by Mona Mahadevan The New Haven independent
Commissioner Chris Peralta and Attorney Roderick Williams take notes on the request. Credit: Mona Mahadevan photo
An affordable housing developer plans to tear down a 58-unit apartment complex it owns on George Street — and replace it with a modernized, 81-unit building.
The proposal was presented Tuesday night by NeighborWorks New Horizons — a nonprofit developer and property manager based in New Haven — during the latest monthly Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) meeting at City Hall.
Without much discussion, the BZA commissioners unanimously approved NeighborWorks’ height-related variance request on Tuesday. The project will now go to the City Plan Commission for site plan review.
The existing six-story building at 730 George St. is currently home to 58 apartments, ranging from one to four bedrooms. Built in 1972, the complex caters exclusively to people making between 25 percent and 60 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI), or between $19,625 and $47,100 for a family of four.
The building is owned by the George Street Mutual Limited Partnership, which is controlled by NeighborWorks. On Tuesday, attorney Ben Trachten, representing NeighborWorks, said the building has fallen into disrepair.
“[T]he building has reached the end of its useful life,” wrote Trachten in his application to the BZA. “Renovation is not a feasible option given the poor condition of the existing structure and the opportunity to meet present-day housing needs with a more efficient, higher-density modern development.”
Trachten argued for a variance to allow a new six-story, 65-foot building in a residential zone that caps structures at four stories and 45 feet. The existing building at 730 George has stood at six stories for more than half a century. Even so, NeighborWorks still needed zoning relief to construct a new apartment complex of roughly the same height.
Aaron Hoffman, the executive director of NeighborWorks, said the new building would preserve the affordability mix of the existing 58 apartments. The additional 23 units will be a mixture of affordable and market-rate. Because of the city’s Inclusionary Zoning (IZ) ordinance, 5 percent, or four units in total, will be restricted to 50 percent AMI for 99 years.
Hoffman said NeighborWorks plans to include market-rate apartments to increase their probability of receiving Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC). “There’s a preference for mixed-income developments” at the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority (CHFA), the state agency that administers LIHTC, said Hoffman.
Trachten said the building still needs several approvals, including from the Transportation, Traffic, & Parking Department and the City Plan Commission. Given all of the remaining steps, Hoffman expects construction to begin no earlier than 16 months down the road.
A current resident of the building asked what would happen to the tenants of 730 George St.
Hoffman reassured her that NeighborWorks would work to relocate tenants.
“We have a large number of units in the Hill, but we also have places in other areas of New Haven,” said Hoffman. “We have dedicated staff, who will work with [tenants] to relocate them for the period of construction, and we’ll pay for moving.” Once construction nears, Hoffman said they’d put together a relocation plan, which would need approval from the state Department of Housing.
After construction concludes, Hoffman said residents would have the right to return.
At Tuesday’s meeting, East Rock resident and former state legislative staffer Kevin McCarthy spoke in support.
“As you all know, we have a need for more housing: both subsidized and market rate,” said McCarthy. “One other side benefit is that the new building has to meet the current state building code, which is far more energy efficient that the building code” from 1973.
Without any discussion, all five BZA members voted in favor of the variance.