HUMPHREYS & PARTNERS LP
Updated rendering of the 201 Munson St. project.
The latest plans for a new apartment complex at the border of the Dixwell and Newhallville neighborhoods show slightly more apartments than had been previously pitched to neighbors and a less prominent “moat” of parking around the rest of the site.
Double A Development Partners’ Doug Gray showed Dixwell neighbors the latest renderings of a slightly revamped plan for 201 Munson St. — the former home of the long-defunct Winchester Repeating Arms campus — during a Thursday evening management team meeting.
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Gray reveals updated design at Dixwell Management Team meeting.
The developer has ditched the “big house” concept that he’d initially pitched to neighbors, for what will instead be 18 (possibly 20) townhomes to match the scale of the one and two-family houses on Munson Street. (Read here about the first draft of the project.)
The plan still calls for four-story apartment buildings toward the center of the site away from the street. But instead of parking surrounding the site, much of the parking is tucked under the buildings. The townhomes, which will be three bedrooms, will have their own parking garages behind.
Gray told neighbors there will be room on the site for amenities such as a clubhouse, a swimming pool, tennis and basketball courts. He said after the meeting that the number of apartments could land right at 400 — right now it’s hovering at 395, it was previously 385 — because of the additional townhomes and a decision to build fewer two-bedroom apartments in favor of one-bedrooms.
He said the apartment market in New Haven isn’t as good for two-bedrooms as it is for one-bedrooms; the previous design favored two-bedrooms. Gray said he did push his architect to expand the size of the three-bedroom townhomes from 1,000 square feet to between 1,300 and 1,500 square feet because “no one wants to live in a 1,000 square foot, three-bedroom townhouse.”
Remediation Plan Gets Commission OK
HUMPHREYS & PARTNERS LP
A view inside the future 201 Munson St.
He spent some time Thursday talking about upcoming plans to start excavating the 13-acre site to remove over 15,000 cubic feet of lead-contaminated soil and over 1,500 cubic feet of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The excavation will begin in June and should be complete by July.
The plan is to remove anywhere from 80 to 100 truckloads of PCB-contaminated soil in that month’s time, or about four truckloads a day. That soil will be disposed of somewhere in New Jersey, Gray said. Some of the lead-contaminated soil will be relocated on the site, buried under clean soil, that will be then sealed under the foundation of the storied apartment buildings. Anything contaminated by PCBs will be completely removed from the site.
Though the developer doesn’t need it, Double A also will install a vapor barrier under the building as part of their agreement with Olin Corporation, which previously owned the site. Gray said, however, that none of the contaminants on the site will produce a vapor.
The remediation plan for the site was recently approved by the City Plan Commission at its regular monthly meeting Wednesday, with the condition that developers hold a public information session with neighbors and state environmental protection staff about the benefits and risks of the remediation plan.
Tom Breen Photo
Sacco explains the remediation plan to City Plan Commissioners Wednesday.
David Sacco, a civil engineer with TPA Design Group in New Haven, explained to the commissioners Wednesday that the developers are ready to move into the site remediation phase of the project now that they have transported and stockpiled giant mounds of clean fill material on the site itself.
He said that that remediation will take a couple of forms: The developers will need to demolish and remove two remaining building foundations on the site. They will need to remove any extended underground structures and above ground structures, like pavement, fencing, and guardrail.
“The majority of the problems on site can be addressed by rendering the soils environmentally isolated underneath the building slab,” Sacco said. “Someone can’t become exposed to them because they’ll be encapsulated.”
Gray told commissioners on Wednesday and Dixwell neighbors on Thursday that the material will be placed under the building’s slab, and will have a barrier on top of it. “It just needs to be made inaccessible so that no one ingests it,” he said. “Nothing makes it more inaccessible than concrete.”
Sacco said the other more impacted material will need to be excavated and transported offsite for disposal.
“Its ultimate destination will depend on the exact characteristics of the material,” he said. “It’s not going to stay here.”