The City of New Haven has hired architects to plan an economic development project in Long Wharf, the area along I-95 and Long Island Sound.
New Haven’s Long Wharf has recently seen investment in a bike trail, food truck area, and new boat house. Mayor Toni Harp wants to add to that.
“Going forward, plans for this part of New Haven, we hope, will include repurposed buildings and a comprehensive economic plan, improved streetscapes and landscaping, new transportation features and a beautiful Long Wharf Park.”
Harp says the city is using half of a $100,000 state grant to fund the plan for 400 acres near the waterfront. A recent study from the University of Connecticut found that the area was “highly vulnerable” to flooding from hurricane events.
“We needed to rethink this whole area anyway with, clearly, sea rise coming," says Matthew Nemerson, the city’s economic development leader. “We have to deal with the sustainability of protecting the rail, of protecting the cut of where the rail comes through the city which can bring water.”
Nemerson says the development will go along with the city’s plans to improve water quality and coastal resiliency.
The architects working on the plan are Perkins Eastman. The firm just designed a $2 billion waterfront development in Washington, D.C., called The Wharf.
The city expects to finish the proposal in nine months and welcomes community input.