New Haven developer proposes 500 new apartments on city's waterfront
Mary E. O’Leary
NEW HAVEN — There certainly would be water views.
More apartments are being proposed for the city, this time
along the harbor off Long Wharf Drive.
Lynn Fusco of Fusco Harbor Associates LLC and Fusco Maritime
Associates LLC has submitted a petition to the Board of Alders to modify a
Planned Development District approved in 1984 to allow construction of up to
500 units on a parcel bound by New Haven Harbor and Long Island Sound.
The proposed site is on the south side of Long Wharf Drive
on 4.3 acres between the Fusco’s Maritime Center and the Canal
Dock Boathouse, on land that was home to a series of restaurants, the
most recent being Lenny
and Joe’s.
The modified PDD would consist of three parcels: “501 Long
Wharf Drive with related parking to be included at the existing Maritime Center
and connected parking garage at 585 Long Wharf,” according to the proposal.
The proposal fits into the Long
Wharf Responsible Growth Plan adopted by the city in 2018, which is
part of the New Haven Vision 2025.
The growth
plan proposed five new walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods for Long
Wharf, one of which was a Harbor District.
The Vision Plan said Long Wharf was underutilized and it
recommended “denser development of new residential and commercial uses.”
“This portion of the Long Wharf area is one of the most
visible locations in the city and often the first impression visitors have of
New Haven,” attorney Matthew Ranelli wrote in his letter to the alders.
He said the proposed development would provide “a critical
mass of residences on-site and create a destination for New Haven residents and
others to visit the shoreline. The mixed-use amenities will create a synergy
and direct connection with the boathouse, Long Wharf Park, and the Hill South
and Downtown neighborhoods.
“People will have more options; they can meet for a walk or
bike ride, visit with friends and family, shop in the market, enjoy a meal or
potentially some live entertainment, or just sit and enjoy the harbor,” Ranelli
wrote of the proposal.
The current PDD allows for such things as a restaurant,
office use, commercial/retail, and other service, research, professional and
marine-related uses. Ranelli, in tracing the history of the property, said it
was thought that residential and greater retail uses would be added at some
point.
The general plan is to construct two mixed-use buildings of
13 and 15 stories with a range of apartments from studios to three-bedrooms.
The first floor would contain 20,000 square feet of commercial space, including
a market with indoor and outdoor food services.
The buildings would contain one floor of parking, loading
areas and valet parking options for spaces in the nearby 1,800-space Maritime
Center garage, which was built with extra capacity.
The existing Maritime Center was constructed by Fusco and
now houses Fusco’s headquarters and many other New Haven businesses.
The proposed plan is “intended to improve and enhance public
access to the site and in particular New Haven’s waterfront while also
providing residents with over 250 square feet of open space per unit.” Ranelli
wrote.
The developers submitted a traffic study that said the
existing roads have the capacity to accommodate the development. Its stormwater
management report said the proposal “will not result in any increase in the
peak rate or total volume of runoff.”
Ranelli said the developers met with the Hill South
Community Management Team members and Alder Carmen Rodriguez July 30 to present
its draft plan. He said there was a desire by the residents to connect with the
shoreline for walking and biking.
SLR International Corp. submitted a coastal site plan for
the project, which has direct frontage on New Haven Harbor and straddles two
100-year flood zones.
“The proposed project has been designed mindful of the
dynamic coastal area, and the site redevelopment allows for periodic flooding.
The buildings will lie above the base flood elevation with freeboard to account
for anticipated sea level rise. The project incorporates green infrastructure
to improve storm water quality prior to discharge in New Haven Harbor,”
according to the report.
The proposal is to remove the existing building and parking
lot to allow construction of the two apartment buildings, plazas and outdoor
lawn areas, as well as a public walkway along the seawall.
“The lower levels of the high rise buildings will be used as
open, floodable garages and commercial areas, while the upper levels will be
residential,” according to the engineers.
“The buildings will be constructed to resist hydrostatic and
hydrodynamic wave loads as well as debris loads. The buildings will be constructed
to velocity zone flood zone standards and are designed to National Flood
Insurance Program (NFIP) and Connecticut Building Code standards with
appropriate freeboard between first flood elevations and flood zones. A flood
contingency plan will be prepared to address egress from the site in forecasted
storms,” SLR wrote.
The developers said because public access and visual
connection to New Haven Harbor was a key element in site design, there would be
public seating, plantings and stormwater infiltration areas between the two
buildings.
