Kensington Park-To-Housing Deal Advances

An affordable housing developer’s plans to build 15 apartments atop Kensington Park moved ahead — on the condition that the developer invest $80,000 in improving a nearby park in Dwight, and that the city set aside a comparable amount of new public park space in Newhallville.

That somewhat convoluted land swap won a unanimous recommended approval during the August monthly meeting of the City Plan Commission. The meeting was held online via the Zoom videoconferencing platform.

“It’s a huge project impacting a couple neighborhoods,” Livable City Initiative Executive Director Serena Neal-Sanjurjo said in support of the proposed deal.

Commissioners voted in favor of recommending that the Board of Alders allow the city to sell 17, 21, 25, 29, and 33 Kensington St., which comprise Kensington Park in the Dwight neighborhood, for a total of $1 to the Boston-based landlord The Community Builders (TCB).

In exchange, TCB would have to follow through on its commitment to build 15 new units of affordable housing atop the current park site and limit rents at those apartments to tenants who make 60 percent or less of the Area Median Income (AMI), which is roughly $58,000 a year for a family of four. The apartments will be a mix of one‑, two‑, and three-bedroom units.

TCB must also invest $80,000 in improvements at Day Street Park at nearby Chapel and Day Streets.

And the city must convert publicly-owned vacant lots on Winchester Avenue, Thompson Street, and Shelton Avenue into new public parkland.

That latter requirement comes courtesy of state law, which mandates that the city provide comparable replacement land for existing parkland slated to be put to a different use.

“Does a transaction of this kind where we’re taking park resources away from a neighborhood in the service of creating more affordable housing units in the city, is that good policy?” Westville Alder and City Plan Commissioner Adam Marchand asked during the meeting. ​“Do we think that those transactions and those moves are in line with the overall policy goals of our comprehensive plan?”

Ultimately, he and his fellow commissioners voted in support — after a lengthy conversation not just about public open space and affordable housing, but also about how the city can best ensure that TCB keeps its neighborhood properties clean, safe, and well maintained (see more on that discussion below.)

Affordable Housing And Dwight-‘Ville Parkland Swap

At the heart of the proposed public land deal is TCB’s plan to build a new three-story, 15-unit apartment building atop Kensington Park.

The developer already won City Plan Commission site plan approval last October for the new construction project. The details of August’s recommended approval focused less on the building itself, and more on the proposed city property sale that would convey the underlying land to the developer.

The land swap had been held up in part by the city Parks Commission, which was deadlocked earlier this summer on whether or not to approve trading dedicated public greenspace for new housing.

In letters of opposition submitted to the City Plan Commission for August’s meeting, a few Dwight neighbors expressed similar concerns about the potential consequences of losing Kensington Square Park to development.

“I believe parks are a precious resource in Dwight, where I have lived for 40 years,” wrote Pat Wallace. She urged the city and commissioners to do a more comprehensive canvass of Kensington Street neighbors to see whether or not they truly want to lose the park, even for such a worthy cause.

“Good people are trying to move forward a proposal for affordable housing on this site,” she wrote. ​“I believe a systematic process of talking with the neighbors needs to take place first.”

Kate Walton was more skeptical. She wrote that the Greater Dwight Development Corporation ​“could be proactively seeking grants for summer and family programming for the Park, possibly some community gardening and all manner of ways that it would be of great benefit to the Dwight community at large.”

As for the prospect of TCB building on the site, Walton wrote, ​“TCB has squandered its credibility. TCB has not earned the right to take away a Green Space and to further saturate this already stressed neighborhood.”

At the City Plan Commission meeting, Neal-Sanjurjo told the commissioners that an updated version of the land deal had won the approval from the Parks Commission earlier that same night.

In a letter of support for the project submitted in advance to the City Plan Commission, TCB Development Project Manager Kristen Anderson wrote that the project will provide a net gain of tree coverage for the neighborhood.

“The development at Kensington Playground sets aside open space that will result in a net gain of 20,000 sq feet of tree coverage compared to what exists currently in the neighborhood,” she wrote. ​“This provides benefits both to air quality and to heat effect in the neighborhood.”

