New Haven’s Long Wharf area is set to get a big boost after the city secured a nearly million dollar grant from the state.
Economic development, better accessibility to the waterfront and improvements to shoreline infrastructure are areas where Mayor Toni Harp said the city plans to invest the $935,000 grant.
“We don’t have county government here in Connecticut, so we look to the state often for things we can’t afford to do ourselves,” Harp told NBC Connecticut.
Interstate-95 sits between downtown New Haven and Long Wharf.
“One of the things we are trying to do is to assure the residents, the people who live here and the people who come here, have access to Long Wharf,” Harp said.
Coastal infrastructure improvements will help protect the highway and Union Station, a major transportation hub for both the state and the region, Harp said.
“It’s really important that it’s protected from any weather events that we have because if we lost any of that track it would impact the whole line going up the entire East Coast,” she said.
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The mayor said construction on a new boathouse for New Haven harbor should begin in the fall.
Visit New Haven, the city’s tourism bureau, is excited about the re-opening of a new visitor’s center at Long Wharf.
“Another way for businesses downtown and in the region to get all the information out to the people who are on the highways and need a place to stop,” Visit New Haven director of marketing, Barbara Malmberg said.
Investments from this grant could attract developers to create new homes with waterfront views.
“It’s always been the vision,” Harp said. “We could add a little more height to that area and add an opportunity for people who want to come and live on the sound to come live on Long Wharf.”
Just last weekend, the city hosted its second annual Food Truck Festival at Long Wharf and first Dragon Boat Regatta.