The public walkway along the harbor would be 10 feet wide at
an elevation of an estimated 5 feet, 7 inches, and would connect the project
site to Long Wharf Drive and adjacent properties to the east.
A pervious concrete walkway at an elevation of 14 feet is
proposed to cross over the existing walkway at elevation 5 feet in order to
provide access to an overlook platform of the New Haven Boathouse and harbor as
well as provide access to the boardwalk and market entrance.
The proposed buildings would be constructed at an elevation
of an estimated 15 feet, while the proposed plaza and market area will be
constructed at an elevation of 14 feet, 5 inches.
The amount of impervious surface within the project site
would be slightly less than existing conditions with approximately 1.949 acres
(45.3 percent) of impervious surface within the 4.3-acre project site.
Meghan Friedmann
NORTH HAVEN — Residents Rico B. Gattilia and Miriam Brody
saw decades of their own advocacy efforts come to fruition Thursday as they
gathered with officials to celebrate the opening of a nature preserve at the
former Upjohn Chemical site.
First Selectman Michael Freda said Brody and Gattilia, who
turns 97 next month, were part of a group of citizens that banded together
roughly 40 years ago to call attention to environmental issues on the land,
located at the end of Stiles Lane.
More than a century of industrial use left it contaminated,
according to a release from the state Department of Energy and Environmental
Protection. Products ranging from photographic chemicals to herbicides to
cosmetic additives were manufactured at the site, it says, and past owners
included the Pharmacia Corp. and Upjohn Chemical.
Pfizer never operated on the site but became the latest
owner when it acquired Pharmacia in the early 2000s, according to Russ Downey,
Pfizer’s director of remediation.
Through years of work, the company has turned 57 of the
site’s 78 acres into a nature preserve featuring interactive trails. Called
Brick Yard Point, the attraction will open to the public next week.
It offers a stark contrast to the state of the land several
decades ago, when it was “nothing but a chemical cesspool,” as Gattilia put it.
Activities there produced vapors residents could smell all
over town, he said.
Freda remembered the smell from when he first moved to North
Haven in 1980.
“I’d be jogging up and down Hartford Turnpike every day, and
I could actually smell what could best be described as a sweet, pungent type of
aroma,” he said.
Gattilia, Brody and other residents formed a Citizens’
Advisory Panel so their voices could be heard during the remediation process.
Their input helped Pfizer decide to designate part of the
site as a nature preserve, according to Downey, who said the panel had
requested a buffer between any industrial activity and the adjacent Quinnipiac
River.
The preserve serves as that buffer.
“30 years ago ... the wetlands here were all polluted,”
Gattilia said. “And then Pfizer got in here and look what they did here. They
created a miracle.”
Two golden dragonfly pins shone atop his hat as he spoke.
They belonged to his late wife, also a panel member, who used to wear them with
a red dress, he said.
Neither she nor Brody’s husband, another advocate, lived to
see the result of the cleanup. But Brody and Gattilia got front-row seats
during Thursday’s festivities, watching as local, state and federal officials
delivered remarks.
Afterward, staffers for Woodard & Curran, which runs the
site’s treatment plant, gave the panel members a tour of the trails by golf
cart. During the drive they saw lily pads, pink and yellow wildflowers and a
pair of swans gracing the Quinnipiac River.
“They really gave the town nature back,” Gattilia said.
Pfizer spent between $140 and $150 million on the cleanup,
according to Downey, who described some of the remediation strategies.
Treatments
from heated underground metal pipes helped removed contaminants from
the groundwater.
A mile-long underground hydraulic barrier wall prevents
groundwater from entering the Quinnipiac River, Downey said, adding that wells
collect the water, which is treated at an on-site plant.
Caps of various types also cover contaminated areas and
protect visitors from “contact with environmental impacts,” according to
Downey.
“Everywhere that people are walking on there’s ... different
kinds of lining systems,” he said.
Four interconnected loop trails totaling about two miles
comprise the preserve, he told attendees of Thursday’s grand opening.
Signs along the way educate visitors about various types of
wildlife, and the preserve’s website, brickyardpoint.org, offers
trail maps and other information.
Another 17 acres of the site are slated for development.
While exactly what kind of development has yet to be determined, Downey said
there have been discussions about constructing a commuter rail station.
Freda praised Pfizer’s handling of the site.
“Pfizer has been such an outstanding company for me to work
with these past 12 years because they’ve taken total responsibility for a site
that they have purchased,” he said.
Downey said the preserve will be open to the public from
Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 and then again in 2022. Visitors should make reservations, which
also can be done online.
