By Neena Satija
A crisis in affordable housing, a struggling economy and rising gas prices are creating a slow-but-steady shift in some of Connecticut’s wealthiest areas: its small-town suburbs.
Faced with a demand for smaller, more energy-efficient homes or rental housing even in these areas, developers are taking advantage of a law that’s been on Connecticut’s books since 1990 to build high-density apartment complexes in areas where almost none exist. Known as 8-30G, the statute allows developers who build affordable units to override local zoning codes in towns where less than 10 percent of the housing stock is deemed affordable. [Westport is among such towns.]
Since January, four developers in Ridgefield have gotten approval to build a total of 39 new rental units in town, a portion of which will be dedicated to affordable housing—and the neighbors aren’t happy about it.
“I would have liked to feel that I have some kind of community, where we can have some control,” said Amale Hawi, who lives around the corner from a future development on Gilbert Street, where eight units will be built on one-third of an acre. That is 24 times the density of the surrounding neighborhood, where single-family houses like Hawi’s rest on 1-acre lots.
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Times change. Wilton once had three acre zoning and we thought the world was ending when that was adjusted. But it didn’t.
For some old timers a house on a one acre lot is just as horrible as a low income eight unit apartment complex.
The world will not end, life will go on.
This article is telling a story already well known in Westport.
As it says, the legislation was well intentioned but is used to bust zones and in many communties to only benefit developers who use the law for their own ends.
Westport has created zoning incentives to promote affordable housing along the Route 1 corridor. If a developer feels they want to create affordable housing then use that. But not 8-30g.
Developers already know that bringing an 8-30g applicaiton to our town will be met with strong opposition, not just from the local neighbors affected, but by many who will stand by them to protect the overall town.