Paul Bass Photos
Karyn GIlvarg (left): Legal? Jessica Holmes (right): The people spoke.
A new plan to revolutionize how New Haven makes major zoning decisions is speeding toward approval — with the potential of either bringing democracy to development or slowing and holding development hostage, depending on whom you ask.
The plan has an innocuous description: “zoning ordinance text amendment to Section 63.D(6) ‘Community Impacts.’”
In practice, it would create a new category of zoning approval that would require Yale University to go through a new layer of review — and detail a wide-ranging list of “community impacts” — before it builds anything in New Haven.
And it would transfer some zoning authority from the Board of Zoning Appeals and City Plan to the Board of Alders.
The Board of Alders Legislation Committee drew up the proposal. It was hurried onto the most recent full board agenda under a last-minute “suspension calendar” so it could be sent immediately back to Legislation Committee in time to hold a public hearing this month — specifically, this coming Thursday night — and then return to the full board for approval before the board begins holding just one (rather than two) monthly meetings during the summer months.
City Plan Director Karyn Gilvarg said the proposal caught her and her staff unaware. They had received no consultation before it was submitted, she said. She wondered aloud in an interview why such a dramatic overhaul of city zoning policy is being moved along so quickly.
“I was a little surprised there was no consultation with anyone from the board” before the proposal emerged, Gilvarg said.
Morrison: Our job is to listen to constituents and bring ideas up for public debate.
East Rock Alder Jessica Holmes, who chairs the Legislation Committee, said alders wanted to speed up the schedule because summer months have fewer scheduled meetings.
She said the proposed changes reflect what alders are “hearing [when knocking] on the doors” to speak with constituents: People in New Haven want to see more development. They also want to have a say in that development to make sure the city benefits from it. And Yale is the biggest force in town for development.
“Zoning is about the kind of city you want to build,” Holmes said in an interview. Colleges and universities are “such a driver” of New Haven’s development, and that development “should happen with forethought and community engagement,” Holmes said.
“I don’t see it as rushed,” agreed Dixwell Alder Jeanette Morrison, who also sits on the Legislation Committee. “We want to get the ball rolling to start the conversation.” She also said there was no intention to leave other city departments out of the conversation in drawing up the proposal. Rather, she said, the point of the upcoming hearings is to involve everyone in the discussion. “To me it sounds like, ‘Why didn’t we get permission from them to talk about a topic?’ That’s not our role. Our role is to respond to our constituent base and come up with an idea and have a hearing about it.”
Morrison said the proposed amendments aim at moving discussions about development out of back rooms and into public view so people can understand how new building projects will affect them.
A New “High Impact” Category
The zoning amendments in the new proposal would:
• Create a new category of special exception in New Haven’s zoning ordinance, one called a “high-impact special exception.” The category would cover proposals that already require special exceptions from the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA), like convenience stores locating in residential neighborhoods. It would add a new group of projects: all building projects by “public and private colleges and universities.”
• Require that rather than simply going before the BZA for approval, any application for a “high impact” special exception also come first before the full Board of Alders for consideration. That’s a big change. Right now the alders serve as the city’s de jure zoning commission, which sets zoning policy, but the BZA makes all decisions on individual zoning variances and exceptions, with advisory votes from the City Plan Commission. The alders don’t now vote on individual special exceptions. Under this proposal, they would. First. Before the BZA. The alders would have 35 days to act. If the alders vote down or fail to act on a proposal from a university, then the BZA would need a super-majority — four votes out of five — rather than the current simple majority (three votes) to approve it.
• Require that all applicants for “high impact” special exceptions submit a “community impact statement.” The statement must address “inducements to reduce the number of single occupancy vehicles traveling to the site, such as public transit subsidies, off-site satellite parking at a reduced cost, bus or shuttle services, and connection of the site to a network of bike or pedestrian paths”; how many employees would live within one and within three miles; efforts to hire local people; “project demand … for city services” like “trash collection, fire and emergency services, police protection, snow removal, and street maintenance”; and “other benefits to the community … such as agreements with neighborhood organizations, agreements to permit public access to permit public access to community space, and community benefit agreements, if any.”