Ricky Free has traveled from his home in New London to New
York City dozens of times over the past two decades, whether on business or for
dinner or to attend a motorcycle show. But he never returned to ground zero,
the place where he was bucketing debris 20 years ago, adrenaline pumping and
time blurring together.
In a better place now mentally, he is planning to
return Saturday with his niece Holly Jones.
"I'm nervous as hell," Free, 65, said in an
interview Aug. 26. He said with a nervous laugh this week, "I really don't
know what to expect. I'll see what my feelings are when I get there. I'm
excited to go down."
And if it doesn't work out for him, he and Jones will
"go to Little Italy and have lunch and call it a day," or he'll take
her shopping.
Hijackers linked to the al-Qaida terrorist network crashed
two planes into the twin towers at the World Trade Center in New York City, a
third into the Pentagon and a fourth into a Pennsylvania field, killing nearly
3,000 people. Free, a longtime Local 547 Laborers worker who is now a field
representative in an office, has struggled to talk about his experience as a
volunteer construction worker in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.
Jones, 38, was the family member who pressed him to finally
open up about it.
"It took me 16 years of asking and begging him to tell
me what really went on for him the days following 9/11, and last week he
finally gave in and sat and told me all about his story," she wrote in a
Facebook post on Sept. 9, 2017. She wrote about his experience and the impact
it had on him, and said this week she wrote it because she's really proud of
him and many people don't know what he did.
Jones said Free called her about a month ago and asked if
she would go to New York with him on the 20th anniversary of 9/11, and she was
honored.
"She doesn't leave me alone," Free said lovingly,
"so she's all excited."
Jones said since her own father wasn't in her life, Free was
her main father figure. She said "besides my husband and two boys, he is
honestly the best guy in the world to me. He's amazing." She feels that
returning to ground zero is a big step that will help her uncle in the long
run.
They're hoping to go to a memorial service Saturday, and
Free also wants to retrace his steps. He wants to take the same route he drove
in his truck with two other guys on Sept. 14, 2001, when they left Connecticut
at 3 a.m. and arrived at the Jacob Javits Convention Center three hours later
to sign up and have their credentials checked. He wants to take the same long
walk they took from the Javits Center to ground zero.
That — the walk — is the biggest thing Jones can't
stop thinking about.
"He said that family members were standing outside the
area with pictures of their family who were in there, begging them, all the
volunteers, begging the volunteers to find their family members and just
showing pictures of people's faces," she said.
Asked if he would have volunteered if he knew then what he
knows now, Free immediately said no, and reiterated a previous statement that
he was naïve.
"We thought we were going down to help rescue people,
and when we got there, everybody was dead. It wasn't a rescue. We were digging
dead bodies out," he said. He doesn't think he would have signed up for
that.
"Being from like a small town like New London, you
don't see shit like that," he said. "You see a bad car accident every
now and then, but to see something, that kind of devastation is just ..."
He trailed off.
He remembers the buildings being hot from blocks away, and
will never forget the smell hanging in the thick air, one he struggles to
explain: "I guess it's death. I guess it smelled like a big morgue. I
don't know."
'I've come a long way'
When Ricky Free got back after three days at ground zero, he
wasn't himself.
"When he came back, we knew he was having a hard time,
and he kind of just kept quiet," said his daughter, Jordan Pezzello. She
was 16 at the time while her brother, Austin Free, was 11. They both said their
father wasn't talking about it, so they didn't ask.
"I was scared," said Pezzello, who was in anatomy
class at Saint Bernard School when she learned of the attack. "We just
didn't know if this was going to happen again, why this happened."
She vaguely remembers her father talking about waking up in
the middle of the night, though she didn't get into it with him. Jones said her
uncle didn't sleep for a long time.
Free became scared of getting on a plane, and said the few
times he flew in the past 20 years, he was "Xanaxed out."
"It wasn't so much that I'm scared of flying," he
said. "I was looking over my shoulder and wondering who the hell is
on the plane with me."
That fear, along with people getting on him to talk to
somebody because he was so quiet and stayed to himself, were why he decided to
seek therapy several years after 9/11.
Free said the therapist diagnosed him with post-traumatic
stress disorder. He was in therapy for more than a year and said it was
helpful, that "she kind of told me what was going on with me, and she was
right."
He has also found it helpful to talk to his friends who are
veterans, because it felt more natural.
Free opened up in a 2007
article in The Day about his decision to drive down to volunteer with
two other men, from Waterford and Deep River at the time, and what the
experience was like.
