Overlooked in this year’s budget debate is the need to create more affordable housing. Affordable housing is needed not just to comply with section 8-30g but to preserve Greenwich as the economically diverse community it has long been. Rising property values are good for property owners but will gradually squeeze out many middle and lower-income people who have lived and worked here for generations.
Railing against section 8-30g will not help. It is decades old and is unlikely to be changed. Instead, the solution is to create the housing we need so 8-30g no longer applies. It can be done by converting existing housing or building new. But however it’s done, we can only take control of where and how it’s done by doing it ourselves. The only alternative is to let developers invoke 8-30g to build things nobody will like. No, it won’t be cheap, but the cost in dollars and to our community will only grow if we wait.
Andrew Pizor