Alder Holmes said these provisions address the desire in New Haven for development that promotes open space, local employment, and alternatives to cars.
“It’s about making ours a city where people walk to work, where on your way home you can pick up something great for dinner, [where] there are many places you can stop along the way.”
“A little extra oversight,” she said, “is not going to get in the way of development,” but can ensure that development benefits New Haveners, she argued.
Pushback
Nemerson: Our process is already deliberative and democratic.
The proposal promises to reignite conflict between Yale, the biggest university and builder in town, and the Board of Alders’ majority, which was recruited and supported by Yale’s UNITE HERE union locals. The two sides clashed last year over alders’ efforts to have more say over Yale building projects through a new oversight process involving “Overall Parking Plans,” causing months-long delays in approval of a new $120 million science building and leading to a showdown that threatened to imperil the city’s bond rating. The new proposal builds on rules instituted under the Overall Parking Plan process.
Yale’s point person for New Haven affairs, Associate Vice-President Lauren Zucker, argued Thursday that the proposal would “impede good development and slow potential job and economic growth in the city by putting up unnecessary and discriminatory roadblocks.”
City Plan chief Gilvarg said Thursday she hasn’t yet had time to study the proposal enough to comment definitively, but so far finds it “internally inconsistent and confusing.”
“It seemingly would add unlimited amounts of time” to land use decision-making while potentially running in conflict of state law and “gutting” the zoning board and City Plan Commission, Gilvarg added.
For instance: Her understanding of state law is that it precludes including payments for fire protection, say, as a condition for zoning approval. Payments for services constitute “impact fees,” she said. She said the Board of Alders and city government in general can negotiate such fees, and do, through other avenues. Yale, for instance, makes payments in lieu of taxes for fire service.
Gilvarg also questioned whether community benefits agreements can be included under law as part of a zoning decision. She said her understanding is that the law forbids such “contract zoning” — requiring, for instance, that a developer of a hotel build a public pool for the community at another site.
Gilvarg also questioned whether the alders can assume authority to vote on special exceptions without changing the city charter, which she understands to reserve votes on individual exceptions and variances (as opposed to overall zoning policy) to the BZA and City Plan Commission. She questioned the impact of such a move on the zoning and plan boards, even if legal: “They’re gutting the Board of Zoning Appeals and the City Plan Commission. What do they need us for” under such a new arrangement? she asked.
The Board of Alders hired zoning attorney Mark Branse of the firm Halloran & Sage to help draw up its proposal. Branse also worked on the Overall Parking Plan. Branse was out of the country Thursday, according to an automated email response, and unavailable for comment.
Alder Holmes said the “impact statements” are envisioned as “laying out more clearly” the effects of development, rather than serving as part of a negotiation over matters that get handled outside zoning deliberations. Some of the matters listed in the proposal — such as controlling noise and odors — do routinely get addressed in zoning deliberations, she said.
Alder Morrison said the point of requiring “high impact” special exception applications to include “community impact statements” is to have a more public discussion about the value of major building projects.
“There are no hidden agendas here,” Morrison said. “If you want to purchase a building, why does it hurt for me to ask: ‘If you do that, how are the other three buildings going to be affected?’“
Holmes added that other cities limit universities to developing in specific zones. This proposal assumes that universities can build throughout the city, but ensures the public has a say in that development, she said.
City Economic Development Administrator Matthew Nemerson declined to weigh in yet on the specifics of the proposed zoning amendment. “I don’t understand it yet,” he said.
Nemerson did say that he believes New Haven already has “one of the most inclusive and democratic zoning and land use regimes in the United States of America. I think if you look at the way we give people voice to be heard and the deliberations that we go through, I think we have one of the fairest systems in the country. As people know, oftentimes developers wish it was more streamlined.” In looking at potential changes to the zoning rules, he added, people should keep in mind that New Haven competes with places like Jersey City, New Rochelle, White Plains, and Stamford to be seen as having a “competitive environment” for investment, which creates jobs.