Affordable Housing In Newtown

The continuing saga of Edona Commons is about to enter its next, and perhaps final, chapter. The 26-unit residential condominium complex proposed for a 4.5-acre parcel on Church Hill Road in Sandy Hook Center, near Dayton Street, is the fourth incarnation of plans by Dauti Construction, LLC, of Danbury for a multifamily housing on the site. The Planning and Zoning Commission has rejected the firm’s applications for condominiums at the location three times before, in 2003, 2004, and 2006, when 16-unit, 12-unit, and 23-unit versions of the complex were proposed. P&Z is poised to reject the fourth plan, possibly as soon as Thursday this week, after The Bee goes to press. That will not be the end of the issue, however. The decision will signal the real start of deliberations over the fate of the project — in court.

Because eight of the 26 condos in the latest proposal have been designated as “affordable housing” units, the project is eligible for a court appeal under provisions of the 1989 Affordable Housing Appeals Act, which limits grounds for the rejection of such applications by local regulators to issues relating to public health and safety.  There are plenty of problems with this condominium plan that threaten both the health and safety of people in the area, including well-documented concerns about compounding existing traffic hazards and environmental impacts. Unfortunately, Connecticut’s appellate courts routinely favor developers in affordable housing appeals, even when there are compelling reasons for rejecting their plans.

The original purpose of the Affordable Housing Appeals Act was to curb the kinds of exclusionary zoning, especially in Fairfield County, that  amounted to de facto social engineering, driving people of modest means farther and farther from protected affluent enclaves. In the past 20 years, however, most suburban and rural communities around the state, Newtown among them, have taken a variety of steps promote housing options and financial incentives that encourage developers to construct a range of housing stock suitable for people with modest incomes. Newtown has long listed housing diversity in its Plan of Conservation and Development as a goal, and to realize that goal the Planning and Zoning Commission developed Affordable Housing District regulations providing incentives for developers to construct housing that would be affordable to those who might otherwise be priced out of the Newtown housing market. Ten years ago, P&Z used those new regulations to quickly approve an affordable housing plan for Riverview Condominiums off Bryan Lane behind Sandy Hill Plaza, avoiding all the public health and safety concerns and public controversy that have attended its various rejections of Edona Commons.

The developers of Edona Commons tried to create their own tailor-made Mixed Income Housing District when it became clear that their plans were too intense for even the relaxed density provisions in the town’s existing affordable housing regulations.

To have an appellate court construe Newtown’s rejection of 26 condominiums on 4.5 acres as exclusionary zoning, when the town already has affordable housing incentives on the books, would severely distort the original intent of the state’s Affordable Housing Appeals Act. If the courts continue to side with developers in cases like the one that is shaping up here in Newtown, it is time for the legislature to review and amend the act to bring balance and common sense to its implementation and fair treatment to towns like Newtown that are sincerely interested and active in fostering housing opportunities for citizens of all economic means.