He keeps a collection of items related to 9/11 —
newspaper articles people told him to read, cards he's been sent, photos —
in his closet. He said he doesn't look at these items much, maybe once a year,
usually in September.
"It's been a long time, so I've come a long way. I
don't dwell on it anymore," Free said two weeks ago. He added this week that
he's "kind of back to being Ricky," and while it all starts coming
back this time of year, he's found a way to put it behind him the rest of the
year.
Free is proud of his son, who also is in construction and is
working on the State Pier redevelopment, but he hopes Austin will never have to
do something like what he did. And a big part of what has helped Free move on
is having three granddaughters come into his life. Pezzello's kids are 10, 7
and 3.
"That changes your life," he said, adding,
"You get a whole different outlook."
"The girls are definitely happy little girls, so I
think just being around them makes you happy," Pezzello said, saying
they're the "best kind of medicine."
Industry Wants Fed Help to Tackle Labor Shortages
LUCY PERRY
If you believe the projections, the construction industry
could see hundreds of thousands of new jobs as a result of the bipartisan
infrastructure bill. The industry just needs fed buy-in for skilled worker
training while it waits for shovels to hit the dirt on coming infrastructure
projects. If that happens, the turnaround could be dramatic.
The massive infrastructure plan, approved by the Senate, is
forecast to create nearly a million jobs in construction, engineering and
accounting by the year 2030. Doug Holtz-Eakin, former Congressional Budget
Office director, speaking with Fox Business said more than 880,000 middle-class
jobs could materialize if the bill passes a Sept. 27 vote.
Michael Pugliese, economist of Wells Fargo Securities, told
the Associated Press the infrastructure deal would likely have a modest impact
on job creation and unemployment. He believes it could help the U.S. jobless
rate fall below 4 percent by 2023.
Though Peter Williams, an economist of the investment firm Evercore ISI, said the infrastructure package probably won't start to boost economic growth until 2023, in 2025 and 2026 the extra package would add a healthy one percentage point to the economy's growth rate. According to AP News, Williams estimated infrastructure programs will create up to approximately 775,000 jobs.
Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics, pegged it
at 650,000 new jobs, some of which would be in manufacturing. He said pay could
average about $70,000 a year.
"Just take a look at a construction site," Zandi
said in an interview with marketplace.org.
"Those are the kinds of things — manufactured things — that will be needed
for these projects. Of course, it takes all kinds of people to produce those
types of manufactured goods."
One of the undeniable elephants in the room is the continued
demand for skilled construction workers. It's been the bane of the construction
industry's existence for years now. The money and opportunities in the
infrastructure plan are encouraging, but bringing it all to fruition may be
impossible without workers, let alone well trained and qualified workers.
Harry Holzer said the bill's broad range of new construction activity will require a range of skilled construction and manufacturing workers. Holzer is LaFarge Professor of Public Policy at Georgetown University and a nonresident senior fellow in Economic Studies at Brookings
He noted that while President Joe Biden proposed $100
billion in new training over eight years, "the summaries of the bipartisan
infrastructure bill released to date are mostly silent on the need to train
more workers for the jobs it will create."
Speaking with The Hill, he said any major new funding for
workforce training would have to be allocated through the upcoming
reconciliation bill.
Holzer wants to see "substantial" new job training
funds added to the bipartisan bill. Senators who have pushed for workforce
training in the past should work again to make funding for workforce training a
top priority in the reconciliation bill, he said.
"With the apparent creation of hundreds of thousands of
new and well-paying jobs in the United States, and with millions of workers
already needing such training, our legislators need to make workforce training
the top priority that it deserves to be."
Democrats will push for money to train U.S. workers for
infrastructure jobs, Henrietta Treyz with investment firm Veda Partners
told marketplace.org.
She thinks it'll be hard for members of Congress to vote against the
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
"You have to focus on things that can get substantial bipartisan support, and infrastructure and job creation is like vanilla ice cream — everybody loves it," Treyz said.
The AGC, which tracks workforce numbers, doesn't love the
shortages the construction industry has seen over the years. Earlier this
month, the association announced shortages had reached pre-pandemic levels
despite the coronavirus and supply-chain disruptions.
"Market conditions are nowhere near as robust as they
were prior to the onset of the pandemic," said Ken Simonson, the
association's chief economist. "At the same time, the pandemic and
political responses to it are limiting the size of the workforce, leading to
labor shortages that are as severe as they were in 2019 when demand for
construction was more robust."
