Latest news with #MichaelPassero
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New London approves Habitat for Humanity homes, community garden move
New London — A City Council vote this week paves the way for the construction of several new, multi-family homes on Adelaide Street and the relocation of a community garden to a nearby parking lot. Over the objections of several local gardeners, the council on Monday agreed to sell three contiguous parcels — 45, 49 and 61 Adelaide St. — to Habitat for Humanity of Eastern Connecticut for $1. The group plans to build three two-family homes on the half-acre property that has remained largely unused for decades, except by a dozen or so gardeners who have grown fruits and vegetables there for more than 10 years. The city-owned property was turned into a community garden by FRESH New London in 2013 and is now overseen by the Riverside Park Conservancy. City officials on Thursday said a deal has been reached to shift the garden a few feet farther down Adelaide Street onto an underutilized parking lot near the entrance to Riverside Park across from Central Avenue. Proponents of the land sale, including Mayor Michael Passero and Felix Reyes, the city's director of economic development and planning, said the agreement will allow six families to move into new homes built on one of the city's few sites suitable for construction of affordable housing. Reyes, during questioning by councilors over the sale price and timeline of the deal, said Habitat For Humanity representatives were the only ones willing to put money into the plan without first gaining approval. 'They'd invested thousands of dollars into architectural studies, surveys and design before knowing if this would go through,' he said. 'This is a neighborhood in desperate need of affordable housing.' Several garden supporters decried the sale, as well as the dearth of information on relocation plans. Adelaide Street resident Erin Walker called for the land sale to be postponed. 'This process has moved very fast,' she said. Several council members seemed torn at the prospect of approving new housing at the expense of gardeners who said they used the plot to offset high food prices. 'I'm thankful for the community garden and I understand their position,' Councilor Reona Dyess said Monday. 'But most of the people that spoke out tonight have a home and this is an opportunity to bring taxes back into the city.' Moving down the road Reyes said the city is still working through specifics of the garden relocation, including getting water to the new site and coordinating with Habitat, which has promised to deploy volunteers for the relocation project. 'This is something we can accomplish over a couple of weekends,' Reyes said. There is no timeline or cost estimate yet for the shift. 'That's all still up in the air,' FRESH Executive Director Seanice Austin said Thursday. 'These conversations began a year-and-a-half ago with Habitat, but with little discussion about the plan with us.' Austin said the parking lot site, littered Thursday with broken asphalt and pothole patch rubble, is narrower than the current garden, which boasts a water source, fencing and other amenities. 'We're going to have to operate on top of that concrete instead of the dirt and soil we're on now,' Austin said. Passero this week said the land sale deal received unwarranted criticisms from the gardeners who misrepresented the proposal. He said the relocation would be accomplished through 'sweat equity' from volunteers with support from the city and Habitat.
Yahoo
08-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Plan divides New London site into development, conservation sections
New London — The Planning and Zoning Commission next month will again consider making a zoning change to allow multi-family homes on a parcel of privately-owned wooded land. But the proposal differs significantly from one the commission rejected by a 5-2 vote in September. First, the applicant this time is the city — not the New York-based Vessel Technology group that made the original application to re-zone the land from its current R-2 designation, which allows one- and two-family construction, to R-3, or multi-family and apartment complex construction. The new application also calls for formally dividing the 23.57-acre parcel at 0 Stonebridge Drive into two sections. A smaller area in the north end of the property would be available for development, with the remainder to be held as a conservation easement 'to prevent any future development,' according to a Jan. 31 memo from Felix Reyes, the city's director of planning and development. The land, bounded by Williams and Briggs streets and bisected by Briggs Brook, has been owned by the Shiloh Baptist Church for the last 26 years. Multiple attempts to sell the land have fallen through, in many cases due to zoning issues. Ahead of the commission's September rejection vote, several neighbors with homes near the Shiloh parcel came out against the Vessel sale, citing a desire to keep the land undeveloped and use it for passive recreation. In reaction, the Avalonia Land Conservancy in December submitted an application for a grant from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection's Open Space and Watershed Land Acquisition program to allow it to buy the Shiloh land for preservation. A compromise plan by Mayor Michael Passero — the same plan set to be discussed by the Planning and Zoning Commission on March 6 — calls for rezoning the entire parcel as R-3. A condition of that change would require designating 15.75 acres of the land as conservation easement, leaving the remaining 7.82 acres for potential development. Vessel leaders have not committed to revisiting their previous housing plans for the site. The company's original site plan application stated it intended to construct a 'multifamily project' on the most 'developable' southern portion of the property, identifying a 4.5-acre, kidney bean-shaped area in the southeast as the company's preferred building site. Dennis Main, president of Avalonia's board of directors, said Friday appraisals of the land, needed as part of its state grant application — which could pay for up to 75% of the purchase price — put the value of the entire undeveloped parcel at $260,000. In its Jan. 13 report, Russ Appraiser Services noted in April 2024, when Vessel was still attached as a potential buyer, the property was listed as under contract for about $900,000. Shiloh bought the property for $950,000 in 1999.
