LOCAL CONTROL

Benedict Place will bring 120 new apartments to Greenwich. It’s six stories tall. And it moves the town only 0.16 of a point closer to the state’s 10% affordable housing target. To actually reach 10%, Greenwich would need to build more than 5,000 new units, about 42 more buildings the size of Benedict Place. Until we hit that number, state law, not our own residents, has the final say over what gets built and where. That’s the Democrat way.

Here’s Jill Oberlander enjoying a beautiful Greenwich summer day with Hartford’s biggest champion of high-density housing bills.

Our Town is witnessing the beginning of several major residential projects with affordable housing set-asides for which it has limited zoning control.

It also became clear in the recent candidate debates that Democrats have less interest than Republicans in seeking to restore local zoning control. This column provides some background and what might be done.

We must support having more Republicans in Hartford to break the Democrats’ supermajority, and ultimately restore local control of zoning and development.

What the Law Requires

Connecticut General Statutes Section 8-30g gives developers of qualifying affordable housing a special way to challenge a municipality’s rejection of a project or approval with restrictive conditions.

Generally, 8-30g applies to municipalities where fewer than 10% of housing units meet the statute’s definition of affordable housing, unless the municipality has a qualifying temporary moratorium. Naturally occurring inexpensive housing such as housing provided by schools and other organizations for their employees and other housing rented at affordable rates does not automatically count toward that threshold.

10% is the threshold for an exemption from an appeals process; it is not a mandate that the town itself construct or pay for enough affordable housing to reach 10%. Nor does 8-30g guarantee approval of every qualifying project. However, it does make municipal rejection substantially harder to defend.

In 2021, the legislature enacted HB 6107, which limited the ability of towns to reject residential developments based on neighborhood “character”. In addition, housing scarcity and high market rents have increased the incentive for developers to propose additional 8-30g projects.

Last November, Governor Lamont signed into law Public Act 25-1 (aka House Bill 8002). HB 8002 adds another layer of housing planning requirements. It provides for recommended municipal affordable-housing goals, capped at 20% of occupied dwelling units. That cap is separate from 8-30g’s 10% exemption threshold.

What Greenwich has Accomplished

The Town’s Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD) identifies affordable housing as one of the Town’s top priorities and explicitly recognizes the need to ensure Greenwich residents are not priced out of the market.

Toward that object, the Town authorized in 2021, and organized in 2022, its Affordable Housing Trust Fund (Trust) to support and implement a full range of housing choices for households of all incomes, ages, and sizes, including housing under Section 8-30g (low-income and set-aside housing) and affordable housing for town employees, our elderly, and others. An update on where the town stood in meeting its 10% target dated September 23, 2024 is shown on the following presentation made by the Trust’s Board. The Trust closed its first loan on May 15, 2026: $100,000 for 20 years to the developer of Benedict Place. The Trust negotiated an increase from 30% to 40% (48) affordable units, out of 120 total units.

Also assisting with 8-30g compliance is Greenwich Communities, the Town’s public housing authority. Established in 1946 - and without a Town operating subsidy - it has successfully developed, rehabilitated, and managed housing for families, seniors, and people with disabilities. It also administers rental assistance programs. Its properties include Armstrong Court, Wilbur Peck Court, Agnes Morley Heights, Quarry Knoll, and McKinney Terrace.

Current Challenges

Greenwich currently has a 5.93% ratio of (State-defined) affordable units (based on 1,523 qualifying units and 25,677 total units); thus, the Town meets slightly more than half the State’s target percentage. The Town faces many challenges, however, to reach the 10% threshold:

1. Math – Even large housing developments add relatively few qualifying affordable units. Assuming Benedict Place adds 48 qualifying units, with no other changes, Greenwich’s published affordable-housing percentage would rise from 5.93% to approximately 6.09%, counting all 120 new units in the total.
2. To carry the low-income units, for-profit developers are allowed to build bigger, and often higher than surrounding buildings, housing developments. At six stories, Benedict Place is a good example. A more recently recognized challenge for the developers is securing adequate access to water, electrical power, and natural gas.
3. In addition to the changes in the physical profile of the Town, there are also expensive financial consequences to be incurred by the Town, including updating the sewer connections as well as expansion of schools and other Town services. The availability of water, natural gas, and electrical power resources may also become a problem. Whether 8-30g developments would generate commensurate municipal taxes is unclear.

Another approach is to develop housing in which all units are affordable. In its September 2024 presentation, the Trust estimated that approximately $250,000 in subsidy per affordable unit would be needed to make development economically viable. This was an estimate of the required financial incentive, not the total construction cost. The cost to the Town of building enough 100% affordable housing to meet the 10% target would likely run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

What Should Change

Despite its best efforts, the Town has not made much headway in solving this challenge - and HB 8002, which recommends a 20% cap on municipal affordable housing goals, only makes the problem worse.

When HB 6107 was approved five years ago, the Greenwich delegation consisted of Democrats Steve Meskers and Alex Kasser (who voted “yes”), and Republicans Harry Arora and Kimberly Fiorello (who voted “no”). Since then, Ryan Fazio and Tina Courpas, Republicans in the current Greenwich delegation, have endeavored to broaden recognition of verifiably affordable existing housing, strengthen consideration of infrastructure capacity, and give municipalities greater authority over project scale.

To create an opportunity for the reform of this ill-conceived law, we must support having more Republicans in Hartford to break the Democrats’ supermajority, and ultimately restore local control of zoning and development. Please vote Republican (Row B).

Henry A. Orphys
Greenwich
Former Vice Chair, RTM Finance Committee

Andreas Duus
Riverside
Vice Chair, Greenwich RTC
BET member, 2017 - 2021