Stephen Sandherr, association CEO, said the federal
government currently spends only one dollar on career training for every six it
puts into college prep.
"Boosting federal investments in career and technical
education will help attract and prepare more people into high-paying careers in
construction," said Sandherr.
The association supports members efforts to address labor
shortages and has launched a digital advertising campaign, "Construction
is Essential," to help draw potential workers to the industry. AGC's
"Culture of Care" program helps member firms retain newly hired
workers.
In July and August, AGC and Autodesk conducted a Workforce
Survey to which more than 2,100 firms from across the construction industry
responded.
In a presentation on the survey results, Sandherr commented
that many of the challenges affecting contractors are being driven by the
pandemic and policy responses to it, instead of typical market conditions.
"Once the pandemic wanes and policies that have kept
people from seeking employment expire, demand for construction is sure to
rebound and the labor pool is likely to expand," said Sandherr.
Simonson cited two main reasons so many firms have trouble finding workers: Available candidates are not qualified to work in the industry due to a lack of skills, failure to pass a drug test, etc., and unemployment insurance supplements are keeping workers away.
Many construction firms reported they are making a concerted
effort to address labor shortages.
Thirty-seven percent have engaged with career-building
programs at the high school, collegiate or career and technical levels, while
31 percent have added online strategies like Instagram to better connect with
younger applicants.
And about a quarter have partnered with government workforce
development or unemployment agencies, or have used software to track vacancies
and job applications.
Almost one-third have increased spending on training and
professional development while 26 percent have lowered hiring standards and 24
percent have increased the use of virtual learning programs to supplement
training efforts.
Most firms have increased base pay rates during the past
year. And just over one-third have provided hiring bonuses or incentives. Many
firms have turned to new technologies and new techniques to create more
efficient operations.
Allison Scott of Autodesk said despite the labor shortages
it's promising to see the industry branching out in new ways and investing in
hiring, training, professional development and technology.
"I think it indicates a cultural shift in construction
that can pay dividends in the long run," said Scott.
She noted that 57 percent of respondents in this year's
survey said the rate of technology adoption at their firms has increased over
the past 12 months. Nearly 60 percent anticipate technology adoption to further
increase over the next 12 months.
Sandherr said member firms are taking a range of steps to
address these workforce shortages, including raising pay, investing more in
training and taking a more active role in workforce development.
"Even as they work to address labor shortages, firms
are also changing the way they operate to be able to perform work more
efficiently and mitigate the impacts of labor shortages."
He called for public officials to take steps as well to address the industry's current challenges. "This includes boosting demand for construction to offset current market uncertainties."
The best way to do that, said Sandherr, is to enact the
bipartisan infrastructure bill that has already passed in the Senate.
"Meanwhile, Congress and the Biden administration must
work together to increase investments in career and technical education and
other workforce development measures."
The federal government currently spends $120 billion a year
for colleges and only $20 billion a year for career training, despite the fact
only that one in three jobs requires a full college degree, he said.
"This funding gap for career training is one of the
main reasons so many contractors have a low opinion of the current pipeline for
preparing new craft construction professionals."
Boosting federal investments in career and technical
education will help attract and prepare more people for high-paying careers in
construction, said Sandherr.
Federal officials must avoid harming current labor shortages
by imposing unwise policies, he said, adding that tariffs on key construction
materials are a significant reason for price increases and shortages of key
components.
"Federal officials must also avoid imposing labor and
regulatory measures that exclude workers."
He cited government mandated project labor agreements for
federal projects that he said limit who can participate in public
infrastructure work.
He also urged the feds to drop efforts to pass the PRO Act, which he said would impose a host of measures designed to discriminate against workers who choose not to join a union.
"And state and local officials should avoid restrictive
measures, such as local hire requirements, that exclude workers based on
geography while absolving local officials from the need to invest in workforce
development measures."
AGC is supporting members' efforts to address labor
shortages, said Sandherr. "At the same time, we are working to encourage
federal officials to do their part."
The association urges House officials to quickly pass the
bipartisan infrastructure bill.
"And we lead the effort on Capitol Hill to boost
funding for career and technical education programs and other measures designed
to expose more Americans to career opportunities in construction," he
added.
AGC also is engaged in efforts to prevent federal officials
from imposing counterproductive measures so that contractors to have plenty of
work and plenty of qualified workers to keep pace with that demand.
"Doing so will require overcoming an awful pandemic and
bad policies. But we are optimistic that we can do both." CEG