Date: Fri 10-May-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

developer-Danziger-growth

Full Text:

Balancing Competing Interests: A Developer's Point Of View

B Y A NDREW G OROSKO

Residential development is a two-edged sword, according to Kim Danziger of

Danziger Homes, Inc.

Builders want to build homes to earn a living, but residents want to maintain

existing low population densities in their areas, he said.

The developer is aware that new construction also has an impact on local

property taxes. He understands that new homes are much more likely than older

homes to have young families living in them. And those younger families have

children who attend public schools, resulting in the need for the town to

provide costly educational services.

Landowners want the maximum price for their land. Developers want the maximum

profit for their work. Property owners want taxes held down. The town

government wants new construction to have as little impact on property taxes

as possible, according to Mr Danziger.

"How to you balance it?" he asked.

To balance off those competing interests, the town can reconsider and modify

its zoning regulations, as well as employ innovative land development

approaches such as "cluster housing," he said.

In cluster housing, all the houses for a given parcel of land are clustered in

one area, allowing for a significant amount of open space on the parcel,

providing residents with open land and vistas, he said. The open space areas

in cluster housing developments are open to the public. Such open areas are

either owned directly by the town or by private conservation groups.

In cluster housing development, landowners make money by selling their land,

developers make a profit, and there is more open space than there would be in

a traditional subdivision, he said. Many towns already have cluster housing

regulations, he noted.

Mr Danziger points to Greenleaf Farms on Poverty Hollow Road as a good example

of providing open space in a residential development. The open space areas are

situated along Poverty Hollow Road and the houses sited far back from that

road, providing the development with a sense of rural spaciousness.

Although the homes in Greenleaf Farms are expensive ones, houses don't have to

be expensive for an effective use of open space, Mr Danziger said.

If the town doesn't approve some developmental alternatives to traditional

residential subdivisions, the town's remaining vistas will disappear, Mr

Danziger said.

"The town has to look at `How do we want the town developed?'" he said. That

involves townspeople, elected officials and town land use staff members coming

to a consensus on what makes for appropriate residential development, he said.

Coming To Newtown

Mr Danziger has built homes in sections of lower Fairfield County. He came to

Newtown eight years ago. "I've made Newtown my town," he said.

"We're in Fairfield County. Fairfield County has the best economic growth in

the state of Connecticut," he added.

Young people who want to move into a new house simply can't afford the high

price of home ownership in lower Fairfield County, Mr Danziger observed.

Monroe was "hot" in the 1980s and many homes were built there, but the land

supply in Monroe is now virtually exhausted, he said, noting that Newtown

still has much land left for potential home building.

Besides the influx of new residents from lower Fairfield County, many people

are relocating from Westchester County to Newtown, according to Mr Danziger.

People from Westchester like the area's relatively low tax rate and

picturesque quality, he said.

Mr Danziger, a developer and builder, has built homes in Brookfield, Stamford

and Norwalk. He now focuses his efforts on Newtown where he has constructed

more than 40 homes.

His developments here include Lantern Ridge, Stone Gate, Stonewall Ridge and

Alberts Hill. Prices on houses he has built range from $300,000 to $800,000.

A monetary rule of thumb in new home buying is that in order to afford a

$300,000 house, a household must have an annual income of $100,000, he said.

A typical two-acre building lot alone represents about $90,000 to $110,000 of

the cost of a new home, he said. An exceptionally nice lot can fetch $150,000,

he noted.

And getting approvals for subdivisions is no simple task, he stressed.

"The town gives absolutely nothing away for free," Mr Danziger said.

The price of the houses being built at any given time depends on market

conditions, he said. "It's pure business."

"It changes all the time. We try to address the market," he noted.

"The market is very interest-sensitive," he said of home buyers' seeking to

minimize mortgage interest payments on their home purchases. "This is by no

means risk-free business."

Mr Danziger, who also is a civil and structural engineer, said he builds

virtually all of the houses in the subdivisions he develops, giving those

subdivisions a coherent look.

"I enjoy trying to make my subdivisions look nice," he said.

One of these subdivisions, Alberts Hill on Alberts Hill Road near Lake

Lillinonah, won an award from a builders' group for being the best-designed

subdivision in Connecticut in 1995. Four large houses are positioned on a

sweeping hillside overlooking the lake. Although the road is a dirt road,

storm drainage structures have been installed. Public utility lines have been

buried so that utility poles don't mar the rustic area.

Paving the road would have meant altering the grade of the land and destroying

stone walls as well as eliminating many trees, he said.

In another subdivision now under construction, Stone Gate off of Jeremiah

Road, Danziger Homes cut its way through a 15-foot-tall rock outcropping. The

stone removal work provided access to the land as well as provided a source of

crushed stone for construction work in the development, he said.

Ten years ago, the town wouldn't have let a builder crush stone on property

under construction, saying that such an operation would amount to quarrying,

he said.

But now, provided that the stone crushed on the land is used for construction

on that same land, it's allowable, he said.

Of the continuing tide of local residential development, Mr Danziger said "You

can't stop people who want to move in. They have the right to live here. You

can't be prejudiced against new people."