Tweed gets City Plan permission to expand parking

New Haven commission OKs addition of 34 spaces

NEW HAVEN — The parking crunch at Tweed New Haven Regional Airport will ease slightly, at least for the short term, following the City Plan Commission’s unanimous approval of Tweed operator Avports LLC’s application to increase its past parking expansion by 34 spaces.

Commission members, after rejecting for a second time a request by Tweed neighbor Gabriela Campos Matteson to intervene in the proceedings, approved three elements of a site plan modification Wednesday night to increase last fall’s expansion from 203 spaces to 237.

Members approved a coastal area management review, an inland wetlands review and a site plan review for the application by identical 5-0 votes. The vote not to grant Campos Matteson intervenor status, which would have allowed her to present testimony from her own experts, was unanimous this time. It failed Jan. 25 on a 2-2 vote.

“It is not before us today to decide on whether or not we think the expansion of Tweed New Haven Airport is a good idea . ... Just for the record, I do hear the concerns of the residents of that neighborhood,” said commission Chairwoman Leslie Radcliffe prior to the vote on the application.

“I believe that there’s a lot that could be done” to alleviate parking issues at Tweed, Radcliffe said. But “I don’t see that there’s any negative effect on the environment” from the application before the commission.

Parking has been an issue at Tweed as Avelo Airlines continues to grow. During holiday peak periods, between Thanksgiving and Christmas, existing parking came close to filling up some days

As was the case previously, most of the 10 or so members of the public who spoke at the hearing opposed the parking expansion plan.

The applicant’s lawyer, Joseph Williams of Shipman & Goodwin, said it amounted to little more than moving a fence within an existing paved area and painting stripes on existing pavement.

“More parking at the airport means less traffic in the neighborhood, which is a top priority for everyone,” said Michael Jones, CEO of Avports subsidiary The New HVN LLC, Thursday. “More parking also means a more predicable passenger experience as we approach spring and summer.”

Tweed New Haven Airport Authority Executive Director Tom Rafter said of the approved plan, “I think it’s an improvement for the environment and for the airport . ... It will improve the current situation and allow us to expand a couple of spots.”

The additional spaces in the more distant of Tweed’s two front parking lots were removed from a previous application for 203 spaces approved in October because the 34 spaces involved moving a fence within a regulated inland wetlands and coastal management area.

The city’s building official subsequently issued Tweed two cease-and-desist orders for doing work without a permit — something that City Plan Commission members noted during discussion leading up to the vote.

“We have high expectations for the behavior” of those the commission does business with, said Alder Adam Marchand, D-25, the Board of Alders’ representative on the commission. He said he was concerned “because I think they did damage to the already-challenging relationship” the airport and the city have with airport neighbors.

But “having said that, I feel that the application meets the standards that we hold these applications to” and the commission should approve it, Marchand said.

Wednesday’s decision followed a nearly threehour continuation of a public hearing that began with nearly five hours of public testimony on Jan. 25. City Plan Commission members said at that time that they were moved enough by neighbors’ concerns about runoff to want to study it further.

City Plan Department Executive Director Laura Brown presented the commission with a memorandum from consultant CDM Smith that found proposed improvements with respect to stormwater “provide more than sufficient water quality treatment” and “treatment is provided prior to stormwater runoff combining with the existing groundwater.”

According to the memo from CDM Smith’s Cynthia Baumann, the proposed work, including installation of porous pavement, “provides an improvement with respect to water quality treatment” and the developer provided about five times the required stormwater storage volume. An additional filtration system “is not warranted at this site,” it said.

Campos Matteson, a Morris Cove resident, said during public testimony that the purpose of an inland wetlands agency is to stop any random, unnecessary or undesirable activity within the wetlands. Tweed has “many violations ... that are well-documented,” she said.

“It is unsafe for the people. It is unsafe for the environment,” she said of the proposed parking expansion.

“I know that it’s stated that it’s just a fence, but it’s not just fence,” she said.

East Haven resident Lorena Venegas said that attorney Williams “said the work would be done. But the fact is, the work already was done,” which prompted the cease-anddesist orders.

She suggest that rather than expand parking, Tweed could provide expanded shuttle service to offsite locations, as it currently does during peak times.

She also suggested that Tweed could move its rental-car lot farther from the terminal and use that lot for parking.

Morris Cove neighbor Ed Fitzgerald said “the precursor to moving that fence was to install sediment control barriers,” and said Tweed didn’t do that. In addition, “they were blowing construction material” in video he shot.

“There should be ramifications, as I said, for that, in general,” he said. “... I feel very strongly that this application should be denied.”

Joe Giordano of East Haven, who spoke in favor of the application, said granting intervenor status “is totally not necessary.” He said application opponents were “grasping at straws, nitpicking ... trying to create issues that do not exist.”

That prompted Radcliffe to admonish him and ask him to keep his comments to the application.

Lori Foster of Uriah Street said that in the wake of the cease-and-desist orders, “we are going to question everything that Tweed does. We want it done by the book, and if not, there should be ramifications and consequences.”

Anstress Farwell, who lives on Elm Street, lamented “the lack of transportation improvements in the area.” She also said she was “disappointed at the denial of the petition” for intervenor status.