission” so far, Artspace Executive Director Helen Kauder pointed out at Tuesday evening’s discussion: Ideas for how to involve local artists in the whole exercise of placemaking.
It was exactly the kind of feedback Aïcha Woods, assistant director of comprehensive planning from the city, was looking for to help flesh out the emerging plan.
“We’re trying to get down to what values are specific to New Haven,” she said.
Well, they might consider adding some kind of sports attractions to the Harbor District, where preliminary plans now call for more development close to the water’s edge and possibly a walkable wharf.
Rick Mayer, of the World Cycling League, suggested that a “velodrome” might be an attractive option for people visiting a future Long Wharf. Mayer pitched a similar idea for River Street two years ago. (Read about that here.)
Traffic, Transportation and Parking’s Mike Pinto makes a point.
He said it’s nice to have all the bike infrastructure — which the plan calls for increasing along with creating new streets in conjunction with a new Long Wharf greenway — to help people get to Long Wharf without a car. But they need something to do once they get down there.
Adriana Colon suggested that shutting down Long Wharf Drive to regular car traffic on a more consistent basis, almost like a food truck festival every weekend, to make the area more walkable and lively.
Anstress Farwell and Rick Mayer listen to ideas.
The city-hired designers for this project, Eric Fang and Stan Eckstut of EE&K, are responsible for Washington, D.C.‘s $2.5 billion waterfront makeover. The city used with half of a $950,000 state grant to pay them. Tuesday night they pointed out other small touches they suggest to better knit together the district. Such as: working with Ikea to scale back some of its parking into a garage so that its current sprawling parking lot could be redeveloped for more mixed commercial and residential uses.
Hill resident Thomasina Shaw and East Rock’s Kevin McCarthy.
Another idea: creating a forested park on the land leftover from the I‑95 New Haven Harbor crossing construction, which would function as a buffer to the highway for any potential residences that come to the area but also be part of the stormwater and climate change protections that will be built into the district.
Another provocative idea? Extend the current tunnel that goes to the platforms at Union Station that can accommodate pedestrians and bikes.
The “Long Wharf Greenway.”
The Long Wharf District encompasses nearly 400 acres and is about a mile across from end to end. Fang and Eckstut said they see within it at least five subdistricts that are defined by what’s there now: Sports Haven, IKEA, the Food Terminal, Assa Abloy, and Jordan’s and the former Gateway Community College. In the next meeting they plan to deliver some numbers about what all this could cost and what it might take to pay for it but preliminarily Fang said he believes that for every $1 of public investment in infrastructure improvements the city could see about $20 in return.
Justin Elicker, executive director of the New Haven Land Trust, said after the meeting he is excited about the activation of the waterfront. He said the Land Trust has a keen interest in getting many more people out to its nature preserves and the plan’s vision for connecting Long Wharf Drive beyond its current location, particularly to the City Point neighborhood. He said bike and pedestrian access exist but it’s not as well developed as it could be.
The “Gateway District.”
“You can have a relatively fluid bike ride to West Haven and the water out there,” he said. “It’s also something that I suggested could be emphasized more without a lot of investment. The city could make that connectivity more significant.”
Elicker said that when he was a kid passing through New Haven, his only memories of the city were seeing taco trucks and flags. He never had any real sense of what else the city had to offer based on just those two things at such an important gateway.
“That section of the city is a billboard for what New Haven is,” he said. “We should have a Long Wharf that reflects what the rest of New Haven is which is a vibrant, active, diverse community. A lot of what we’ve talked about in the plan is something that can do that.”
Michael Piscitell (pictured), New Haven government’s interim City Plan director and acting economic development administrator, said that sometime in the fall, possibly September, the plan for Long Wharf will be put into the hands of the City Plan Commission, which has the responsibility of creating planning documents. It can either be adopted as part of the city’s comprehensive plan or stand alone.