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P&Z To Prioritize Affordable Housing in New Canaan

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Faced with the prospect of new state laws designed to increase the amount of affordable housing in towns such as New Canaan, the Planning & Zoning Commission should proactively focus now on boosting the number of units available to low-income families here, including through updates to its regulations, the appointed body’s chair said last week. Though New Canaan already actively supports the creation of more affordable units—such as through a long-established fund that collects fees from building permit applicants and redevelopment projects that add dozens of new apartments here—P&Z should consider doing even more, especially as some in the General Assembly seek to have the state take over certain zoning powers to redress what they describe as “segregation” in affordable housing, according to the Commission’s chair, John Goodwin. “I think we do need as a Commission—and this is just me as one commissioner talking right now—I think we do need to take a more immediate focus on increasing affordable housing in New Canaan,” Goodwin said during P&Z’s regular meeting, held Jan. 26 via videoconference. Updates to the regulations—such as requiring developers with projects of 10-plus units to designate a certain percentage of them as “affordable,” under the state’s definition of the term—would create more housing for low-income families as well as seniors and working people who otherwise couldn’t afford to live in New Canaan, Goodwin said.

Board of Education

Large ‘School Start Times’ Committee To Convene in October

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A committee of about 30 people from the district, town government and wider community will convene in October as the Board of Education pursues a plan that would see New Canaan High School start nearly one hour later than it now does. Scheduled to launch Oct. 21, about one year later than originally planned, the committee will include Board of Education workers such as administrators, teachers and secretaries, as well as parents and representatives from the Town Council and community groups such as the New Canaan YMCA, New Canaan CARES and New Canaan Chamber of Commerce, according to Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi. “And then we are also going to invite a few folks who from the last year expressed an interest in this, they have stepped forward to communicate with the Board of Ed, to speak at the meetings, to be a part of things,” Luizzi said during an update at the Board of Education’s Aug. 19 meeting, held in the Wagner Room at New Canaan High School. 

“Because what we really want to do is have a wide-ranging committee that is led by a facilitator who has worked with our district before in order to build a baseline understanding of why we do what we do, and then look at what the scenario is that is being presented and have a brainstorming session, as well.”

Presented with several options for further study, the Board of Ed at its June meeting favored a scenario that would see all three elementary schools beginning at 7:45 a.m. all of Saxe Middle School beginning at 9:05 a.m. and NCHS starting at 8:20 a.m.—50 minutes later than the current 7:30 a.m. start time.

Airbnb

Airbnb: P&Z Weighs Draft Regulations on Short-Term Rentals 

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Town officials are weighing proposed zoning regulations that could require the owners of properties let out for short-term rentals to obtain a zoning permit first. The proposed regulations, now in draft form before the Planning & Zoning Commission, could come to a public hearing next month, officials said. Obtained by NewCanaanite.com through a Freedom of Information Act request, the draft proposal would see P&Z regulate short-term rentals as an accessory use, not a primary use, in residential districts. Specifically, a “minor short-term rental” would be defined as “the temporary rental or part or all of a residential property for fewer than 30 consecutive nights at a time, for no more than three times in a six-month period, for which the guest compensates the owner of the property.”

Such “minor short-term rentals” would occur no more than three times in a six-month period and would be required to meet Housing Code occupancy requirements, to be used for lodging only—as opposed to activities such as parties, fundraisers, photo shoots or corporate retreats—and must not “materially disrupt the residential character of the neighborhood,” according to the draft. Commissioner Krista Neilson, who has taken a lead on helping draft the regulations along with Town Planner Lynn Brooks Avni, said that in some ways the language is designed to give more discretion to a zoning enforcement officer who might be faced with difficult situations and the prospect of resigning the requirement zoning permits. 

Another part of the draft regulation specifies that the zoning permit, which would expire after one year, could be revoked if the rental “imposed a nuisance on neighbors.”

Brooks Avni noted that it would important to have “some sort of threshold about what the nuisance might be.”

“Just because they are bothered by the fact that a neighbor is renting, that might be their nuisance but if it’s allowed then it’s not really a nuisance,” she said during P&Z’s regular meeting, held April 30 at Town Hall.

Government

P&Z To Study Concerns Surrounding Airbnb Rentals, with An Eye on Updating Regulations

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The chairman of the Planning & Zoning Commission said Monday night that the appointed body is to study problems associated with short-term home rentals through a popular online service, with an eye on possibly updating local regulations. Though initial concerns presented by Airbnb emerged in New Canaan several months ago, P&Z did not immediately address it because the town was in process of hiring a new planner, according to John Goodwin. But she’s now in place, a second Airbnb problem on New Norwalk Road has emerged “and I have concluded that I had to more aggressively deal with it,” he told members of the Town Council’s Bylaws and Ordinances Committee during their special meeting. Specifically, he said, P&Z Commissioner Krista Neilson and Town Planner Lynn Brooks Avni will study Airbnb in New Canaan, make an assessment and report back to the full Commission with recommendations. 

“There are already sections of the regulations that deal, we think, with Airbnb and the preliminary thought is it looks like they may already be in violation of the regulations without us even having regulations that are specific to Airbnb, so take that as an idea that is being talked about,” Goodwin said at the meeting, held in Town Hall. A guest at the meeting, Goodwin made his comments to a committee of the legislative body that’s looking at a number of possible new or updated ordinances.

Government

‘It’s Going To Be Hard’: New Canaan Faces Long Odds on Achieving Third Affordable Housing Moratorium, Officials Say

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Though New Canaan this summer qualified for four years of relief from a state law that allows developers to skirt local planning decisions by designating a certain percentage of units in new projects as “affordable”—and could be positioned to achieve a second four-year “moratorium” under that law—it’s unclear now whether or how the town will be able to continue doing so. The major difficulty, according to the chairman of the New Canaan Housing Authority, is the high cost and scarcity of land in town that could take a fair-sized (say, 20-unit) affordable development. “Land of any sort of sizeable acreage that is on sewer and water, is certainly subject to an [affordable housing] ‘cramdown’ from a developer, and it’s also therefore valuable to them,” Scott Hobbs told members of the Planning & Zoning Commission during their regular meeting, held Aug. 29 at Town Hall. “And knowing that someday we will run out of moratorium time, so the odds that we could buy a piece of property like that, is going to be hard.