Thomas Breen photo
City Plan Senior Project Manager Anne Hartjen, Acting City Plan Director Mike Piscitelli, and Assistant Director of Comprehensive Planning Aïcha Woods on Wednesday night.
Cat cafes should be clearly defined. And self-storage facilities should be more closely reviewed.
Zoning code changes that would accomplish both of those goals received unanimous support from the City Plan Commission on Wednesday night during its regular monthly meeting on the second floor of City Hall.
At the tail end of a nearly three-hour meeting on the latest developments in town, the commissioners turned to two proposed zoning ordinance text amendments submitted by the city’s economic development department.
One amendment seeks to clarify the definition of a “cat cafe,” which the Board of Alders added to the zoning code use table last year with the creation of the Westville Village Center Mixed Use (BA‑2) District.
The other seeks to provide the commission with greater regulatory oversight of storage rental developments, which are currently allowed as of right in four city zones.
Commissioners voted unanimously in support of both proposed amendments, which now make their way to the Board of Alders Legislation Committee before making their way to the full board for a final vote.
But What Really Is A Cat Cafe, Anyway?
Markeshia Ricks photo
Angela Pullo of Westville’s Mew Haven.
City Plan Senior Project Manager Anne Hartjen explained that, when the commissioners and the alders approved the new Westville Village zone, they included “cat cafe” in that zone’s use table. Cat cafes can be opened in BA‑2 zones by way of special exception.
Unfortunately, Hartjen said, the commissioners neglected to include a definition of cat cafes in the application package sent to the Board of Alders, and so the board ultimately voted to add the use to the zoning code without adding a proper definition.
So city staff drafted a definition for cat cafe, to be added to the definitions section of the city’s zoning code.
The definition provided by city staff, and unanimously supported by the City Plan commissioners, reads as followed:
“Cat café: means any premises used to house or contain homeless, orphaned, or unwanted cats and that is owned, operated, or maintained by an organization that is licensed by the State as an animal shelter and devoted to the welfare, protection, and humane treatment of animals for the purpose of adoption, and which incorporates retail sales to support the interaction of patrons with cats, such as a café, bookshop, or other permitted use.”
“I think this is a good piece of tidying up,” said Westville Alder and City Plan Commissioner Adam Marchand, whose neighborhood is home to the city’s first and only (so far) cat cafe, Mew Haven.
Too Much Self Storage?
Thomas Breen photo
U-Haul designs for its self-storage facility in Wooster Square.
The commissioners also voted unanimously in support of an ordinance text amendment to make storage rental facilities a bit more difficult to open in the Elm City.
The proposed zoning change would require developers receive a special permit to open self-storage facilities in Central Business / Medical (BD‑2) Wistricts, Wholesale and Distribution (BE) Districts, Light Industry (IL) Districts, and Heavy Industry Districts (IH). Current law allows self-storage facilities to be built in those zones as of right; that is, without any regulatory oversight.
The change would also allow storage rental services to be opened by special permit in Automotive Sales (BB) Districts, where they are currently not allowed at all.
“This is a nationwide problem,” City Plan Commission Chair Ed Mattison said about developers converting vacant factory buildings into housing… not for people, but for people’s belongings. The city saw that very development trend take place in New Haven last year, when U‑Haul succeeded in buying the old C. Cowles Company factory on Water Street in Wooster Square, and converted the historic building into 200 self-storage units.
The city staff advisory report on the proposed text amendment notes that self-storage facilities may have a negative economic development impact on districts, neighborhoods, and the city as a whole by taking properties that could be used for residential or commercial purposes and turning them instead into building-sized closets.
“The requirement for a Special Permit is meant to ensure that other uses permitted in these same districts would not be displaced,” the staff report reads, “by a proliferation of by-right self-storage facilities as well as requirements for more stringent review standards.”
Acting City Plan Director Mike Piscitelli said that the special permit process will allow the commissioners to review self-storage applications to make sure that their designs are compatible with the surrounding buildings and neighborhood.