She also wrote that TCB had selected the Kensington Park site for development in part because of public safety concerns expressed by the city police department and neighbors in the surrounding community.

“[T]he site was selected to address these these challenges and is adding additional public safety measures including cameras and additional lighting,” she wrote. ​“We believe that the partnership on this project with the community and the city is providing solutions to the existing negative quality of life challenges that residents face.”

Anderson also submitted four letters of support for the project signed by current Kensington Square tenants.

Neal-Sanjurjo said that the new apartment construction is part of TCB’s Phase 2 redevelopment of the Kensington Square apartment complex. She said the landlord completed a Phase 1 rehab of 120 units back in 2017, and that the construction of the new apartments this time around will take place alongside the rehabilitation of 88 existing units.

In her written testimony, Anderson said that the Phase 2 redevelopment will be funded primarily be a federal low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) award—one of seven projects funded in the state. In addition to relying on private investors purchasing the tax credits, the project will also be funded through Connecticut Housing Finance Authority (CHFA) mortgages, utility rebates, TCB’s own resources, and city HOME funds. ​“City HOME funds only make up 1.6% of total budget,” she said.

Anderson also said this land deal will require TCB to create a new park at 16 Garden St., invest $80,000 in improvements at Day Street Park, create a new parklet at 1335 Chapel St., and will require the city to set aside LCI-designated lots in Newhallville as new parkland.

Neal-Sanjurjo said that the city plans to build out a new park at 506 Winchester Ave. And, at 100 – 102 Shelton Ave., ​“which is another lot that has been sitting vacant for many years, a dumping ground, we’re looking to turn that around, make it a green space, fence it, and make it” a true community space.

What About Maintenance?

The commissioners received the prospective affordable housing development and parkland swap warmly, and ultimately voted unanimously in support.

What gave some commissioners pause, however, was not the details of the project, but rather the developer and landlord behind it.

Commission Chair Ed Mattison said that he has come into contact with TCB frequently over his decades working for the city, serving as an alder, and serving on the City Plan Commission.

“Their plans are uniformly, in my opinion, excellent,” he said. ​“My concern, which I noticed was shared by some of the people who wrote in, was their maintenance. All during this time, I have heard complaints from tenants that repairs are slow, that requests for repairs are lost, that the quality of workmanship is not what it should be.”

He said he believes TCB ​“builds good stuff.” His lingering concern? ​“Why is it that there is so much dissatisfaction with the way they run their projects?”

Commission Vice-Chair Leslie Radcliffe expressed a similar concern. ​“I do hear the accolades that are being given to TCB for the great projects they undertake, the building they do.” The complaints she has heard about their projects, Radcliffe said, have more to do with ​“the upkeep and the maintenance.”

Neal-Sanjurjo said that this Phase 2 of the Kensington Square redevelopment should bring new kitchens, baths, floors, and exterior improvements to 88 apartments in need of rehab. She said similar renovations completed for 120 apartments as part of Phase 1 alleviated many of the tenant complaints she used to hear from TCB renters.

“Over the last three years since we have been trying to move forward with this project, TCB has brought on new staff. They are working in conjunction with the management team. They are working with their tenants to ensure that their needs are met.”

As the head of the city’s anti-blight and housing code enforcement agency, Neal-Sanjurjo said that TCB has made significant progress in recent years in addressing tenant needs in a timely manner. ​“I think that they have worked hard to change that perception of the work they’re doing in the city.”

Anderson said that many of the maintenance issues her company hears from tenants will be addressed through capital improvements that will come alongside this Phase 2 redevelopment.

“These buildings are over 100 years old,” she said. ​“They have a lot of wear and tear and capital needs.”

As part of their recommended approval of the land swap, the commissioners voted to add a recommended condition that the Board of Alders request from the builder information about their maintenance plans for their properties.

“When we think about affordable housing, we also have to think about safe and healthy and wholesome,” Marchand said. ​“The need for clean and safe and affordable units is really important.”