New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
New Haven seeks millions in grants to remediate development sites
NEW HAVEN — The city and developers working on several key development projects that could transform city neighborhoods are hoping to use millions of dollars in state development grants to help clean up sites downtown, in the Dixwell neighborhood and on the former site of the Winchester firearms factory, among others.
Several resolutions that received preliminary positive recommendations this week included authorizations to apply for and accept $2 million each from the state Department of Economic and Community Development to remediate:
— The 7.6-acre Dixwell Plaza site on Dixwell Avenue, located on Dixwell Avenue between Webster and Charles Streets. The site will be developed into ConnCAT Place in two phases, with Phase I including 174 housing units, 20 percent of which will be affordable, a daycare center, grocery store, food hall, child and family guidance center, job training facilities and business incubation laboratory.
“I’m in favor of this,” said Alder Sal DeCola, D-17. “It’s a great project and this is the last hurdle that they have to do.”
— A 5.14-acre former Winchester Rifle manufacturing site in Science Park off Winchester Avenue. It includes the properties at 275 Winchester Ave. and 88, 110 and 116 Munson St. It will be developed as parking to support construction of a 200,000square-foot
life science building, as well as existing Science Park facilities.
— A 0.8-acre site at George and Orange streets that currently is used as a parking lot. The city plans to see requests for proposals from potential developers. The site includes properties at 7 Orange St. and 19, 25, 31, 39 and 53 George St., directly across George Street from the Coliseum site on which Spinnaker has broken ground on a mixed-use, multi-phase development.
All three resolutions won unanimous positive recommendations Thursday night from the Board of Alders’ City Services and Environmental Policy Committee. They now will go to the full board for final approval.
City Services and Environmental Policy Committee Chairwoman Anna Festa, D-10, asked each group whether they were prepared to go forward should the state grants not come through. They said they were.
The committee also unanimously approved resolutions to apply for and accept:
— A $1.3 million grant to support environmental remediation for the West River Housing Company LLC’s proposal to develop 56 units of affordable housing and ancillary community space at 16 Miller St., located off Frontage Road and Martin Luther King Boulevard.
— A $985,000 grant for environmental remediation for Monarch Apartment Homes LLC to build 67 units of affordable one-, two- and three-bedroom housing on the 1.77-acre former New England Linen site at 149-169 Derby Ave.
— A resolution approving the Parks Commission’s acceptance of $128,838 from the Dalio Foundation to install fitness equipment at Wooster Memorial Park in memory of Devon Dalio.