This past week a five-story, 86-unit development was proposed for the corner of Brookridge Drive and the Post Road in central Greenwich. The property has already been clear cut of trees. We were shocked. The lovely 100-year-old home that currently sits on the 1.7 acre site will be gone. The new 112,350-square-foot structure will have underground parking for 98 cars.
How is a proposal completely out of character for this part of town possible? The developer of this project, and another developer who wants to build a 192-unit project between Church Street and Sherwood Place, have filed them under Connecticut state statute 8-30g.
8-30g encourages development of “affordable housing” (by a very narrow and specific definition of the state) in communities with less than 10% currently, by allowing developers to disregard many zoning regulations, including building size and setbacks. The caveat is that 30% of the units must be set-aside as “affordable” units by the state definition.
Greenwich has 1,380 such units currently, or 5.3%. To get to 10%, we would need to add 1,140 units and that would mean building 3,800 additional units overall. Do you think Greenwich could absorb that additional development?
We are not disputing the need for additional affordable housing in Greenwich. Housing diversity is vital to having a vibrant community. We also believe 8-30g, as it currently stands, has the potential to impose great harm to our community. According to the Greenwich Town Website “Allowing developers to build with greatly reduced local control complicates town planning decisions and can impose considerable stress on municipal resources.”
When the remnants of Hurricane Ida came through town this summer devastating flooding occurred throughout neighborhoods. The cause was not just the vast amount of rain that fell quickly, but that the water had nowhere to go. Our infrastructure could not handle the demands of the storm and people’s property was destroyed and lives disrupted. Many have attributed this to not just our aging infrastructure but to the fact that we continue to build impervious surfaces.
The proposed Brookridge Drive development is in a part of town that floods regularly. Building a 112,350 square foot building will only create more impervious surface, overstress the infrastructure, and exasperate the flooding. Add to that the fact that is is very close to Greenwich High School which has traffic congestion every day school is in session. Inserting an additional 100 cars daily will certainly “impose considerable stress on municipal resources.”
What can we do? As far as 8-30g goes not much. Again, according to the town’s website, “projects cannot be rejected for: incompatibility with our Plan of Conservation and Development, density, traffic congestion, height, aesthetics, concerns of neighbors or the community or failure to comply with local zoning regulations.”
Fortunately, a proposal was put forward to the RTM and passed to create the Greenwich Affordable Housing Trust Fund. This will create financial incentives for developers who are willing to work with the town to alter their developments so that they conform better with zoning and the integrity of the neighborhoods they are going into.
This is an interesting concept, but there is no guarantee that a developer will take advantage of it. We would certainly encourage them to do so. Just because you can create a development that does not abide by zoning regulations does not mean you should.
We would like to see if our delegation to Hartford can investigate 8-30g to see if there is anything that can be done to modify it. We can see no plausible way to build 3,800 new housing units using 8-30g to increase our affordable housing inventory to 10%. It will crush our infrastructure and the nature of our town.
Hopefully our town and state can balance the need for affordable housing with the need to protect our infrastructure, public safety, quality of life, and the character of our great town.
