Hartford commits to purchase of West End lot, ending decade-long fast food fight
The Hartford Common Council has approved the city’s purchase of a vacant lot on Farmington Avenue in the West End, settling a decade-long legal fight that pitted a private developer’s plan for a fast food restaurant against neighborhood’s goal of creating a walkable, Farmington Avenue streetscape.
After years of litigating a half dozen state and federal suits, the council voted to pay developer Eliot B. Gersten $1.8 million for the empty, one-third acre lot at Farmington and Girard Avenues where Gersten and partner Phil Philip Schonberger wanted to build a McDonald’s restaurant with a drive through window. Schonberg died in 2015 before the half-way point in the fast food fight.
Gersten has agreed to drop his plan for a McDonald’s, withdraw his suits, hand the land to the city and take the money as compensation for millions in lost income and legal fees.
The city will lay out a package of government financial incentives in an effort to find a developer willing to put up a mixed use retail and apartment building on the site.
Neighbors north of Farmington Avenue have been adamant in their opposition to a fast food drive-through, which they claim will scatter litter, increase vehicle traffic and hurt efforts to make the important east-west commercial corridor more pedestrian friendly.
For decades, the West End has united behind a succession of development plans to turn the avenue into a leafy place of apartments, small businesses, restaurants and lulled traffic.
Bronin and city attorney Howard Rifkin presented the Court of Common Council with details of the settlement during an closed-door executive session Monday night.
The politically influential occupants of the well-kept homes north of Farmington Avenue have been adamant in their opposition to a fast food drive-through, which they claim will scatter litter, increase vehicle traffic, hurt efforts to make the important east-west commercial corridor more pedestrian friendly and lower property values. For decades, the West End has united behind a succession of development plans to turn the avenue into a leafy place of apartments, small businesses, restaurants and lulled traffic.
“Like all of our major commercial corridors that run through our neighborhoods, we want Farmington Avenue to be a walkable, connected, vibrant corridor with a good mix of residential and retail,” Bronin has said.
A food truck park with a pergola, a stage and seating for dozens of people, is being built on a lot at 510 Farmington Ave. by Quan and Rebeca Quach, who live in the neighborhood. Quan Quach has said up to four trucks at a time will be scheduled in a rotation similar to the setup at GastroPark, the food truck park in West Hartford that opened in 2020.
