Affordable Housing Committee

Affordable Housing: Town Eyes Purchase of ‘Avalon’ Property on Lakeview Avenue

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Faced with creating dozens of new affordable units in New Canaan in order to get out from under a widely discussed state law, town officials are seeking to purchase a 9.1-acre apartment development located opposite Lakeview Cemetery, documents show. According to a Notice of Public Hearing posted on the municipal website, the New Canaan Housing Authority “proposes to acquire through its wholly owned affiliate HANC Lakeview LLC, by agreement with current owners, the following property in connection with the acquisition of an existing multifamily residential housing complex and related improvements located at 100 (a/k/a 106) Lakeview Avenue, New Canaan, CT.”

Known as the Avalon, the privately owned property at 106 Lakeview Ave. — the single-highest taxpayer account in New Canaan with a $33 million assessment, according to the most recent Grand List — includes 10 residential buildings with dozens of units of various sizes, 11 garages and a one large pool, tax records show. As per state law, the town must post a notice and give the public an opportunity to comment on the proposal. A hearing is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Aug.

Affordable Housing Committee

Op-Ed: Affordable Housing Committee Moving Ahead On Three Tracks

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[John Goodwin is chair of the New Canaan Affordable Housing Committee.]
Last year the New Canaan Town Council passed an ordinance establishing an Affordable Housing Committee. The Committee’s mission is to work with the New Canaan Housing Authority and other Town bodies to increase the number of affordable housing units in New Canaan, with a goal of achieving local control of housing decisions via successive moratoriums under Connecticut’s 8-30g statute. Connecticut Statute 8-30g is complex, as is the topic of affordable housing. Under 8-30g a housing unit is deemed ‘affordable’ if the residents make less than 80% of median income. In essence, the statute enables developers who seek to build housing projects with at least 30% of the units deed-restricted as affordable to avoid the zoning regulations maintained by the Town’s Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z). The exception is if P&Z can demonstrate clear risks to health, safety and welfare that outweigh the benefits of additional affordable housing. In various cases the state’s courts have shown that to be a high bar. Consequently most 8-30g projects get upheld in court and result in buildings that are incongruent with the town’s Plan of Conservation and Development and the zoning regulations that are continuously reviewed and improved to implement the Community’s vision. Towns can maintain control of new residential development either by having 10% of the town’s housing stock deemed affordable, or by building enough new affordable units to achieve four-year moratoriums. On the former, New Canaan is at 3.93%, and almost all agree that getting to 10% is unrealistic. Therefore, the New Canaan Town Council determined that achieving successive moratoriums is a priority.

Affordable Housing Committee

Affordable Housing Committee Elects Officers, Hears from Town Officials at First Meeting

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A newly appointed committee charged with identifying properties in New Canaan where affordable housing units could be built, among other responsibilities, on Monday voted to elect a seasoned and widely respected municipal volunteer as its chair. At its first meeting, members of the Affordable Housing Committee voted 9-0 to elect former Planning & Zoning Commission chair John Goodwin to lead the group. 

In nominating him, Committee member Krista Neilson said that Goodwin’s time on P&Z “gives him a lot of insight into the work that we’re going to be doing here.”

“He sat in on approving Canaan Parish and Millport, I’m sure he probably dodged some 8-30g applications that didn’t come to us,” Neilson said during the meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. She continued: “So he’s seen the whole gamut, at least, of how it comes to the town. And also, I think he has great experience being the chair of the Planning & Zoning Commission, which—those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of attending our meetings, can be quite long, quite contentious. I feel if you can chair that, you can chair most anything.

Affordable Housing Committee

Selectmen Poised to Appoint ‘Affordable Housing Committee’

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The Board of Selectmen is scheduled to appoint a new committee Wednesday that will be charged with figuring out how to increase the number of affordable housing units in New Canaan. The Affordable Housing Committee will help “maintain local control of housing development,” in part, by recommending “a plan to maintain successive moratoria,” according to the recently adopted section 4B of the Town Code. “The Affordable Housing Committee shall develop scenarios under which moratoria under Section 8-30g(l) of the Connecticut General Statutes could be achieved and shall measure public support for each scenario,” according to the Code. “Each scenario shall address the type of projects involved, whether they would utilize Town property or require land acquisition, the projected costs of development and maintenance of each project, the impact on infrastructure, the likely sources of funding and the impact on taxpayers.”

The Town Council passed the updated ordinance establishing the Affordable Housing Committee last May. The prior Board of Selectmen tried to appoint members to it in October, but was unable to do so for what the former first selectman described as “political” reasons.

Affordable Housing Committee

Affordable Housing: Judge Grants ‘Co-Defendant’ Status to Developer in Moratorium Suit

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A state Superior Court Judge ruled Tuesday in favor of a local developer’s motion to intervene as co-defendant in the town’s affordable housing-related lawsuit against the state. Despite the town’s objections, Judge Ted O’Hanlan granted intervenor status to the companies that own properties in New Canaan where affordable housing developments are planned. Local developer Arnold Karp is principal at the ownership limited liability companies. 

“The court finds that intervenors have demonstrated a valid interest in intervention in this matter,” O’Hanlan wrote in his order, obtained by NewCanaanite.com. The town in December sued the Connecticut Department of Housing, appealing the state’s decision last fall to deny the town’s application for a “moratorium,” or four years of relief from the state statute that facilitated the affordable housing applications (that suit was dismissed). In June, the town sued again, objecting to a “declaratory ruling” from the state agency that bolstered its earlier denial. 

Attorneys representing Karp in August filed to become a co-defendant in the case, saying, in part, that he will be directly affected if the town is able to overturn the state’s denial of a “moratorium,” which would grant four years of relief from the state affordable housing law known by its statute number, 8-30g.