updated 5-12-06

NEW HAVEN
URBAN DESIGN LEAGUE

129 Church Street -- Suite 419
New Haven, CT 06510

Phone: 203-624-0175

Fax: 203 495 9847

e-mail: urbandesignleague@iconn.net

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Founded by citizens devoted to protecting and enriching New Haven's natural assets and urban design, the New Haven Urban Design League works to improve the quality of life in New Haven by promoting projects that enhance the culture, beauty, and utility of the city.-- both in its neighborhoods and its region. Through research, education, and advocacy, the League works to strengthen the civic culture that is the foundation for good government, good planning, and good development.

Today, the city faces great challenges -- New Haven's future depends on an engaged public equipped with the knowledge and resources necessary to ensure good design and planning.

5 May 2006

Dear League Members and Friends:

It is just four months into the new year, and we have happy news about successes in our mission to promote good government and good planning in the city. This week, a two-year-long community education and outreach project in partnership with the City Wide Planned Development Collaborative has been rewarded with a new bill passed by the Connecticut General Assembly. This bill requires the city to develop clearer standards for Planned Development Zones.

It is vital now to continue our effective engagement.

In the last few years, the use of Planned Developments has resulted in many controversial projects harmful to the public interest: The garage Yale University is now building on a wetland off Mansfield Street, the destruction of affordable housing in the Hill, the destruction of the National Register listed St. Peter's Church Complex, the proposed expansion of Anthony's Ocean view, and the attempted use of a Planned Development for the proposed expansion of Hooker School. This week, the Courts invalidated the city attempt to rewrite the zoning code to place this much needed project on a site where it was prohibited.

In all these cases the city spent vast sums on legal fees, architects, engineers, and traffic consultants. The Courts earlier decision in the Campion case, which invalidated Planned Developments in the city, required popular projects, such as the rebuilding of the Quinnipiac Terrace Housing, to be resubmitted to the zoning board for a complex and costly restructuring Yale New Haven Hospital needed to create a new zoning category to build the proposed Cancer Center. And private citizens -- choosing against long odds to protect their neighborhoods -- also committed hundreds of thousands of dollars and their time.

These expenditures don't build community. To prevent future losses of time and resources, and to ensure that clear and comprehensible regulations replace those that lead to unsound projects, we ask your help and support.

This is especially important as plans are being developed to rebuild the Legion Avenue corridor. Good planning tools and community involvement are essential for this massive project is be useful and beautiful. Building a beautiful city is a social art! We need your help and support.

Sincerely,

Anstress Farwell, President

Contributions to the League, a 501(C)(3) Public Charity, are deductible of federal income tax purposes

The reward for good work is more work.

The General Assembly just adopted legislation requiring clear standards for urban Planned Development Zones. The New Haven Urban Design League prizes our involvement in the two-year-long community education and outreach project, in partnership with the City Wide Planned Development Collaborative, which led to adoption of this legislation. Now, we want to coalesce the substantial public input necessary to set the standards New Haven will adopt.

To do this, we need your money.

Clear standards will ensure future developments based on solid community understanding and support - replacing the contentious, drawn-out, expensive, and sometimes unsound projects approved under ambiguous standards. You recognize the litany of unfortunate projects resulting from ambiguous standards:

-a 350 car parking garage off Mansfield Street in New Haven on top of recognized wetlands;

-an new school requiring destruction of numerous units of affordable housing in New Haven's Hill neighborhood;
and another new school in the Hill required destruction of St. Peter's Church Complex, despite its listing on the National Register;

-and - now - the court-ordered abandonment of the plan for the much-needed expansion of the Worthington Hooker School in East Rock.

We can help SAVE lots of money, if you give us a little.

Think of the vast sums of dollars, time, and personnel hours expended on clearing the way for even popular projects to go forward. The courts invalidated the city's approach to planned developments in the Campion case, after the city sided with Anthony's Ocean View against neighbors' resistance to its expansion. As a consequence, complex and costly restructuring were necessary for the Quinnipiac Terrace project and other developments to move ahead. And it took creation of an altogether new zoning category for Yale-New Haven Hospital's proposed Cancer Center to finally get the go-ahead.

Building a beautiful city is social art. We need your money to exercise the art.

The New Haven Urban Design League introduced Parking and Traffic Demand Management (PTDM) principals to the city. PTDM reduces traffic, pollution, and pubic safety hazards; saves valuable urban land for appropriate uses; supports the development of mass transit, and increases public equity in development. We continue to engage the city, Yale-New Haven Hospital, community groups, and businesses in an effort to encourage incorporation of this progressive tool into local ordinances.

The money you give will shape the skyline.

We want to continue our community-building efforts, to prevent future losses of time and resources, and to ensure that clear, comprehensible Planned Development Zone standards - created with substantial public input - bolster development of pleasing city scapes.

Help assure the utility and beauty of the pending massive Legion Avenue corridor project.

We have proven ability in brining together wide diverse coalitions of individuals and organizations for the betterment of our city. We want to help similar coalitions influence creation of the Planned Development Zone standards the city now has to adopt following passage of the state legislation requiring clear standards.

Give to the New Haven Urban Design League today.
Questions? Call us! 624-0175