Image courtesy of Newman Architects.

City officials approved a 102-unit project in downtown New Haven that includes plans to move and preserve a historic home located on the site.

Daniel Seligsohn’s DSEL Properties had proposed a 7-story, 105,000-square-foot building with 102 market-rate units would rise at 296-283 Orange St. in place of a pair of parking lots. A historic house in the center of the property that once was home to cotton gin inventor Eli Whitney, the William Pinto House, would be moved northward 90 feet and integrated into the project. The plans show a mix of 56 studios, 38 one-bedroom units and six two-bedroom units.

The New Haven Independent reports that historic preservationists backed the project, while neighbors opposed it saying it would cast shadows on a playground on the Connecticut Children’s Building property next door. The historic home, once moved, will sit between that playground and the main building.