John McFadyen
Design with planned new building at bottom right.
Four under-utilized and individually unusable parcels of land across from the Corsair apartment complex on the old industrial patch of upper State Street are slated to become the site of 75 market-rate units. Look for solar arrays on the roof and interior design features to appeal to people who have gotten used to working from home during the pandemic, among other amenities.
That plan, which has amalgamated properties along State Street, the Mill River, and I‑91, requires a slew of variances. It received a sympathetic hearing from the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) commissioners Tuesday night and sailed over to City Plan for detailed site plan review, with a return to the BZA in September for a final vote.
The parcel on which the creative gathering of land is being assembled is 1041 State St, a 0.06-acre hodgepodge on a stretch of Mill River Street adjacent to I‑91 and behind an existing two-story industrial building.
A preview of those plans was laid out at Tuesday night’s Zoom-held BZA meeting by John McFadyen and Andrew Montelli. They are principals of the Fairfield-based builders Post Road Residential, which also developed the successful high-end Corsair apartment complex across the street at 1050 State.
The new triangular-shaped project, which has been percolating publicly since last summer, will incorporate the two-and-a-half-story-high property at Mill River Street and State Street, an existing commercial building that will be turned into townhouses, and 1,000 square feet of retail space intended to activate the sidewalk on State Street.
The plan also reserves 5 percentof the units, for, respectively, people with income at about 50 percent of the area median income (AMI), or $51,000 a year, and 30 percent AMI.
The language of the submission to the BZA describes that solution as “balancing the city’s need for affordable housing with the feasibility of the project.”
BZA/City Plan staffer Nate Hougrand reported that the city received five letters of support for the project, including one from the area’s alder, Charles Decker.
Other supporters, said attorney Gregory Muccilli, representing the applicants, include the East Rock Community Management Team and the Upper State Street Association.
Three current residents of the Corsair spoke up on behalf of the project while one resident of Mill River Street expressed her opposition.
Her concern: parking. There isn’t enough as is for the four multi-family rental properties already there, she testified. “The townhouses will be facing Mill River. Where will they park?
“The design of the proposed development has paid particular attention to the residential character of the surrounding neighborhood, creating a sharp-looking ‘cousin’ of the Corsair … and establishing a desirable mixed-use development in keeping with the character of the neighborhood,” reads the developers’ submission.