Daggett Demolition Debated

by Adele Haeg

Mayor Justin Elicker listened to Yale’s presentation: “We do not own the property. Yale University owns the property,” he remarked during the meeting.

Yale plans to demolish a vacant former rubber factory in the Hill that was once home to vibrant, illegal live-work artist studios — prompting pushback from some neighbors who don’t want to see the site turned into an 89-space surface parking lot.

University officials presented those plans Tuesday evening during a meeting at John C. Daniels School.

Yale purchased the Daggett Square complex at 69-75 Daggett St. in 2024 — almost ten years after the city evicted artist-tenants from the site.

The university now wants more space “to help alleviate congestion in the area’s on-street parking” around the medical campus and hospital, according to Alexandra Daum, associate vice president for New Haven Affairs and University Properties at Yale. 

Daum said on Tuesday that university planners determined that the building cannot be repurposed. For them, demolition is the only option.

Yale still needs to receive site plan approval from the City Plan Commission for this factory-to-parking lot plan.

The university intends to begin demolishing Daggett Square in September and complete the construction of a new parking lot by next summer.

What started as a presentation of Yale’s plan to about 40 neighbors and elected officials Tuesday turned into a forum for debate over the proposed demolition.

Some attendees criticized what they view as an intrusion into their neighborhood by the university. One frustrated neighbor was even escorted out in the middle of the meeting as he argued against the plan.

Mayor Justin Elicker, meanwhile, said that Daggett Square is Yale’s to demolish, reminding neighbors that the city does not own the property. He also brought up Yale recently increasing its voluntary contribution to the city: “We could always push Yale to do more, but Yale is taking a real step to do a lot more in the community.”

Hill Alder Angel Hubbard said Yale had already presented their proposal to her during a May meeting with university officials and city police Sgt. Jasmine Sanders. “At that meeting, I made no commitment because I need to take care of my constituents,” Hubbard said. She invited elected officials and neighbors to the Tuesday night meeting because she said she was eager to hear from them after meeting with the university.

Her constituents who showed up Tuesday were overwhelmingly against the plan. Some had specific concerns about traffic impacts, construction and snow management on the block. Others said they were concerned about what the development meant for the future of the Hill neighborhood. 

Lifelong Hill resident Stephen Cotton argued that the neighborhood “shouldn’t have to settle for a parking lot.”

“I don’t care if it was a co-op grocery store. I don’t care if it was one more recreation center for you to go to. I don’t care if it was a warming center, a cooling center during the summer. I want to see it doing something that will improve the neighborhood,” Cotton said, to much applause from his neighbors. 

In response to a question from an attendee, Daum said during the meeting that the university has no “long-term expansion strategy” in the Hill, and no plans for development beyond the parking lot. She also said that the parking lot may not have that function forever, but could become part of the hospital in the future.

State Rep. Pat Dillon suggested that the demolition plan be paused for now. “We want to have good relationships with the university,” she said, adding that “there is concern.”

New Haven Urban Design League President Anstress Farwell agreed with Dillon’s request for pause.

“Why is it so easy to rip up a low-income neighborhood?” she asked, adding that the university’s plan was “shocking.” During the meeting, she urged Yale to have an independent engineer evaluate the building. 

Hill neighbor Joe Fekieta, an artist, once had a studio in the old Daggett Square building. He argued that the city’s arts scene is “shrinking” and that historical preservation should be more of a priority than it is.

Hubbard said she thought the meeting went well, as did Fekieta. “I thought the meeting was a very good beginning,” Fekeita said. “You grow up with these buildings, you do things in these buildings and they become part of your life, then one day, they’re gone. It feels like a relative died. It’s very sad and it’s very uncomfortable.”

University officials did not disclose after the meeting whether they were considering pausing or adjusting the timeline in response to neighbors’ input. Daum wrote in an email statement to the Independent that Yale looks forward “to continuing those conversations as planning progresses.”

Carolina Cudemus Jones, Senior Director of Capital Program for Yale’s Medical and West Campuses, presents the university’s plan to demolish Daggett Square, a property it owns.