The New Canaan Building Department has received applications to demolish 18 public housing units toward the rear of the large complex that fronts Mill Pond—a signal that plans are underway to complete the final phase of a massive rebuilding project there that started about eight years ago.
Once the Millport Avenue project is complete, the New Canaan Housing Authority will have increased the total number of units there from 32 to 112, officials said.
The 18 units located “up the hill” at Millport, in the neighborhood’s parlance, will be razed and rebuilt with 36 total apartments, half of which will remain federally defined “public housing” while half will become “affordable housing” under state statutes, according to Scott Hobbs, chairman of the Housing Authority Commission.
Those who live currently in those 18 units will move into some of the 73 recently completed apartments, located in new buildings that front Millport Avenue.
The town issued Certificates of Occupancy for those new units, and—with an expert’s help—is pursuing a four-year moratorium from a state law that developers may use to skirt local planning decisions.
New Canaan has hired Ridgefield’s recently retired town planner, Betty Brosius, to assist on a consulting basis in preparing an application to exempt New Canaan for a period of time from applications submitted under the Affordable Housing Appeals Act, often referred to by its statute number, “8-30g.”
Brosius “has met with the Housing Authority Commission housing and we have given her information and she has town planning materials, so she is starting to assemble the application,” Hobbs said.
“Not surprisingly, it is a government application that will take awhile and it’s tricky and very technical so it’s very good that we do have somebody that has experience in this.”
The town received the applications to demolish the existing structures “up the hill” on Dec. 28. The two-story wood-frame buildings are 34 years old, according to the application.
The Housing Authority now is working with federal housing officials to convert a portion of the units at Millport into a type of subsidized housing that is more easily managed.
While “public housing” is itself subsidized by several funds, “affordable housing” rents are controlled at a lower level and they’re not subsidized except by initial grants to help build them, according to Hobbs. Affordable units are set at rates defined by an area’s median income for variously sized families, while public housing units are priced at a percentage of adjusted income, meaning they may bring in far less money, he said.
“Dealing with affordable housing is very technical and very regulated and the most regulated version is the pure old-fashioned public housing which is what Millport is,” he said.
Some time in March, the Housing Authority should have its financing lined up to start work on the final phase of the rebuilding at Millport, so that construction can start soon after and the project could be finished by year’s end, Hobbs said.
A massive undertaking so tastefully and conscientiously undertaken by Scott Hobbs and the rest of the Housing Authority. The community is indebted to your commitment to addressing this need and extends our appreciation for your service.