‘Unlimited potential’
Danbury aims to attract millennials, high-paying jobs
DANBURY — To encourage young people to move to Danbury, city officials are lookings to attract high-paying jobs and create an exciting atmosphere, while being affordable.
A recent report suggests the city will get younger and more educated, yet Danbury continues to face overcrowded schools and many renters and homeowners are burdened by housing costs.
The report is part of Danbury’s effort to update its Plan of Conservation and Development, which will consider the city’s challenges and assets to create a vision for its future.
“We have to maintain a city where people want to live — things to do, open space, historic and cultural resources, opportunity for active and passive recreation,” said Sharon Calitro, city planner. “All of that is what attracts young people.”
Danbury already succeeds in these areas, but wants to further enhance these assets, she said.
“We have it all here,” Calitro said. “That’s why we have been successful
and that’s what our goal will be in the future. We just have to balance growth. We have to look at being sustainable in the future.”
The city’s population is expected to rise by more than six times that of Fairfield County over the next two decades, with most of the growth coming from people under 55.
Danbury benefits from a historically low unemployment rate and a stable number of jobs, pre COVID-19, at least. The pandemic, too, has driven New Yorkers to Danbury, bringing the city new opportunities.
“Danbury is a great place with unlimited potential,” said Roberto Alves, a City Council member and Democratic candidate for mayor, who is running, in part, on attracting high-paying jobs to Danbury.
The city lags in many high-paying jobs and excels in jobs like retail, accommodation and food services — all industries that struggled due to COVID.
Still, Danbury’s geographic proximity to Westchester County and New York City positions it well, Mayor Joe Cavo said.
“You’re still able to sort of be ‘out in the country,’ so to speak, and still close to events, like in Westchester and New York City,” he said.
‘Fun’ environment for millennials
Danbury, like most of Connecticut, has grown older, with a greater share of residents in every age group over 55 since 2010, the report found. With the exception of the 40 to 44 age cohort, the number of children under 5 and adults between 25 and 54 shrunk.
Still, Danbury has more residents 20 to 49 than the county or Connecticut, with a median age of 38.3 that is about three years younger than the state.
Western Connecticut State University and the Danbury campus of Naugatuck Valley Community College help draw young people to Danbury, Cavo said. The “vibrant” school system, hiking trails and multiple dog parks are other benefits, he said.
“The city’s already attracting young people,” he said.
But the young people Alves has talked to don’t want to move to Danbury.
“They’re going to tell you Danbury is too expensive for them,” said Alves,
37. “They’re going to tell you there’s no good paying jobs in Danbury.”
But a vibrant downtown — with more outdoor dining — and Mill Plain Road area could change that, he said.
“People want fun,” Alves said. “People want things to do.”
The city aims to liven its downtown with a roughly
$12 million project to install new sidewalks and amenities downtown. Calitro hopes construction on the first phase can start in April, pending a state approval.
“What I think is important to focus on is the downtown and the urban renewal,” said PJ Prunty, president and CEO of the Greater Danbury Chamber of Commerce and a longtime Danbury resident. “That, I think, spurs those jobs. They go hand-inhand with the quality of life.”
Prunty said the city needs to “capitalize” on the New-Yorkers, who moved to Danbury. Enhancing quality of life will further encourage them to stay, he said.
“Once folks realize all the area has to offer, they’d be hard pressed to move back to where they came from,” he said.
Reopening the old Maybrook line — thus creating a faster train ride from Danbury to New York City — is one way to do that, Prunty said. That would be a boon once workers shift back to the office, he said.
Investing in high-speed internet and technology is key, too, to attract young people and businesses, he said.
Danbury’s diversity is another draw, he said.
“Young families and young employees are looking for that in a community,” Prunty said. “They like the ability to have exposure to all different types of cultures and cuisines.”
Attracting high-paying jobs
Danbury leads the region in jobs, with twice as many as its surrounding towns combined, the report found. Employment for residents also grew in multiple industries between 2008 to 2019.
“We haven't put all our economic eggs in one basket,” Cavo said. “We're very diverse when it comes to employers and jobs.”
That means the city’s economy does well, even if one industry is struggling, he said.
Still, Danbury has fewer jobs in often higher-paying industries, such as the sciences, finance and insurance, compared to Fairfield County. This lag may be because residents can easily commute to those jobs in lower Fairfield County and New York.
“It’s a strength on our access to the highways and things, but in these areas it could be looked at as a weakness,” Vinny DiGilio, City Council president, said at a recent meeting. “Because there’s a lot of competing (businesses) in New York and down county in those areas, and people have easy way of getting there.”
Retail is one of Danbury’s best industries, both in terms of resident employment and jobs, thanks in part to the Danbury Fair mall, according to the report.
After being hit hard by the pandemic, Prunty said retail is “rebounding” in the city, with the Danbury Fair mall exploring adding restaurants, entertainment and hospitality.
Danbury should market its assets, like the airport and strong school system, to businesses that would bring in high-paying jobs, Alves said.
“We want to highlight our strength,” said Alves,
Investing in roads, public transportation and the schools is critical, too, he said.
“If we’re not investing in our education system, we’re not going to attract the jobs and the high-paying jobs that are going to attract these workers to stay here,” Alves said.
Higher-paying jobs will help residents better afford housing, Calitro said.
“Jobs is key, people earning good wages,” she said.
Housing is a ‘high barrier to entry’
Young people couldn’t move to Danbury if they wanted to because housing isn’t affordable for new graduates and employees with entry-level positions, Alves said.
“We have to encourage development that is affordable for our younger generations,” he said.
That’s a concern shared by Francisco Gomes, the senior project manager with FHI Studio, which created the report.
In 2019, the median rental price in Danbury was about $1,470 a month, which is just under Fairfield County’s rental costs of nearly $1,500, but 24 percent higher than Connecticut’s of nearly $1,200.
“That means there is a pretty high barrier to entry into Danbury if you’re a young person looking to get started there,” Gomes told town officials at a recent meeting. “You're not real competitive to Fairfield County with respect to your offerings and price points”
In Danbury, 55 percent of renters and 37 percent of homeowners with mortgages are considered “housing-cost burdened,” which means at least 30 percent of their income goes toward housing, according to the report.
The city is working on an affordable housing plan that will look at these concerns. With 12 percent of housing meeting the state’s affordability metric, Danbury has double Connecticut’s average for affordable housing.
The city benefits from a wide variety of housing types at various prices, Calitro said.
“You just need a variety of options at a variety of price points,” she said. “That's somewhat supply and demand driven and is there land available for it.”
But that vacant land largely isn’t available for new developments, so existing buildings must be retrofitted for new housing, she said.
Downtown, a developer is turning the former News-Times building into a nearly 150-apartment building. On the west side, other developers are creating housing and commercial space in the former Matrix Corporate Center.
There are plenty of single-family homes — that’s 42 percent of the city’s housing stock — for young residents to move to when they want to start families, Alves said.
“We can grow out and retain this talent,” he said.
Danbury needs to do all this while not pricing out senior citizens, he said.
“We’re going to work collectively to make sure that what we do doesn’t change the fabric and culture of who we are and what Danbury has been for so many years,” Alves said.