The Westport Planning and Zoning Commission is considering lifting its cap on multi-family housing units at least for affordable housing.
P&Z Director Laurence Bradley approached the commission about the cap during tonight’s session because the number of existing and approved units are close to the cap limit, which is 876 units per zoning regulation.
The number of units approved is 19 less than the cap limit, Bradley said, but 42 of those units have not been permitted and some of the projects that have not gotten permits were approved years ago.
Now there is an application calling for 22 units, he said, and the commission would have to deny it just because of the cap.
The commission voted to allow the staff to not count the 42 units that have yet to receive a zoning permit toward the cap.
Bradley said there had been a resolution to change the regulations to exclude affordable housing units from the multi-family units.
It would take approximately 100 units away from counting towards the cap, he said.
“It buys time for us to find a larger solution,” he said of excluding the units from the cap.
The commission directed Bradley to bring the proposed zoning regulation back to it for review.
The commission, however, is split on having any cap on multi-family units.
Three commission members said they favored a cap, three said they were against it and one said he was split on the issue although leaned towards opposing a cap.
“I’m not sure how I feel,” Ron Corwin, commission co-chairman, said. “I want to hear people out.”
