One big-box store is enough, Grand Avenue neighbors agreed.
That was the consensus of merchants along Fair Haven’s main commercial corridor at a gathering Wednesday night.
Rather than trying to lure large chain retailers, they looked to zoning and perhaps other relief never tried before in New Haven to protect the village and historic character of their district.
A small but impassioned group convened by the Grand Avenue Village Association (GAVA) met at the Fair Haven library. Local merchants and residents brainstormed how creating a new zoning district specifically for Grand Avenue might help fashion a new vision for the neighborhood.
That vision might also include becoming the city’s first “village district.”
“There’s nothing [in the current BA zoning],” said Gabriella Campos, GAVA’s executive director, “to prevent someone from buying a whole block and putting in a Walmart.”
Currently Grand Avenue’s BA zoning is identical to that which covers Middletown Avenue.
That’s not the vision the district has for itself.
After having become the city’s newest special services district, GAVA, was frustrated by many recent developments, such as the opening of three barberhops on Grand practically adjacent to each other, Campos said.
“I want solutions,” she said.
That made her overcome a fear of zoning to explore it as a development tool.
A zoning change might limit height and square footage of commercial buildings and perhaps eliminate parking requirements for store owners, and eliminate some uses, such as auto repair yards. But such a change would not address some of the many aesthetic concerns also expressed at the meeting.
For example, Atwater Street resident Krista Abbott said, “If all the windows [of stores on Grand] are covered with signs and bars, I don’t want to go into them.”
Seth Zeren (pictured with Abbott), an intern deployed by the City Plan Department to work with GAVA, said aesthetic and design concerns might better be addressed through the creation of a “village district.” These concerns center on materials, colors of awnings, signage, and requiring transparent glass in stores. Some buildings along Grand are windowless cinderblock.
A zoning change is the bailiwick of the Board of Aldermen. Creation of a “village district,” Zeren explained, is covered by state statues and is only about ten years old. It’s never been tried before in New Haven.
It’s less restrictive than, say, a historic district, which requires a vote of residents. It does require creation of a design committee or board that passes judgment on improvements. A village district’s rulings are intended to persuade, but they are non-binding, Zeren said.
The downside of the village district, Zeren responded to businessman Angelo Reyes’ question, is that it adds an extra level of bureaucracy to changes in a building, perhaps 30 to 90 days of waiting. And, of course, people will argue on who sits on the committee.
Campos also said that Latino merchants have expressed a desire they not lose their cultural identity in toeing any new aesthetic or design lines that, say, a village district standard would bring.
A village district seeking to establish a Grand Avenue village “look” and historic character would have to address this challenge.
Longtime merchant and GAVA board president Norma Franchesi (pictured with Angelo Reyes) said, “How many merchants do we have? We won’t have an identity; we’ll have a rainbow.”
“Respect the age of the building,” said Angelo Reyes, an entrepreneur who is one of Grand Avenue’s largest landlords, “and it’ll bring back the neighborhood.”
A third option being considered is not a completely new zone, but an “overlay” zone, such as has been applied, for example, on Whalley Avenue. Typically an overlay zone deals with more modest changes but adding stricter criteria to an existing zoning designation.
Smaller stores, lively streets, walkability, safety for slow-ambulating seniors, maintenance of historic character, and more rational parking – ‑currently there isn’t enough near the Fair Haven Health Clinic and too much underutilized down toward the Grand Avenue bridge. That was the sense of the room.
Zaren said he would continue to work on the three options, a new zone, an overlay zone, and a village district, and be GAVA’s laison on the matter to City Plan. New zoning and a village district designation are not mutually exclusive, he said.
“If we build a new zoning district,” Zeren added, “a test on Grand Avenue, as a ‘neighborhood district or BA‑1,” that could have implications citywide, especially in areas such as Upper State Street where concerns and scale are similar.
Any changes would not affect what’s already on Grand Avenue, but only development to come.