A Milford-based builder has won city permission to construct eight new affordable apartments atop a vacant Fair Haven lot where the People’s Laundromat burned down in 2009. The City Plan Commission unanimously approved that proposed new development during their latest monthly online meeting, h eld on Wednesday, Sept. 16. The commissioners voted in support of a site plan and coastal site plan submitted by Douglas Allen Investment Group LLC to construct eight new apartments at 83 Lombard St. While the property itself is owned by the City of New Haven, the developer is a holding company controlled by Douglas Woods, Jr. of Milford. The 0.17-acre Lombard Street site has been empty for more than 15 years, ever since the People’s Laundromat burned down under suspicious circumstances. The laundromat’s owner, Fair Haven developer Angelo Reyes, was charged with hiring someone to torch the building. Reyes was acquitted in that trial but is currently serving a 25-year sentence for other arson convictions. At Wednesday’s City Plan Commission meeting, local attorney Ben Trachten said that there remains “a massive concrete foundation” at the rear of the Lombard Street site. That foundation extends onto the neighboring parcel, making it “completely difficult for removal.” The current site plan would leave a portion of the foundation in place. After receiving density and side-yard relief from the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA), Trachten said, the developer is now looking to build eight new apartments, all to be set aside at affordable rents for tenants making no more than 80 percent of the area median income (AMI). That currently translates to an annual income of $79,700 for a family of two. Trachten noted that the City of New Haven currently owns the property at 83 Lombard St. and will dispose of it to his client after going through a Request for Proposals (RFP) process. The agenda for Tuesday’s full Board of Alders meeting, meanwhile, states that the city will be selling 83 Lombard St.to Douglas Allen Investment Group LLC for $55,000. This project will replace a “burned-out commercial site with affordable housing,” Trachten said, as he urged the commissioners to approve the plan. “It’s good to see more housing being proposed,” City Plan Commission Vice-Chair Joshua Van Hoesen said in support of the project. Fellow commissioner and Westville Alder Adam Marchand agreed, stating that it should have a positive impact on the neighborhood. With that, the commissioners voted unanimously to approve the project’s coastal site plan and site plan. The developer’s site plan application states that construction should begin within 30 days of approval, and should last roughly six to nine months. A surface lot at the corner of Lombard and Downing where eight new apartments will be built. The post 8 Apartments OK’d For Burned-Down Laundromat Site appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less