Debunking myth of Greenwich as small town

Of these 169 Connecticut municipalities, only 14 have populations of 60,000 or greater. Greenwich, with a population of 63,518, comes in 10th after Bridgeport, Stamford, New Haven, Hartford, Waterbury, Norwalk, Danbury, New Britain, and West Hartford.

There’s a stubborn Greenwich belief. I call it the small-town delusion. It’s the notion that we who live in Greenwich inhabit a place more like a New England village than an urbanized, regional employment center. And as is the case with most delusions, this mind-set resists refutation. Facts do not matter.

“I believe a building seven-stories high does not fit the character of a small town and would affect the character and safety of the neighborhood ...” a resident wrote in a letter to the Planning and Zoning Commission, as quoted in an Oct. 8 Greenwich Time article. The resident lives in the Sherwood Place/Church Street neighborhood in which a sevenstory residential building is being proposed.

This assertion ignores that a seven-story residential building already exists in this very neighborhood, on Church Street just across the street from the proposed new building. It doesn’t seem to matter that this building has been there since 1949, and that in some ways the seven-story building defines the street.

I’ve lived in Greenwich for nearly 75 years, and this “Town and Country” apartment building is what always comes to mind when I think of Church Street.

In their Wednesday preapplication presentation to the Planning and Zoning Commission, the applicants of the proposed new building pointed out that there are currently seven buildings in Greenwich that are six and seven stories high, built between 1925 and 1949 before the current height limitation was introduced in 1950. Small town?

No one ever mentions that Greenwich has the 10th largest population of the 169 municipalities in Connecticut. Of these 169 Connecticut municipalities, only 14 have populations of 60,000 or greater. Greenwich, with a population of 63,518, comes in 10th after Bridgeport, Stamford, New Haven, Hartford, Waterbury, Norwalk, Danbury, New Britain, and West Hartford. The municipalities with 60,000 or more inhabitants that have smaller populations than Greenwich are Fairfield, Hamden, Meriden, and Bristol.

Because the new building is being proposed under the provisions of 8-30g of the Connecticut General Statutes, the applicants are able to propose a development that does not conform to existing zoning regulations, including height limitations, as long as 30 percent of the units will be deed restricted as affordable for a period of 40 years, with half of this set-aside affordable for household incomes at 60 percent of the state median income, and half affordable at 80 percent of that median. Units are affordable if rents do not exceed 30 percent of household income.

Should a municipal regulatory board reject an 8-30g application, it has the burden of proof to show that its reason for turning down the application clearly outweighs the need for affordable housing. Such reasons are confined to public health and safety, such as sewage capacity and water supply, which also includes environmental concerns such as impact on wetlands.

Municipalities that have 10 percent of their housing affordable are exempt from developer applications under the provisions of 8-30g. There are 31 Connecticut municipalities that meet this threshold.

Greenwich, with 5.35 percent of its housing affordable, does not meet the threshold. This points to another Greenwich delusion — that somehow the town, left to its own devices, has been doing a great job at providing affordable housing.

It is interesting to note that of the 10 largest municipalities in Connecticut, only Greenwich and West Hartford do not meet the 10 percent threshold. And of the 14 municipalities with populations over 60,000, only Greenwich, West Hartford, Fairfield, and Hamden do not meet this threshold.

There have been several amendments to 8-30g since it took effect in 1990, including moratorium provisions for municipalities that have made productive efforts to increase their affordable housing stock through approved affordable housing plans. This includes a provision that a town with more than 20,000 housing units that has received a four-year moratorium and has had sufficient affordable housing development to qualify for a second moratorium will qualify for an exemption.

Greenwich never qualified for a first moratorium. Therefore, Greenwich is one of only six not-already-exempt municipalities with more than 20,000 housing units that do not qualify for an exemption on this basis.

It’s not exactly an exemplary affordable housing record. And yes, we do suffer from a delusion. We are not a small town.