New Haven Approves 2,490-Unit Union Square Development
City planners unanimously backed rezoning and federal grant applications for massive housing project across from Union Station, potentially costing $2 billion.
New Haven’s City Plan Commission unanimously approved two key proposals Tuesday that could bring nearly 2,500 new apartments to the area across from Union Station, part of a redevelopment project estimated to cost up to $2 billion.
The commissioners backed both a rezoning request and the city’s application for a $26 million federal grant during a special online meeting held via Zoom.
The first proposal would move 11.4 acres of city property from a decades-old zoning designation called Planned Development District (PDD)-15, which was first adopted in 1967, into the newer Transit-Oriented Community (TOC) zone. The land includes the current Robert T. Wolfe apartment building on Union Avenue and the former Church Street South apartment complex site.
The second proposal authorizes the city to seek a Department of Housing and Urban Development Choice Neighborhood Implementation Grant worth up to $26 million. That federal money would help fund construction of 538 new apartments in the project’s first phase.
As City Plan Director Laura Brown, city Economic Development Administrator Michael Piscitelli, Livable City Initiative (LCI) Neighborhood & Commercial Development Manager Mark Wilson, and Elm City Communities Acting Executive Vice President Jimmy Miller all said at various points of Tuesday’s meeting, these two proposals are both in support of the Union Square redevelopment.
Christopher Rousseau, an attorney representing the housing authority’s rezoning application, said that the Union Square project will see the development of up to 2,490 new housing units.
The rezoning would update the use table for the TOC zone to allow for residential uses “for the purposes of implementing the Union Square Choice Neighborhoods Transformation Plan.”
City officials described the project as part of a broader neighborhood transformation that includes a geothermal heating-and-cooling initiative and infrastructure upgrades planned for Union Avenue and Church Street South.
Both the rezoning and grant-application proposals now head to the Board of Alders for further review and a potential final vote. If the zoning map and text amendments are approved, the housing authority will still have to come back before the City Plan Commission for detailed site plan and coastal site plan review for this redevelopment project.
Both votes were unanimous, suggesting broad support among city planners for the ambitious redevelopment effort.