Fairfield Hills Ballot Question
To the Editor:
Below is the question to appear on the November 3, 2020, ballot regarding a housing proposal for Fairfield Hills. The “housing component” mentioned in the ballot question does not clarify what type of housing we would be voting on. Let it be known in the past, discussions regarding affordable/low income housing has been suggested many times for Fairfield Hills. It would behoove those who submitted this question to be on the ballot clarify and be up front regarding what type of housing we would be voting on.
Without this clarification and lack of transparency I will be voting against this question.
Here is the proposed question for Fairfield Hills:
“Shall the town of Newtown consider commercial proposals at the Fairfield Hills campus that include a housing component, provided that a housing component would be limited to no more than two of the existing buildings, and that the renovation is consistent with the architectural vision for the property?”
The link for a pdf replica of this upcoming ballot for Newtown including the Fairfield Hills housing question is provided here:
https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/sots/electionservices/2020-november-election-ballots/newtown-ct.pdf.
Sincerely,
Lisa Cook-Dietter
7 Orchard Hill Road, Newtown October 9, 2020
From all inf dications a large number of the apartments will be restricted to incomes below the median income in Newtown.
In addition the developer would only pay $1000 a year in taxes for each one bedroom residence, and $1500 fro a two bedroom. Hardley enough to cover their fair share of town and school costs.
I agree that there has been discussion about including affordable/workforce housing at Fairfield Hills. Such housing is designed for families earning between 60% and 80% of the (Danbury) Area Median Income. From what I understand, at this time the median income for households is about $120,000 meaning that the housing would be priced for those earning roughly between $72,000 and $96,000 per household. I have not heard about any projects that included low income housing.