Retaining Greenwich’s identity takes some work
Back in the before times I had the privilege of serving as president of the Old Greenwich Association, a position my children hated since strolls down Sound Beach Avenue usually involved impromptu stops and chats with shop owners and residents. While the kids fidgeted impatiently, a regular topic of those chats was what to do about empty storefronts. It’s a shame so-and-so closed, we’d say, but the conversation would inevitably drift to what new business “should” move in. A butcher, a baker or a candlestick maker were fine, just please no, not a Starbucks.
Periodically though, I’d toss out the question, “What it comes down to is this: do you want to live in a charming New England village, or do you just want to say you do?” The point being that talk is cheap. While it’s easy to say you live in a cute, charming village, actually supporting and preserving that old-timey, hometown feel takes work, commitment, and at times, sacrifice. Businesses go out of business for many reasons, but often the unspoken yet obvious reason is that the public chooses to spend their money elsewhere. When that happens, the character of a village can change, and we the public have to accept responsibility for that.
You can’t shop at Home Depot and Amazon and expect your favorite small retailers to stay open just to provide cutesy-pie storefronts. You can’t expect local purveyors to risk opening a mom-and-pop shop when residents would rather travel miles to shop at HomeGoods and Trader Joe’s. Maintaining a healthy, vibrant community that reflects our aesthetic is similar to tending a garden. Getting it the way you want doesn’t just happen. It takes cultivation, attention to detail, embracing change, pruning, planting ... it takes work.
Greenwich as a whole is now faced with a similar challenge but on a larger scale. From east to west there are building projects either in development or actually under construction, which have become targets of intense debate. Granted, it’s a very Greenwich thing to get up in arms anytime words such as “multi-family,” “low income,” “workforce housing,” or “high density” get used in connection with building projects. Still, it’s hard to argue against providing housing that’s attainable and convenient both for those who want to live and work here, and for others who want to remain here after retirement, without sometimes coming across as entitled NIMBYers. Yet this is the position some Greenwichites find themselves in.
You see, with the current real estate and zoning laws it’s become easy for developers to design and expect to win approval for projects,
It’s hard to argue against providing housing that’s attainable and convenient both for those who want to live and work here, and for others who want to remain here after retirement, without sometimes coming across as entitled NIMBYers.
some of which can politely be referred to as “slightly out of character with the community.” Impolitely, they can be described as soul-sucking architectural monstrosities that would never be approved if their builders weren’t just barely adhering to the letter, if not the spirit of appropriate housing laws.
Specifically, Section 8-30g of Connecticut housing law. Created in the 1980s as a way for the state to encourage the creation of affordable housing, 8-30g gave municipalities the opportunity to create their own housing strategies, but which has been weaponized as a way for developers to back Planning & Zoning into a corner. Unsurprisingly, in the absence of leadership and guidance in Greenwich, developers recently have stepped in to propose several poorly located, generally ugly, overbuilt housing projects, which are difficult for the town to reject because they use 8-30g as a wedge.
Does Greenwich need more affordable, maybe denser housing inventory for people to move, downsize or retire into? Absolutely. And shouldn’t everyone who works here have the opportunity to live and stay here? Sure, but here’s the challenge. If we flat out reject every big housing project because it messes with the charming Greenwich aesthetic we want to maintain, it’s hard to defend our position that we’re an inclusive town that provides equal opportunities for everyone.
So we have to cultivate our Greenwich garden. We have to push town leadership to put a housing plan in place that we maintain control over, not the developers. It’s going to be hard and we’ll have to pick our battles and embrace some change, but it must be better than what we have now.