New Haven’s City Plan Commission has rejected a request from the developers of the massive Union Square revitalization project to vote on conditional zoning permission ahead of a big federal grant deadline.
The Glendower Group, which is overseeing the project, says it must submit a grant application on Monday for the federal Choice Neighborhood Implementation program. The project is seeking $26 million to get the development’s first phase underway.
The plan includes renovating the Robert T. Wolfe Apartments, the former Church Street South Housing Project, and surrounding community into high-quality, mixed-income housing.
The full plan will provide some 2,500 residential units, far more than the just under 400 that were on the site originally.
Around half of the new residences will be affordable housing.
At a public hearing Thursday night, the developers requested that the Plan Commission sign off on the site plan review before the customary second reading that would usually follow public comment.
Jimmy Miller, from Elm City Communities, said that only $75 million has been appropriated in total for HUD’s Choice Neighborhoods program, meaning that the application process will be highly competitive.
“The more we can substantiate that we are ready to proceed, the better off our chances of getting this grant will be. It is critical that we get some type of conditional approval,” he told the Plan Commission.
But several commissioners objected to the request. Alder Adam Marchand called the project “potentially transformational,” but said the commission cannot break protocol.
“We need to have that zoning nailed down and finalized before we can approve a site plan,” he said. “It would be a very bad precedent, and it would create a vulnerability for this project legally going forward.”
Commissioners were generally positive about the plan, but raised potential concerns about flood control on the site and about the significant increase in density that the development represents.
The project did not attract any public comment at the hearing, which was held remotely. Commissioners voted to hold the public hearing open until the next scheduled meeting, which is March 18th.
