Dan Radman

Affordable Housing: State Denies Town’s Claims in Response to ‘Declaratory Ruling’ Lawsuit

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The state Department of Housing last week filed its formal answer to a lawsuit from the town of New Canaan, denying claims that it “aggrieved” the municipality last year when it issued a “declaratory ruling” after denying an application for relief from a widely discussed affordable housing law. The town claimed in a complaint filed last summer that the DOH misinterpreted the law known by its statute number, 8-30g, when the agency bolstered its reasoning for an earlier denial of the town’s application for a four-year “moratorium.”

Specifically, the town argued, the state erred in failing to credit New Canaan for “excess” affordable housing units that had been completed prior to the issuance of the town’s last moratorium (in 2017). 

“In other words, if a municipality constructs a substantial number of affordable housing units, well in excess of the number of units that would be required for a moratorium under § 8-30g, and then the municipality applies for and receives a moratorium, none of the ‘excess’ or ‘surplus’ newly constructed affordable housing can ever be counted towards a later moratorium,” Nick Bamonte, a lawyer with the town attorney’s firm, said in the complaint. 

In the Jan. 19 answer, Assistant Attorney General Vianca T. Malick denied the town’s claims that the DOH’s declaratory ruling prejudiced the rights of New Canaan, violated state law, abused its power or effectively discouraged the construction of affordable housing units, as the complaint had asserted. Under the state law known by its statute number, 8-30g, in towns where less than 10% of all housing stock qualifies as affordable (New Canaan is at 2.94%), developers who propose projects where a certain number of units are set aside to rent at affordable rates may appeal to the state after a local P&Z Commission denies their applications. New Canaan since its last moratorium lapsed in July 2021 has received three such applications, at Weed and Elm Streets (120 units, above Kimberly Place), Main Street (20 units) and Hill Street (93 units).

Government

Town Sues State Over Denial of Affordable Housing Moratorium

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Changing a strategy laid out six months ago, the town on Friday sued the Connecticut Department of Housing over its denial of an application for relief from a widely discussed affordable housing law. The agency’s denial was “fundamentally flawed because neither the law nor DOH’s own past precedent supports the interpretation now relied upon by DOH,” according to an administrative appeal filed Dec. 2 in state Superior on the town’s behalf. The Department of Housing “has prejudiced the substantial rights of the Town” because its decision violated state law, according to the complaint, filed on the municipality’s behalf by lawyer Nicholas Bamonte of Berchem Moses PC, the town attorney’s firm. The agency “ acted contrary to its own past practice and procedure under analogous circumstances,” Bamonte said in the six-page complaint.

Berchem Moses PC

Moynihan Pushes Back on the Board of Selectmen Approving Permanent Part-Time Hires for the Town

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New Canaan’s highest-elected official is pushing back on an effort from fellow Board of Selectmen members to have the three-person body approve permanent part-time hires with the town. According to First Selectman Kevin Moynihan, “there really is no provision for [the Board] approving part-time employees” in the Town Charter. “Generally full-time employees are added through the budget process, so if we want to talk about a revised policy or a new policy consistent with the Town Charter, we can do that, but as I said, you know, we have 200, 300 part-time employees in the course of the year and it really is impractical to have the Board of Selectmen review who the lifeguards are at the pool and the election workers and Town Clerk [workers],” Moynihan said during the selectmen’s Nov. 15 meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. “I really don’t see the point.

Government

Town Asks State To Reconsider Denial of Affordable Housing Moratorium Application

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Municipal officials are asking the state to reconsider its recent decision to deny the town’s application for four years of relief from an affordable housing law. The Connecticut Department of Housing in its Oct. 18 denial letter to First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said that New Canaan fell short of the required “housing unit equivalent” points required for the moratorium. The town failed to correctly calculate its points, DOH Commissioner Seila Mosquera-Bruno said in the letter, and as a result is not exempt for a four-year period from the state law known by its statute number, 8-30g. Under it, developers who propose housing projects where at least 30% of units will be rented at affordable rates can get around local Planning & Zoning Commission decisions through an appeals process.

Around Town

Congregational Church, Town Find Contractor To Repair ‘Wayside Cross’ at God’s Acre

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The Congregational Church of New Canaan and town have agreed on a contractor to repair a damaged World War I monument on God’s Acre that was damaged during a police pursuit this past summer. The Wayside Cross (local history here) will be repaired by Lorton, Va.-based Rugo Stone, under a $31,166 contract that the Board of Selectmen is scheduled to take up at its regular meeting on Tuesday. The Rev. Dr. Stephen Chapin Garner, senior minister at the Congregational Church, told NewCanaanite.com in an email when asked about the monument’s status that “the church and town have been working really well together” to try and get it repaired in time for the Nov. 11 Veterans Day ceremony at God’s Acre. VFW Post 653 member John McLane, a U.S. Army captain in Vietnam, said that the Wayside Cross at God’s Acre “has been a memorial to those who have lost their lives serving this country since right after World War I.”

“Our New Canaan VFW Post holds a service there every Veterans Day,” McLane said.