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New Haven Receives $2M Federal Grant to Plan Ways to Reconnect Areas Split By I-91

New Haven receives $2M grant to reconnect neighborhoods split by I-91 in 1960s. Initiative aims to restore pedestrian routes, housing, and community connections, funded by federal Reconnecting Communities Pilot program to mitigate impact of highway construction. Project addresses past urban renewal era decisions and aims to reinvigorate affected areas. Funding for project implementation is crucial for success.

Wed January 29, 2025 - Northeast Edition
Stamford Advocate & New Haven Register


Shutterstock photo/Panchenko Vladimir

Removing physical barriers around Interstate 91, restoring pedestrian routes and building housing could be some of the ways New Haven, Conn., officials hope to reconnect the city where it was divided by the freeway in the 1960s.

The Stamford Advocate reported that six city neighborhoods would benefit from the I-91 Neighborhood Reconnection Initiative to knit together areas of New Haven that were separated. The effort is federally funded by the Reconnecting Communities Pilot grant program.

City leaders and elected federal representatives on Jan. 27 laid out some of what the city hopes to learn from a planning process to be aided by the $2 million federal grant.

Areas involved include State Street, Union Station, Long Wharf, Audubon Street, Wooster Square, the parts of the city around I-91's Trumbull Street and Willow Street exits, the Mill River District and the East Rock and Fair Haven sections, the Advocate learned.

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D), who represents Connecticut's 3rd District, said the new project gives New Haven the chance to correct "past evils." Her parents were once involved in mobilizing Wooster Square residents to change the original I-91 plans to preserve more of the historic area.

"Every single resident deserves to have access to vibrant public spaces," DeLauro explained. "It's about economic development ... Ultimately, this is a project that restores physical and cultural bonds."

The stretch of I-91 from Meriden south to New Haven connected the highway to the I-95/Connecticut Turnpike when it was opened in January 1966, noted the New Haven Register. Along the way, it cut Wooster Square in half and separated that area, East Rock, and the State Street corridor from the Mill River area and Fair Haven.

The I-91/I-95 interchange also severed downtown New Haven from Long Wharf and the Hill, something the city has been trying to rectify with its separate Downtown Crossing project.

The proposed new effort would reconnect areas east of central New Haven in a fashion similar to the way the Downtown Crossing project has been reconnecting areas on both sides of Connecticut Highway 34, which aims to undo damage that split the Hill section from Downtown New Haven when Conn. 34 was built, according to Michael Piscitelli, the city's economic development administrator.

"It is now time to look east," he noted.

Among the things to be studied are ways to mitigate the impact of I-91 and reconnect communities separated by its construction and continued existence, officials said.

The kinds of problems the project aims to repair are not limited to New Haven, explained Mayor Justin Elicker, who added, "Historically, cities have been torn apart by the construction of highways."

The focus, he said, is to reunite areas that were separated by I-91's construction and the city will be "imagining in this study what reconnecting old neighborhoods that were cut off from one another would be like."

In addition, community engagement will be a key component of the planning study.

"Many of the residents who were affected by those decisions [prior to I-91's construction] did not have input into those decisions during the urban renewal era," explained Laura Brown, executive director of New Haven's planning department.

The study "will result in specific, actionable plans to reconnect neighborhoods that were affected" by the original 1960s construction, she noted. Among the things Brown said she expects are a plan to rework the Willow Street highway exit to allow the city to use some of the land that is now locked-up, as well as the installation of lights beneath I-91's underpasses.

Arlevia Samuel, New Haven's deputy economic development administrator for housing and development Arlevia Samuel sees the project as one that "actually has a lot to do with housing" and will help the city identify new opportunities.

Additional Funding to Begin Project Could Be in Jeopardy

Connecticut U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D) told the Stamford news source that the project expected to come out of the New Haven planning process would reinvigorate and reimagine affected areas of the city.

However, Blumenthal also noted that the planning grant would be of limited value without the money to implement it and pointed out that it "will require funding that right now is in jeopardy."

"This is a national initiative, and New Haven is leading the way, but it will be for naught" unless funding is put in place to implement its recommendations, he warned.

Alder Carmen Rodriguez, D-6th Ward, who represents parts of the Hill, City Point, Long Wharf, and the city's downtown, added that local officials want to see a New Haven where everyone can work, get educated and be successful.

"Today, I-91 often serves as a barrier for New Haveners living near or attempting to travel on streets cut off by the highway," she said in a press release. "The $2 million grant, which is accompanied by at least a 20 percent local match, will fund planning, zoning and housing analysis efforts, and community visioning and engagement efforts that center the input and experiences of New Haven."

It also will incorporate other initiatives along the I-91 corridor, including the Mill River Trail, Long Wharf Responsible Growth Plan and another Mill River plan, according to the Stamford Advocate.

The Reconnecting Communities Pilot grant program is funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation via the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. It seeks to advance community-centered transportation projects with a focus on reconnecting communities harmed by past transportation infrastructure decisions.




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