State Street Re-Redo Advances

by Thomas Breen The New Haven independent

The Elicker administration won permission to make a handful of changes to a downtown stretch of State Street — including adding bike lanes, adding parking spots, removing a traffic light, and allowing for a left-hand turn from State onto Grand — as part of a broader effort to remove vehicle travel lanes and create more space for development. 

The city’s Traffic Authority issued that unanimous vote of approval during its latest monthly meeting, held online on Sept. 9.

The proposal before the commission came from City Engineer Giovanni Zinn, and included a suite of regulatory changes tied to the city’s ​“State Street Reconstruction” project.

That state-funded endeavor is designed to undo some of the sins of 20th century urban renewal, which saw widescale demolition and the widening of key roadways to make it easier for suburban car-commuters to get in and out of downtown.

As detailed by Zinn, this project should lead to a safer environment for pedestrians and cyclists to traverse State Street by connecting the Farmington Canal Trail greenway from its current terminus at Orange and Grove streets down to the new cycletrack on Water Street as well as to planned bike-ped improvements on Union Avenue heading down to Union Station.

It should also create a host of new developable lots along the eastern edge of State Street. The Board of Alders recently signed off on selling one such 3.25-acre tract between Chapel and Fair to the developers Gilbane and Xenolith, which plan on building that ex-public land into 450 new apartments.

This project ​“creates better amenities, safer amenities, smaller crossing distances” and, crucially, ​“opportunities for development,” Zinn said.

It is also meant to ​“return State Street to how it was historically in the city, before a project in the late 1980s put in” the current divider and dimensions that exist today. 

Much of that development will come thanks to the closure of the current northbound travel lanes of State Street and the conversion of the current southbound lanes into two-way travel. ​“All the motor vehicles [will be] on the west side, which is the traditional side before the 1980s” changes. The current northbound lanes will become a ​“pedestrian and active transportation zone,” as well as space for new development.

The northbound blocks of State between Fair and Chapel — where the new 450 apartments are slated to pop up — are already closed. This State Street reconstruction project will ultimately run from Water Street to the south to Trumbull Street to the north.

This work is funded in part by a $5.3 million state ​“Communities Challenge Grant” that the city landed in 2022.

So. What specific roadway changes did the commission approve last Tuesday?

Zinn noted that the authority to remove right of ways and sell public land ultimately lies with the Board of Alders. The Traffic Authority was instead charged with considering and voting on a host of ​“lawful regulations” governing this stretch of State that are all in service of this broader reconstruction project.

The regulations approved by the commission included:

• The establishment of a two-way cycletrack in front of the Knights of Columbus museum, on part of the current southbound lanes of State between Fair and Water.

• The elimination of a traffic signal at Fair Street and State Street North, as State Street North will no longer exist.

• The conversion of the half-block of Fair Street between State Street and what will be the old State Street North from one way to two-way traffic. This will allow for two-way traffic on Fair from State east over to Union Street.

• Allowing a left turn from State Street onto Grand Avenue. 

• Adding parking and loading zones on the east side of Street. Zinn said the city will return to the commission by the end of the first half of 2026 to establish exact hour limits for these new parking spots. But, for now, the city is just seeking permission to put parking spots on the east side of State Street at all.

• Extending the Wall Street bike lane by a block, establishing two-way bike lanes south of Grove Street, and addin gbike lanes between Fair and Chapel.

“It looks like we’re making some tremendous progress,” Traffic Authority Commissioner Darrell Brooks said in support of the project. Going forward, he asked Zinn to make sure to send slideshow presentations on major projects like this to the commission well before the day of the commission’s meeting, so that the group has time to review. Nevertheless, he voiced his support for the project, and his colleagues all voted in support alongside him.