Developer of Bank St. property draws ire

Residents question use of municipal parking for apartment complex

New London — A downtown property owner objected this week to the city’s renting 50 parking spaces to Oaktree Development, which is seeking to expand Shaw’s Landing by adding 173 apartments to the 35-unit condominium complex it built on Bank Street nearly 15 years ago.

To meet parking requirements, Oaktree would rent spaces in the municipal parking lot at Tilley and Green streets.

Speaking during a Planning and Zoning Commission hearing Thursday night, John Johnson, who lives and works at The Gallery at Fire House Square, 239 Bank St., raised questions about the density of the living units in the Shaw’s Landing expansion and the city’s willingness to accommodate the developer’s need to secure off-site parking.

Johnson, who also laid out his objections in a letter to the commission, said he was concerned that surrendering 50 of the 83 spaces in the municipal lot would hurt Bank Street merchants who rely on the lot, their patrons regularly filling it to capacity “three or four nights a week” before the COVID-19 pandemic curtailed business.

“I don’t think it’s fair,” Johnson said during the hearing, which was conducted online.

Questioning motive

Karl Saszik, a commission member, said he could attest to the lot’s heavy use, saying he couldn’t understand how the commission could approve giving up parking spaces to a private developer at the same time it’s seeking to get more businesses to locate downtown.

“I don’t agree with it at all,” he said of the parking arrangement.

City officials who spoke during the hearing, including Mayor Michael Passero and Felix Reyes, director of the city’s Office of Development and Planning, signaled support for the Shaw’s Landing expansion.

The project — dubbed Shaw’s Landing Phase II and Phase III — calls for two new, five-story buildings at 330 and 400 Bank St., the

latter address being that of Phase I, which rises four stories. Phase II would have 74 units and Phase III would have 99 units. They would have a combined total of more than 100 underground parking spaces.

Susan Marquardt, a civil engineer, described the expansion as a “modification” of a plan approved in 2006 but never pursued.

Barry Levine, the commission chairman, clarified that any previously issued permits had expired and that the current plan represented “an entirely new application.”

Sandra Barnes, a resident of Shaw’s Landing Phase I since 2016, spoke during the hearing, joining Johnson in questioning the proposed parking arrangement and the proposed number of units. She said the parking, including the spaces in the municipal lot, appeared inadequate.

‘Too much development’

Johnson echoed Barnes’ concerns, saying, “It’s too much development on 3 ½ acres.” car. In response, Brandon Mitchell, Oaktree’s senior development manager, said the developers had considered whether retail would work on the ground floor of the Shaw’s Landing buildings and concluded shops there would hurt existing businesses. He said the number of proposed units was necessary to make the project viable. Investors would not provide financing for fewer units, he said. Arthur Klipfel, Oaktree’s founder, president and chief executive officer, said municipalities in the Boston area, where Cambridge, Mass based Oaktree has developed a number of projects, have been reducing parking requirements.

“People are choosing not to drive,” he said.

More commuters

His wife and Oaktree partner, Gwen Noyes, said they had hoped Electric Boat, whose “young engineers” are potential Shaw’s Landing tenants, would provide shuttle service from the Groton shipyard to downtown New London, eliminating the need for employees to commute by .Frank McLaughlin, chairman of the City Center District, which represents about 160 downtown building owners, said the district assumed the municipal parking lot in question had been developed strictly for the benefit of the downtown merchants in the immediate area. He said he was surprised to learn of Oaktree’s arrangement with the city, which he said seemed like a done deal.

He called losing 50 parking spaces “a serious problem,” and invited Oaktree representatives to meet next week with the district.