3rd affordable housing plan faces pushback
The developer’s proposals include 215 new housing units, but two have been denied and resubmitted and the planning commission has raised questions on the third.
NEW CANAAN — A third project that would create new affordable housing in New Canaan is facing the same opposition from officials that killed two other proposals by the same developer.
The proposals include a 20unit development at 51 Main St., a 102-dwelling complex at 751 Weed St. and a 93-unit building at 17 and 23 Hill St. All three properties are owned by Arnold Karp, a local developer who has set out to build multifamily housing with affordable units in New Canaan against the pushback of some local officials and residents.
Two of the projects were initially rejected and are back before the commission in revised conditions. Planning and zoning officials said Tuesday night that they plan to close out the Hill Street application at a special meeting planned for Thursday night.
Local officials cannot flatly deny Karp’s proposals because of a Connecticut law known as 8-30g. The law allows developers to take towns to court if they deny certain applications to build deed-restricted affordable housing in towns where the overall housing stock is less than 10 percent affordable.
As of last year, approximately 3 percent of New Canaan’s housing stock could be deemed affordable. Officials approved a 26-unit development with four affordable apartments on Burris Avenue and Cherry Street in November.
In 8-30g developments, at least 30 percent of the units
would need to be deed-restricted at a below-market-rate rent for at least 40 years.
In order to deny 8-30g proposals, local planning and zoning officials must demonstrate that they are doing so because of reasons related to public safety, which outweigh the need for affordable housing.
According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, Connecticut needs at least 85,000 more homes for extremely low income renters. Housing is typically considered affordable if a household spends up to a third of their income on housing costs.
Karp’s applications trickled in one after the other over the past year, to the criticism of some local residents. Two of the three have been denied, and a third appears to be headed down the same path.
The Weed Street proposal came first, about one year ago. The proposal, which would include 31 affordable apartments, would put a multifamily complex on a three-acre corner property where a dilapidating, colonial-style estate currently stands.
Planning and Zoning commissioners denied the application in November, citing concerns about fire safety, vehicular and pedestrian safety; weaknesses in the storm water management plans; and protection of adjacent and nearby properties. But a revised and resubmitted version of the proposal is back on the commission’s agenda.
By May, Karp confirmed he had also submitted a proposal for 51 Main St., a property in New Canaan’s Church Hill Historic District a short walk from downtown.
The proposal, which would create six affordable dwellings, was also denied by the commission, before being revised and resubmitted.
Now, the third application for 17 and 23 Hill St., appears that it could be headed the same way as the two that preceded it. At Jan. 24’s meeting, an attorney representing the opposition, Jonathan Shapiro, raised many of the similar concerns echoed by commissioners when they rejected the proposed development at Weed Street, citing concerns about stormwater runoff, fire safety, parking and more.